Our First Visitors!

It’s been a hectic few weeks and I never got to recap Mom & Dad’s visit from last month.  I’ll take the time to do that now, starting with I AM SO THANKFUL THEY CAME TO SEE US!  It really was the greatest time I’ve had since Savannah and I arrived, for many reasons.  It was actually sprinkled with some hard times, though, as I said in my last post.  I know God’s timing is perfect and He knew I would need their support most at that particular point in time, so I shouldn’t be surprised, I guess. Anyway, onto the stories.  Mom & Dad left around noon Houston time on Saturday, flew through Newark to Mumbai and arrived Sunday night, Indian time.  Then they had to wait until Monday morning for a domestic flight to get them from Mumbai to Chennai.  Mom recently retired from United Airlines (Continental, if you ask her) so they are fortunate enough to be able to use passes, but the down side of that is they are stand by/space available so if there are no empty seats then they just don’t fly.  So it’s risky, especially when it comes to international travel.  But they were SO lucky and made all the flights without issue, even got pampered on each of the long (15-ish) hour flights by sitting in first class both ways.  Yay for them!  They arrived Monday morning and I intended to send Savannah to school and pick them up alone, but weather had another idea and her school was canceled due to heavy rains on Sunday, so we headed to get them around 9 AM. We got out of the car and went to the fence outside (there’s no inside waiting for arriving guests) and got the text that they were picking up the luggage.  YAY!  They walked around the corner, we made eye contact and out came the tears!  It was so good to see them that we just wanted to hop the fence and run down and give them big hugs, but since that might invite some unwanted attention from the guys carrying the automatic weapons, we resisted the urge and waved vigorously until they made it all the way over to us.  We hugged each other tightly across the chest-high fence and walked quickly to the end where the truck was waiting for us.  We climbed in and headed to our home.  Lots of smiles, a few more tears and some laughs along the way.  As I mentioned, we had some heavy rains over the past few days so traffic was extra bad, with lots of flooded areas.  On the way, Dad started pointing and calling out all the cows he saw.  I laughed and told him he would get an arm cramp if he pointed to every cow he saw on the trip because they are everywhere.  After a few more, he decided he would not say it out loud but still point. I think the driver thought that was pretty funny because he said something that translated to, “If you think you see a lot now, wait until you get to your daughter’s home!” and he began pointing to them before Dad could even get his hand up.  Pretty funny stuff.  Mom and Savannah were non-stop chatting in the back with me, catching up on school for Sav, Kate and Kam for Mom.  When we made it home I sent Savannah up to get Dynamo and bring him downstairs to potty because I knew he would be SO excited to see my dad that there is no telling what his bladder would do... When Dynamo walked out of the elevator and saw my parents he jumped and jumped and ran around in circles until Savannah convinced him it was time to go to the grass.  Very sweet.  He was so happy to see his Nana and PawPaw!  The next 11 days included a lot of Dynamo and PawPaw time in the recliner. 
Mom and Dad were pretty tired and I needed to get some sleep because I was working the first few nights that week, so we all took a nap.  When I woke up, Savannah and Mom were chatting away while Dad napped in the chair with Dynamo.  I went to work and got a text from Mom around 2 am and she said they were wide awake.  The time change and adjustment to being nearly 12 hours on the opposite side of the clock is rough. Plus the beds here are hard.  I am not kidding.  Get down on your floor and lay down. Now try to get comfortable enough to sleep.  Yeah.  Welcome to India.  Mom figured that out real quick and decided the couch was her bed, although it’s not much more comfortable, but I guess it worked well enough for her.  Tuesday and Wednesday included a lot of laying around.  Lots of naps for them and work at night and sleep during the day for me.  Savannah wound up having holidays on Tuesday and Wednesday (again, welcome to India.  Last minute days off for holidays that are on the calendar every year…) so she got a lot of hanging out time with her grandparents.  They cooked some, making lots of yummy American-type foods that she’d been missing.  This was all possible because they brought a huge suitcase full of food and snacks for us.  AND WINE FOR ME!  We were a couple happy, happy girls with the delivery from two of our very favorite people, I tell ya!  One of those days, Mom decided she didn’t like all the food just sitting on the counter so she and Savannah organized the shelves and moved stuff around while I was sleeping.  It’s nice to have a Mom around J Our Lakshmi came over a couple of those days and cooked lunch or dinner for Mom & Dad.  They really enjoyed her cooking.  She makes it less spicy for us because Savannah is a spice wimp. They had some yummy chicken masala and one day we picked up prawns (shrimp) so they had that cooked with masala as well.  And lots of rice.  All the meals here are served with rice, basically.  I am so my mother's daughter, because she was just as addicited to the fresh tomato and cucumber salads we eat daily within her first few days.  She and Savannah spent a lot of time going to the vegetable stand downstairs to refill our bowls!

