We made it!!

Well, we're here! Many planes, cars, and hours later, we're finally in Rajpur, India. The flights all went well and we made our connections without any problems. The boy's both did great! We got to Delhi Thursday night and spent the night at a hotel, before driving the 7 1/2 ish more hours to Rajpur, the next morning. Delhi was interesting. I didn't really like it very much. It was so dirty, dry, crowded, and not all that friendly. The difference between the Dehradun/Rajpur area and Delhi is pretty unbelievable. As we drove all morning and afternoon on Friday, it just kept getting prettier and prettier. Rajpur is an awesome little city. I love it! It's not busy at all compared to most places in India, the people are so nice and great, and it's beautiful. There's actually grass and green trees here! Crazy, compared to Delhi. The view is amazing. We are completely surrounded by mountains. It's pretty cool!

When we got to our house on Friday afternoon, there were a lot's of men here working on everything. Trying finish it up and make it livable. Sespa(the pastor)and his wife Susan were here heading it all up. They are both super sweet, and it was great to meet them. We're living in a house that's on the church grounds-like literally across the front yard. It's beautiful! It's a lot bigger then any of us were expecting. We have 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, a huge kitchen, a little area upstairs, 2 little living room areas, and a dining room. It's great! We have a lot of work to do, but it's definitely a nice house, and is going to work out perfectly. They already had beds for us in every room, which was a huge blessing, and so we started sleeping here right away. After we got here we pretty much just unpacked a little bit, took cold showers :) and went to sleep. I think it's safe to say that we were all exhausted!

On Saturday morning we went over to the Hishi's house for breakfast. They are such a sweet and welcoming family!! It was so good to meet them, and I'm excited to get to know them better. That morning we ended up going and getting passport pictures taken for some documents that Isaac filled out in order to get us registered with the government here. That turned into kind of a big ordeal, since the first two shops we went to were closed. After a while we finally found somewhere to take them, and got that all figured out. Everything moves at a slower pace here, and the plan changes ALL the time. Just something we'll have to get used to I guess. It is something I think we, as Americans could learn from though. Rather then always worrying about getting stuff done, and being so uptight, they put family and relationships first. Everything is very community oriented, which I love. The important things still get done, just not necessarily in the same time frame we're used to. Anyways, after pictures, Mel and Dave went with Isaac and some other guy's to start shopping for things we need for the house, and the boys and I went back to the Hishi's house with Tenzin for lunch and naps. Tenzin was super sweet to us and eventually brought us back home and waited with us till Mel and Dave were done. They returned a couple hours later, and we now have a fridge, stove, toaster oven, air conditioner, and most of what we need to create a working kitchen! It's going to take a while for sure, but it's fun to see things slowly coming together.

We've already met our neighbors, who are really sweet! There is a family that lives in a tent type thing on the same land as our house. The couple has a few kids, and I think they're Dad lives with them as well. One of their boys is only a year older then Micah, so he has an instant playmate which is awesome! They can't understand each other at all, but are already having lot's of fun together. The Mom, Bina, is going to help us with cooking, grocery shopping, and things of that nature. I'm kind of sad that the cook won't be my age like we thought, but Bina is incredibly sweet and it's going to be cool getting to know her better.

Last night we had an adventure and made a trip into Dehradun for dinner and ice cream. That was lot's of fun, and like I said, quite an adventure :)

Today was church. Dave, Mel, and Micah went, I stayed home with Levi who was still sleeping. After that though, we all went and had tea and Samosa's with everyone from church. It was good to meet people. I met a girl my age who was super sweet and spoke a little bit of English. It made me excited to start getting to know more people, and building relationships around town.

This afternoon Dave took me on a little "tour" and showed me a an awesome running loop, that I'm super excited about. I can't wait to take it tomorrow and start getting to know the town better. As soon as he and I got back earlier I was going to walk it, but it started raining. Apparently Monsoon season officially started today, because boy did it rain!!! Talk about a torrential DOWNPOUR! I have never seen it rain so hard in my life. It was pretty crazy! It cooled things down a lot though, which was great. Not exactly sure what this evening will look like, but hopefully it involves sleep. I'm ready for this jetlag to wear off all the way.

Well, that's what these past few day's have looked like on this side of the world. Sorry this is so long :) I promise that's probably not normal.
Love you all!!