Thankful for the Process

I apologize that it has almost been two month since I have posted.  So much has happened, and yet really, so little has happened.  The first trimester of pregnancy sent me on a physical and emotional battle in which I entered culture shock and partial lock down where I didn't leave my house much, partly because I didn't feel well, and partly because I didn't want to. 

But now I am on the other side, feeling a lot better, and finally getting back into life.  I am learning that I have to be patient.  Establishing life in a new location is a long process.  We have to work out all of the kinks in our house, learn how to pay bills, where to buy food, how to get our clothes dry during rainy season... We have to make new friends- learn their culture, times and methods of getting together... Find places to play, to work off stress, to relax...  Just figure out a routine of life in which we can thrive as a family.  I wanted it to happen right away, to immediately just get in the swing of things, but it didn't.  It is a slow process and instead of stressing because we are not there yet, I need to start enjoying the process and take it one day and step at a time.  Eventually we will get there.  Eventually this will be home and maybe our neighbors will see us as insiders.  But for now I am thankful that one neighbor came over to borrow a ladder, another brought us some sweets, and another took JP to pay our electric bill.  I am also thankful that although they barely know us, they trust us enough to send their kids over to play (uninvited) and graciously welcome Silas into their homes when he enters uninvited. 

Funny conversation on the playground

Background: On Monday I went to my scheduled pre-natal appointment and was told that all doctor's offices were closed because they had some convention. As I was reading the newspaper later, I discovered that the doctors were actually all on a one day strike because of some ruling that had been made about some doctors who had removed some woman's uterus without cause.

So- I was talking to a lady on the playground and to make conversation I brought up this event. Now most of the conversation was in Hindi except for "uterus" and few other words.

Lady: So do you have a uterus?

Me: Yes...

Her: How old are you?

Me: 30

Her: Aren't you too young to have a uterus?

Me: No, that little girl on the playground has a uterus.

Her: No, a uterus is something you get when you are older.

Me: Do you know what a uterus is.

Her: Yes

And that was the end of the that part of the conversation. I really wonder what she means when she says uterus. Anyway, I got a laugh.

Recent trip

Check out the women in the back cooking lunch for 40 over an open fire in 115 degree weather.  Now these are women!

This boy in the purple shirt thought it was really fun to brush Silas' hair.  Silas didn't mind.  Of course Silas also kept lifting up the boys shirt to find his belly button- a new fascination that Silas has that is a little socially unacceptable.

Lunch- rice, lentils, okra, green beans

A rare family photo.

Animals Along the Way

We recently went on a trip into the countryside.  It was a long, bumpy ride.  For much of the trip we were driving on either dirt roads or one lane roads full of pot holes, cows, and pedestrians, carts, trucks... Along the way we saw many different kinds of animals.  I tried to take more pictures but I am not very good at taking pictures from a bumpy moving vehicle.
   Here is what we saw
       Camels (they came from the West with their owners selling herbal medicines)
       Monkeys
       Sheep
       Goats
       Igrets
       Water Buffalo
        Pigs
       Chickens
        White cows with blue horns
        Brown cows with long ears
        Brown cows with humps
        Brown cows with short ears...  (and on a different recent trip we saw an elephant)
It is fun living in a country where you see things that most people only see in zoos or on farms :)

This last picture was taken right next to the area where our lunch was being cooked...and we got some fresh milk from this cow for Silas.

Some promised photos

Silas loves playing in the dirt outside our house!

He also loves taking a bath.

This is a cow eating trash in our neighborhood.  There are many cows that we pass by as we are walking.  The other day a calf was drinking from its mother's utter right in the middle of the road and had to move over so our car could get past.

A field in our neighborhood.  Not sure what is growing.

Still no Pictures

So, I charged the battery in JPs little camera and have been faithful in taking more pictures (I got some great blackmail photos of Silas), but I cannot find the cord that connects the camera to the computer- so more waiting.
    In other news, we moved into our new place on Saturday evening only to find that ants had taken over our kitchen.  This however was quickly resolved with cockroach chalk.  AMAZING stuff!! They were all dead so quickly.  I have been doing much manual labor the past few days trying to get the place clean.  There was dust all over the floors.  Then we had a welder and carpenter come today to install screen doors and a safety gated on our stairs, so of course much more dust.  I am very thankful for the help of friends.  This house, as expected, is not ideal for a toddler, but we are making it work and I love the neighborhood.  This evening while the carpenters installed the doors I sat outside with a few neighbor women while Silas played in the street (not what is sounds like) with a bunch of children.  I am looking forward to building relationships with these women and watching Silas grow up with their children!

Resist and Draw Near

It is always interesting to me that way I can have a verse memorized and still not really understand- until one day God uses it in the pruning and teaching process and a light comes on and suddenly a new and personal truth is discovered.  This has happened lately with two passages that God has brought together in my quiet times and reflections. 
    James 4:7-8a "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and he will draw near to you."  Now I know this probably appears obvious, but drawing near to God and resisting the devil are very much tied to eachother.  In fact, when you draw near to God, you are resisting the devil.  By spending thoughtful, prayerful time in the Word, time in worship, time in God's presence, time in confession, then you are very much resisting the devil.  You are making it very difficult for the devil to deceive you- to plant lies in your head.  I have discovered this connection because I have not been drawing near enough to God.  Sure, I have a quiet time and I learn things from the Bible and through other believers...but I haven't really been drawing near to God- abiding, dwelling in his presence- letting him teach me and fill me...  Anyway- it was at this time that the deceiver was able to do just that- deceive me- make me doubt the very core of my faith in a way that I had never done before.  This is where the other verse comes in. 
    2 Corinthians 10:5 "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  A thought in and of itself is not sinful- but when we allow it to fester, keep entertaining it, keep meditating upon it, that is when it can lead to sin.  Satan fed me a lie, but I kept meditating on it.  Instead of immediately recognizing it is a lie and replacing it with a truth from scripture, I kept dwelling on it until it so plagued me that I couldn't worship God.  And then that is when I cried out to God and asked for his deliverance- and then got my husband to pray for my deliverance.  Then I was set free.  My mind and faith was set right again.  In a way I am thankful for this crisis of faith, but I also know that if I had stopped the thought from the get go it would not have lead me to the blasphemous thoughts that I entertained. 
     So that was a few months ago, and I write this now because I was reminded of the same verses a few days ago when my thoughts gave way to a different kind of sin- that of speaking in frustration and not honoring a sister in Christ.  I realized that the reason this response came out of me when pressed was because I had been meditating personality traits and actions that bothered me about her instead of focusing on love, patience, humility... Because I did not take the thought captive to the truth- the truth that she is beloved of God, redeemed, precious in God's sight, worthy of my respect...- it multiplied and caused me to lose self-control.  It was a fairly small thing, mostly unnoticed by others, but something that I was not proud of- something that God has helped me to overcome in the past, and something that I had to apologize for. 
   1 Corinthians 10:13 says that God gives you a way out when you are tempted so that you can stand.  I think that often the way out is really in the beginning- it is preventative.  It is drawing near to God daily, hourly, moment by moment so that deceptive thoughts can be immediately taken captive and replaced with the truth!