Tuesday night at work I got some terrible news about a friend from the Woodlands office, which I wrote about in my last blog.  Jose, who I had just chatted with the previous Friday, had passed away over the weekend.  Shock, sadness and a heavy heart stayed with me and it was hard to focus at work.  My co-manager told me go home, enjoy my family and don’t worry about work. I still worked for a few hours, but as the night went on I realized how unproductive I was, so around 3 I decided it was time to head out (I usually leave at 5).  Mom and Dad were awake again (dang time change) so I texted Mom about Jose and told her I was heading home.  It was nice that they were there to greet me at the door when I got home.  There are times when Savannah and I feel very alone over here, and I imagine when a friend or loved one is lost, that feeling will be exaggerated.  Of course we have each other, but sometimes we need someone else to share our thoughts and feelings with.  I am thankful for God’s timing that my parents were here for this sad time.  I miss my friend, Jose.  I miss our silly chats on the IM at work about our kids, movies (he was a movie buff and was trying to talk me into sending him a hard drive so he could download a bunch for me), how I have a special talent for breaking things on the computer, and his always-so-flattering compliments that could make a girl smile even on a cranky day.  I hope he’s resting in peace and pray for his sweet son and family to find comfort.  Yeah… it was good to have Mom & Dad here.
I think Lakshmi liked my parents, too.  She described my mom on several occasions as “super” – I tend to agree – but that is a common word around this area and funny to hear it used as frequently as they do.  Lakshmi made them “copy” – coffee – and served it in bowls.  They were confused about why they were drinking copy from bowls, but, as Savannah and I have learned, sometimes you just do whatever seems to make sense at the moment here in India. So they drank it out of bowls.  The back story to this is that when Savannah and I first got into the flat we had no dishes, so I bought a couple cheap bowls, plates, and flatware, but I forgot a mug.  So I had coffee in one of these bowls until I bought a mug, so I think she probably decided this is how crazy Americans drink coffee.  Language barriers can be entertaining.
The drivers like my parents, too.  Dad thought he would have full conversations with them and got a lot of head wobbling in response.  Questions were not answered but smiles were returned. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of enjoying a trip to Asia, let me do my best to describe it for you.  Close your eyes.  Oh, I guess you can’t since you are reading this.  OK so imagine yourself in the backseat of a little car… like a Ford Fiesta or a Yaris hatchback thing.  Just a little bigger than a Smart Car.  And the car is on the left side of the road.  And you are not driving, thankfully, but the driver is on the right side of the car.  And everyone around you, including your driver, are honking.  Because that’s what they do.  The back of some trucks even say “Sound Horn” – like anyone would forget?? OK back to the road.  There is room for about 3 American lanes on your side of the road, but there are cars packed about 6 across and only a couple inches inbetween the one directly to your left and right.  And in between any space bigger than that, there are motorcycles.  Lots of them.  Many of which have more than 3 people on them.  Maybe a family of 5, or three adults, or two men and a huge box... Or all the previously described all around you.  And on the other side of the lane is a big ox pulling a cart with an old man and the cart is carrying some vegetables and a couple kids.  Yep, it's good times out here on the roads.  With all this commotion all the time in the car, I have learned to be a pretty darn good passenger.  Judy, on the other hand, has never been and will never be a good passenger.  She did, however, appreciate our driver's ability to zoom in and out of cars without turning his head and decided he has several sets of eyes that allow him to do so.  Mom said she thinks our driver is the best one in India. LOL 

Wow, this is already really long and I haven't even gotten to the fun stuff, huh?  OK maybe this will be chapter one and I'll write more later.  Enjoy the pictures for now and hoping everyone has a great weekend!

My daddy and me

Sav & Nana

Happy PawPaw & Dynamo

American FOOOOOOOOOOD & wine!