The Sunday before we left India was another free day for us. We completed our morning ritual of eating breakfast in the hotel (Hilton Garden Inn). I haven’t really talked much about that, but it’s basically an all-you-can-eat-made-to-serve-buffet and thankfully the girls haven’t expected me to live up to it. We had the option of traditional Indian breakfast with rice and dal and sambar and idlis and other stuff I can’t spell... or we could have waffles and pancakes and eggs and cereal and fruit and bacon and pastries. Our table was usually full of all of that. :) Oh an the juice? AMAZING! Fresh squeezed orange juice, apple juice that tasted like real apples, grape juice, watermelon juice, cranberry juice, litchi juice, mango juice.... it was all so good. By this point in our stay, the waiters knew what we wanted to order as soon as we walked in.
I assume since there are no photos of us at breakfast that this was one of the mornings we went “sloppy” and showered later and therefore I told John no pics. After breakfast, we went back to the room and got dressed for the day.
Our first order of business was finding some new shoes for the girls. The shoes Khushboo and Kashila wore home from the orphanage were fine but they were a little too small. Khushboo's toes hung off the end. I wanted to get them something that fit and also wanted to get something with a closed toe since we would be landing in freezing temps in Georgia. I had nice little tennis shoes in mind, but they picked the most sparkly shoes in the store. How could I say no?
We stopped and got some cinnamon rolls in the mall for a snack. The girls were not fans! Haha... more fore us!
We also ran up to Colleen's room to see some of the things Abhi had brought. She works with children who are crippled by polio. She is helping teach them skills that will give them a way to support themselves in life. One of the skills she is teaching them is painting. Most of them paint with their feet since their hands are shriveled. Oh man, the stuff these kids paint is amazing. I mean it's really incredible. I can't paint that well with my good hands! This a painted sari (below) and it took more than a month to paint. Abhi said they can paint anything and she would love to start taking orders for them.
As promised, we took the girls back to Dilli Haat and got henna. This was quite the experience since this was the first time for all of us! I was amazed by how FAST this lady could to a whole hand! Rabina only got one hand done because she sucks her fingers on her other hand. One hand was enough. I was kind of freaking out about it. It took 30-40 minutes of just sitting and waiting for the henna to dry. It’s kind of like mud icing on your hand. It has to dry up and then you can pick it off. I was wearing Rabina in the Ergo so one wrong move and I would have henna on my face for 2 weeks. No thanks! We made it through will only minor mess-ups!
Once we were back at the hotel, we went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe which was inside the mall. Our friend Abishek and two of his friends joined us. I had to bail early with the girls because Rabina was crashing and she is less than agreeable when she is tired. We all got a good nights rest!
I must say, if you plan to travel by plane with checked baggage, you HAVE to invest in a luggage scale! This was a LIFESAVER!!!!! It’s a little handheld scale that works kind of like those old hanging fruit scales in the grocery store. It’s digital and I promise the one I have was accurate within a 10th of a pound! I would fill those suitcases up and weigh them. If I was at 46.8 lbs I would stuff something else in there. It was kind of a fun little challenge.
We ate one last meal with Colleen and Elliott. I thought we would get to see each other again before we left but this was the last time.
I made the girls lay down for a late afternoon nap so that they could hang in there at the airport. I couldn’t sleep so I ended up going shopping in the mall for some warmer clothes for the girls to change into once we landed in the U.S.! Abhi joined me in the mall and actually showed me to the other portions of the mall that I had not seen. She was mad at me for not finding these parts earlier in our stay and frankly I was mad at me, too! We went to Pantaloons which I LOVED. I bought four shirts that were a mix between Indian and Western. We returned to our hotel room to square up for all of her services and then we said goodbye. Oh man we love Abhi! I hated seeing her walk away because she was such an instant forever friend. I pray that we get to be together in the flesh again at some point in our lifetime.
We planned to leave the hotel at 8:00pm and head to the airport. Our flights weren’t until 3:30am on Tuesday, but I wanted to be there early just in case. Abishek came with his car and Ashu came with his van. Making our way to the airport was bitter sweet. I was excited to be going home but I was sad to leave India and all of our friends who had been so wonderful to us.
At last we stood outside the airport doors. We said goodbye to our friends and headed in with all of our luggage and our three little girls! The Delhi airport has pretty strict security to even get in. Armed guards asked for our flight confirmations. No problem! I was completely organized and had multiple copies of our round trip flights as well ask the girls... wait no, no I didn’t have copies of the girls’ flights!!!! I was kind of freaking out because I had triple checked everything to make sure we had all we needed before we left! Of course we had no internet so I couldn’t look it up in my email. Thankfully they just pulled the flight manifest and found their names. And just like that they let us in.
