Gotcha Day! December 19, 2007

The building where the office/nursery is located. It's in the same building as the King and Queen Beauty Salon. Isn't that a riot?

The nice lady that explained everything. This is a terrible shot of her, but I think it's the only one we have.

Filling out more paperwork before we get Elizabeth.

The baby book! Priceless....

I recognize this one! THIS IS HER!

My first time to hold her!

Daddy's first time to hold her.

Already wrapped around her little finger!

I think she has found a friend in Ashley!
Curls in the back! The doctor

Waiting to go to the Consulate.

Delhi and Kolkata

Coke in the Delhi airport! It's everywhere!

Our first taxi ride in Delhi!

An autorickshaw. They had these in Honduras, too, but I forget what they called them. Anyway, there were times that we saw 5-6 people climbing out of one of these things! Personal space doesn't mean the same thing to them that it does to us, I guess! :)
All in one shot -- a bicycle cart, motorcycle, and a car, with a tractor following behind us. One of everything!

Cool bumper sticker!
A school bus

A subway? Are you kidding me? If the roads are this crazy, I don't think I want to try the subway.

This is a common sight for all vehicles. Notice the sides of the car! :)

Baggage claim in Kolkata -- way fewer people! By the way, the cool red pillar things were in Kolkata, not Mumbai. My bad!

Pre-paid taxi counter in Kolkata. One step closer to sleep and A SHOWER!

Hotel room! FINALLY!

View from the back corner by the window towards the door. The all-in-one bathroom is on the right. Did I mention the ants? They had moth balls all over the room, even in the sink drain, and I didn't know why until we left a crumb of a granola bar on the floor one night and the next morning it was a swarming pile of black! I don't think the moth balls were doing their job.

The hot water heater we had to turn on for each shower.

Views outside our window.

a few pics for the story thus far....

Here are some pictures leading up to where I am in the story.

This is me in our living room making for absolute certain that I have all or our paperwork in order. I DON'T want to have problems with that!

Here is one suitcase of the donations our church sent. The other bag was just as full! Our friends are SO giving!

Then there were the food and baby items that we needed to pack. It's been so long since I had to think about all of the contingencies to prepare for!

One more phone call to tie up a loose end and then we're off!

It all fit in our car!

We're off!

Books from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s personal library. A book by Gandhi was among them.

Also from the exhibit.

King family eating Sunday dinner with a portrait of Gandhi over the dining room entrance.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s glasses and personal effects.
His Nobel Peace Prize.

The preaching robe that he was wearing (I think) when he resigned his church to pursue the civil rights movement full time.

The suit he was wearing when he met the President. In the picture, by the way, the President looks entirely bored.

The travel details of our international flight. This is really about 1 hour out from our destination, Mumbai/Bombay. The actual total mileage ended up being about 8500 miles.

Our route. We went up over Iceland and Greenland instead of heading straight across the ocean like I thought we would. You can see the tail end of the detour we made over Iraq.

Baggage claim in Mumbai. A mob scene! At 1:00 am!

The Jet Airways counter where I was standing waiting on Byron when I heard a familiar voice!

It was my cousin, Brian! His flight was late from Amsterdam and we were a day late from New York, but God still managed to put us together for this one moment in time!

The airport in Mumbai had these pretty columns all through the Baggage Claim area. In my sleepless condition, I evidently thought they were worthy of a picture! :)

The gate area at Mumbai. There were only 6 gates, and they were all right here together. The reason is that planes don't pull up here; buses do. Then the buses take the passengers out on the tarmac to the plane.