India, graduations, wedding, family and fun!!

It's been too long since I updated this last. I am so sorry for being MIA. :( 
Anyway. At the end of April I began my break by making a two week trip to India. It was so good to see and visit with so many of my friends there. :) I've missed them all too much! Here's a couple of pictures from my time there.

One of the neighbor kids and I

This is my host mom and dad. Aren't they fun?

This is one of my dear friends

Hard at her studies

As well as going to India for two weeks, I also was able to spend a few weeks at home. I first went to Oklahoma for the annual Nomads conference and to spend some time with my team leaders who are at home now. Here's just a couple of pictures to highlight my time in Oklahoma. :)

Deakin

Zeke

   

Sadly I seem to have misplaced the SD card that had the most adorable picture of their older brother and his best friend. :(

My next stop was Iowa. My little sister and her two boys picked me up at the airport, and I'm pretty sure even Sammy remembered me. :) I'll try to limit the pictures here, but I have 5 nephews and one niece, plus there were two graduations, a wedding and LOTS of family time since my parents were home, so please bare with me as I show off my beautiful family. :)

Eli, one of the goofiest, smartest kids ever

Sam, lover of all things in nature

Just a little action shot!

Two of the most beautiful women I know Great Gma Fern & Mom

Congrats Amanda, er I mean, Anna!!

Way to go Kry!!

Jude Dude and Grandma Pam

Noah loves to share his ice cream with Grandpa Keith!

Noah showing off his helicopter

Toby will steal your heart in no time!

Kaili Sue making goofy faces with Grandma Pam

Welcome to the family Ashley! You are gorgeous! You too Jake

I would LOVE to show you more pictures of my break, but there are so many I don't know that I could choose, and you might get board. ;)
I am now back in the Fils, truckin' away at my schooling and catching babies. :) I'll post some pics of the two I've caught since being back soon. In the meantime, I hope you are doing well. Send me a note and let me know how you are doing!! I love hearing from you!
~sara~

Tokyo to Manila

I’m sitting in the Tokyo airport waiting for my flight to Manila. The waiting area is filled mostly with Japanese and Filipino people. As I’m listening to the different languages, the husband of the woman sitting next to me brings another gentleman up to her and excitedly introduces him. I can tell from the greeting that he is an old acquaintance. They have two daughters and they begin talking about them, maybe about how big they’ve gotten since the last time he saw them.
The lady in front of me is talking to two men. It seems that they are discussing something that maybe she doesn’t agree on.
As I sit here my thoughts turn to wondering. What will life be like in the Philippines? What will the people be like? What do everyday interactions look like? Do men and woman usually interact pretty freely together? What kind of behavior is expected from small children? What kind of behavior will be expected of me?
I am excited to start this new journey of learning and discovery.
I’m hoping that I’ll do better about keeping this blog updated.

What happened to wordless Wednesday?

So, ever since I left India I have been TERRIBLE about posting on my blog. I am so sorry!! I have no excuse except to say that I have been lazy with it. I think about it all the time, but I just don't do anything about it. grrr. I suppose I'll blame my dad for giving me his procrastination skills. ;)

Anywho... I'd like to share just a few pictures since I've missed about A MONTH of wordless Wednesday.

The last week before I left to come back to the States Suzy and I went out to a village. The first day out there we went to the Yamuna Bridge. On the way back the people we were with stopped to buy some milk from a Gujar tribe. The Gujar people are a Muslim nomadic people who herd water buffalo. It was really neat to have the opportunity to meet them. They are really a beautiful people!

Here's a couple pictures I took when I met them. :)

Please keep these beautiful people in your notes when you talk to Dad. As of right now they have very little to no access to the Good News. And because they are a nomadic people getting the Good News to them could be very difficult.

Home again, home again.

First I wanted to say that I am sorry for dissipearing for the past couple weeks. It's been somewhat crazy, but it should all be settling down for now.

I got back to the States late Wednesday night after a pretty hectic time trying to get a flight since mine was canceled due to the ash. It's a long story, so I won't put it on here, but basically I was able to get a flight from Delhi to Mumbai, from Mumbai to Chicago via Cairo(where we sat for five hours without getting off the plane), spent the night in Chicago and got another flight to Oklahoma City in time for the Nomads conference. It ended up being a twenty four hour flight.

I was at HGM for the weekend. Nomads was really good, as always. It was so nice to see everyone again. And I think being able to be at HGM for the first couple days of being home helped with culture shock. Although, when I got into the car on Sunday to head up to Sioux City I thought there was something wrong with the car because the steering wheel was on the left side!! ha! It was really kinda funny. :)

I have really enjoyed being able to spend lots of time with my sister and her boys these past few days. Eli is a riot!! He cracks me up. He asks me about 75 times a day what I am doing and when I ask him what he's doing he says "I don't know." He's so fun. :) And Sammy is just a doll!! He has got the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen!! And he's always jabbering away, though I have no idea about what. I'm loving being with them. :)

Well, I suppose that is all for now. I'll write more later, I just wanted to let you all know that I am still alive!

What is room service?

   Monday we went up to Muss00r!e to see what it was like and if it would be a good possibility for a base. I think we decided that it was too touristy and it wouldn’t work for our needs. But it was still a good trip.
    When we got there on Monday we found a hotel, had dinner and then crashed.
    Tuesday we went on the cable car up to Gun Hill, a big hill where you can get some really good views of the area. For lunch we had grilled corn. However, it wasn’t sweet corn, it was field corn, so it was a bit chewy. Later Suzy and I walked up to clock tower, which is a good steep walk. Once we got there we kept walking. We found out later that Suzy thought we were going back to the hotel and I thought she wanted to keep walking up to Laund00r. So, we kept walking, walking, and walking...until we walked around a corner and saw the leather shop! We went there and picked out the sandals we wanted and then headed back down the hill.
    Wednesday morning we ordered “room service” for breakfast. Amber ordered cornflakes and milk for Grayson and got a bowl of cornflakes that tasted like corn, and a glass of HOT milk. When she called they hung up on her when they couldn’t understand what she was saying so she’d have to call back. I ordered a hot chocolate(it was ok, but not the best) and french toast. They brought Suzy’s toast with butter and my hot chocolate, but no french toast. So, I showed the guy on the menu that I wanted french toast. A little bit later he came back with my “french toast,” er, I mean fries. At that point I was just like whatever, and ate my fries. We had lunch with some friends of ours that are staying up there and then took a taxi up to Land00r to walk around. After awhile we decided it was time to head home and began the LONG trek down the mountain. On the way down we stopped to pick up our sandals, and while in the leather shop it began to rain...and then hail. So, we stayed there for awhile. When it stopped we finished the trek home and grabbed some veggie burgers(the burger part is a really yummy potato cake thinger).
    Thursday morning we tried again for room service. Amber, after a couple of calls and being hung up on, was able to order three corn flakes with cold milk. However, when it came they only got the milk. But she was able to get them to bring her three bowls of corn flakes. However, when Suzy and I tried to order three toasts and one corn flakes it didn’t come. We waited for an hour and it still wasn’t there, so we called again. They said “Oh” and hung up. We waited another half hour and called again. They hung up. But a couple minutes later someone came to Amber’s door saying, “You called?” She was just about to send them away when we said, “Wait! We called them” and went and told him what we wanted. Our breakfast finally came.
    Friday morning we decided to not even mess with “room service”. We went out to eat for breakfast, and then got a buss back to D.D.
    And that was our trip.