Of course, the desk wasn’t open so we couldn’t check in yet. We sat and waited for what seemed like forever. Finally, the desk opened around 10:30pm or maybe it was closer to 11:00pm. I’m not sure. The line moved very slooooooooooowly. The girls did amazing as we waited! We gt everyone checked in and I was thankful that there were no issues with the girls names on their boarding passes. We kind of booked tickets on the assumption that they wouldn't have last names on their passports (which was correct). So we used "FNU" as their last names to book their flights and there had been mixed opinions about this. We had just trusted that God would work everything out and he did!
We made it to our gate and waited and waited and waited. I could tell the girls were growing restless but they still did so well. I was tired and ready to get on the plane! We waited and waited some more and then an angel came down from heaven and told us we could get in line for priority boarding... ok maybe she was just a plain old airline worker but she seemed angelic to me.
They opened the doors and we boarded the plane! Finally! We got settled in our seats and we were very comfortable. Sitting next to children is a lot more roomy than sitting next to grown ups. About 45 minutes later we were in the air!
We were going HOME!!!! Praise the Lord!!!!
We also ran up to Colleen's room to see some of the things Abhi had brought. She works with children who are crippled by polio. She is helping teach them skills that will give them a way to support themselves in life. One of the skills she is teaching them is painting. Most of them paint with their feet since their hands are shriveled. Oh man, the stuff these kids paint is amazing. I mean it's really incredible. I can't paint that well with my good hands! This a painted sari (below) and it took more than a month to paint. Abhi said they can paint anything and she would love to start taking orders for them.
As promised, we took the girls back to Dilli Haat and got henna. This was quite the experience since this was the first time for all of us! I was amazed by how FAST this lady could to a whole hand! Rabina only got one hand done because she sucks her fingers on her other hand. One hand was enough. I was kind of freaking out about it. It took 30-40 minutes of just sitting and waiting for the henna to dry. It’s kind of like mud icing on your hand. It has to dry up and then you can pick it off. I was wearing Rabina in the Ergo so one wrong move and I would have henna on my face for 2 weeks. No thanks! We made it through will only minor mess-ups!
Once we were back at the hotel, we went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe which was inside the mall. Our friend Abishek and two of his friends joined us. I had to bail early with the girls because Rabina was crashing and she is less than agreeable when she is tired. We all got a good nights rest!
The next morning, after our last breakfast in the hotel, we started the long, tedious task of packing to head back home. I set aside a lot of the snacks we had brought (I brought way too many) to be donated to the Welfare Home, as well as some of the girls clothes that would no longer be needed once we entered the winter that waited for us back home. Somehow even with all of the gifts we bought, we managed to have an empty carry-on-suitcase. This was fortunate for John who needed something to pack all the things he had bought.
We ate one last meal with Colleen and Elliott. I thought we would get to see each other again before we left but this was the last time.
I made the girls lay down for a late afternoon nap so that they could hang in there at the airport. I couldn’t sleep so I ended up going shopping in the mall for some warmer clothes for the girls to change into once we landed in the U.S.! Abhi joined me in the mall and actually showed me to the other portions of the mall that I had not seen. She was mad at me for not finding these parts earlier in our stay and frankly I was mad at me, too! We went to Pantaloons which I LOVED. I bought four shirts that were a mix between Indian and Western. We returned to our hotel room to square up for all of her services and then we said goodbye. Oh man we love Abhi! I hated seeing her walk away because she was such an instant forever friend. I pray that we get to be together in the flesh again at some point in our lifetime.
Of course, the desk wasn’t open so we couldn’t check in yet. We sat and waited for what seemed like forever. Finally, the desk opened around 10:30pm or maybe it was closer to 11:00pm. I’m not sure. The line moved very slooooooooooowly. The girls did amazing as we waited! We gt everyone checked in and I was thankful that there were no issues with the girls names on their boarding passes. We kind of booked tickets on the assumption that they wouldn't have last names on their passports (which was correct). So we used "FNU" as their last names to book their flights and there had been mixed opinions about this. We had just trusted that God would work everything out and he did!
They opened the doors and we boarded the plane! Finally! We got settled in our seats and we were very comfortable. Sitting next to children is a lot more roomy than sitting next to grown ups. About 45 minutes later we were in the air!
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