One more week to go...

I'm coming home in about 9 days! I've never understood why the end of something always goes by so fast, but it always seems to happen that way. This past week has been a blur. From spending days at DumDum to spending time every night with our friends here... it seems like we are so busy all of the time trying to fit in a little more life in the little time we have left here in Kolkata.

Our time at DumDum keeps getting better and better. I absolutely love those families there, and I know they love us. We met a boy who used to work with our friends there, but he's been gone since we got here on a tour of India. I met him the other day, and he told me they were all so excited to tell him everything about us. He told me that they said that while he was gone that met two angels. I almost started crying when he said that. I don't know if it's because we are leaving soon or what, but our time there seems to keep getting better and better. Everyday when we leave, all the kids walk us to the escalator for the Metro and just wave and wave and blow kisses to us as we ride up on it.... I think I may have to be carried up the escalator on my last day because I'll be crying so much. They ask us every day now when we will come back.. and to bring our moms and dads and sisters... I told them yesterday when they asked when I would come back that I would go home, work work work, save rupees, and then come to India maybe next year. I wish you could have seen their faces... they completely fell when I said it would be at least a year. It made me want to cry.. I felt terrible.

We know a lady at DumDum named Sanjasmita and she just had a baby when we were in Nepal. She isn't really that nice, but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that when we met her she was 8 months pregnant and now she just had a baby and has to sleep every day on the hard concrete. She has two other kids, Sonjana and Sanjay and they are sooo bad but only because they don't get any attention. Her husband, Bapi, is a drug addict and drinks all the time. She's probably one of the most unhappy women I've ever met in my life. Well, we got a package from America full of children's clothes and teddy bears and other things, so Shelly and I took a few things and went and got them gift wrapped for her and her baby. It was a beautiful package and we got a friend to write a card for in Bengali about how much we loved her and her family and would pray for her new baby Mongol. When we got to DumDum we couldn't find her, but everyone was freaking out about the gift (I don't think they had ever seen something so nice) so they all ran around the station trying to find her. She came walking up a few minutes later, just smiling. We gave her the package and she gave us little Mongol to hold, but she didn't even know how to open a gift. Everyone helped her, and she just loved the things inside. Her husband came up, and she showed him everything and read him the card and all. He's really never even spoken to us, but he insisted that we sit with them and then he gave someone all of his rupees to go and buy us some chai. I'm sure Sanjasmita has never received a gift before, and I know it made her feel so special to sit in the middle of a crowd (Indian people are SO nosy.. there were at least a hundred people gathered around her ) and open something from us. Please pray for little Mongol... he's only 3 weeks old and his life is already so, so hard. I wish we could do something like that for every single person at DumDum. They are all so special, and I really would give them the world if I could.

Shelly and I are still trying to plan something for our friends this last week. They are cooking us lunch on Monday and are so excited about it. Please pray we don't get sick... we don't want to spend our last week here stuck in our apartment. And please just pray that this last week they will know more than ever how much we love them. We pray all of the time that God would give us His eyes to see them and that His love would just radiate in all that we do there. We can't tell them about Jesus because we can't really speak to them, but I know that God's love is more powerful than just about anything in this world. Please also pray for Shelly and me as we get ready to come home. As much as I've hated India at times, it feels like home to me now. I'm going to be leaving a huge, huge part of my heart here, and I dread coming home just as much as I look forward to it. Thanks for remembering us here in India, and thanks for remembering our beautiful friends and family here!