Keeping Busy

Well, just to summarize the past few weeks...

1. Elijah's hearning...Two weeks after Elijah was born, the hospital called and said that he failed his original hearing screen, and it would have to be repeated. Long story short... four doctor visits later, it does appear that he can hear normally, and the first test was a "false positive". So we are glad of that, though had some frustrations for awhile with just not knowing.

2. Paperwork... Elijah is now the proud owner (well, actually, he is somewhat neutral about the whole affair) of a Thai Birth Certificate, US passport, US Birth Abroad Record, and Indian six month visa. Hooray. More paperwork revealed that he evidently does not need a visa for Thailand on this trip (since legally, he never entered Thailand), though one never knows what the airport may bring.

3. Retreating... so we just started a one week retreat up in the hills, and then next week have a couple more meetings and doctor visits, and then finally heading out soon.

4. Traveling...we train out of Chiang Mai for Bangkok on August 4, spend a few days in BKK, and then fly to New Delhi August 12, where we will stay with cousin Amos and Rowena (as Robert Frost said, "Home is that place that, when you go there, they have to take you in.") , and then get train tickets for our Fair city, hopefully arriving back before the 20th.

5. How are the kids? Great. We have childcare at the retreat center, so there is a several little packs of kids running around, including a pack of 6 to 8 year old girls. Nora Grace is ecstatic to have all contact with other children with a Christian world view. Miriam is ecstatic to have someone pay lots of attention to her, Sam is happy because Sam is just "Mr. Happy", and because he can run around and climb a lot, and Elijah is happy as long as lunch is on time.

6. How are Amy and Lowell? we are fine. Thanks for asking. Enjoying having someone else pour some energy into our children, enjoying having other like minded people to talk to, enjoying green grass, trees, running water, croaking frogs, blue sky with white clouds, and other things that I sometimes forget what they look and sound like.