August in a nutshell

          August is always an eventful month for the Isakson household.  Kris and I both celebrate our birthdays and a special anniversary of our first date.  We spent some time celebrating and tried out some new things too.  Once again I've added a lot of pictures, but hopefully you will enjoy seeing what we've been up to.

         Early this month we went to a super fun amusement/waterpark outside of Bangalore called Wonder La.  We went with some other American friends of ours on a random Monday, which meant that the park was less crowded.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves as they were the only kids in the park and able to get on and off the rides without waiting in any lines (most kids are in school right now in Bangalore).  I would compare it to a 6 flags park in America (but a little smaller).  

All ready to go on some rides!

Molly and her friends trying out some of the rides.

The park also had some fun watersides, pools, a lazy river, and a wave pool. 

Molly and I trying out the wave pool.  Notice that I'm not wearing a swimsuit. Absolutely no one wears swimsuits in India. Kris and the other guys we were with were the only ones with their shirts off.  Even wearing shorts and a tank top was a bit risky for me.  

This was a ferris wheel on top of a large look-out tower.  Super high, but fun!

    During the month of August we had to say a few goodbyes to some close friends.  This is an American family from our church that stayed in India for a year working with International Justice Mission to help free labor slaves.  We will truly miss them, but wish them the best as they head back to Michigan!

The second good-bye that we had to make was to my good friend Beaula (the one in the pink top).  She was my very first friend here in India.  She was the first person to reach out to me and take me out for coffee…so SWEET!!!  She is moving to Minneapolis to work for Target Corporation.  I have hopes that I will get to see her possibly in Minneapolis some day!  This is a picture of me, Joanne, and Beaula out celebrating my birthday.  

       August 15 is India's Independence day.  We were able to celebrate Independence day with people from our church.  We had food, games, worship, and a movie at the end.  We had so much fun!  I just loved seeing the flags all over town.  People truly showed pride in their country that day!

Almost every rickshaw and vehicle had a flag attached to show their India pride!

Molly even wore here Indian flag ribbon for the occasion.  Very festive!

    The next few pictures are of our birthday celebrations.  This was birthday number 31 for me.  Not quite as festive as my "dirty thirty" party from last year, but we still had fun!  We went to a fun cafe for lunch and ordered some yummy desserts.  

    Kris turned the big 3-4 this year.  (I can always tease him about being older).  Apparently me and Jude and Roopa had the same idea in mind and we all surprised him at the office with cake.  So we had cake for lunch and then went out for a fun dinner that night.  

singing Happy Birthday to Kris at the office.  His adjusting table became our cake table :)

We went to a restaurant called "Connie's" for supper.  They had some really good chicken wings.  Kris  also tried the bbq pork ribs (they were more like pork chops, but good nonetheless)

     Some of you might not know this about us, but Kris and I went out on our first date together on August 25, 2001.  I was heading into my freshman year at college and he was going to be a junior.  My sister set us up and suggested that we go on a double date with her and Galen.  So we headed to Sioux City, IA and went to Carlos O'Kelly's for supper and then to a movie afterwards.  That was 13 years ago!!!  We always celebrate this day and try and remember what we said or how we acted on our 1st date.  I'm so thankful to God and my sister for bringing us together.  Since we couldn't find a Carlos O'Kelly's in Bangalore we decided to celebrate at a different Mexican restaurant :)

Molly and John came along this time.  Molly took the pic :)

     The rest of the pictures are a miscellaneous conglomeration of some of my favorite photos from the month of August.  Most of them are from around our area in Bangalore.

Love the rickshaws!

Molly picking out beads for a bracelet for a certain cousin back home :)

Lots of street vendors selling just about anything.  These ladies were selling some beautiful jewelry.  

This is a picture of a sari hanging off of a balcony at a nearby apartment building.  They are very, very, very long!

More progress on the house being built behind our apartment.  Don't you just love the support beams holding up the upper level.  The entire bottom level is full of these wooden beams to support to upper level that they are working on.  Even the ladder on the side that they use to get up and down between the two levels appears quite make-shift.  

Just going for a drive.

  

Crazy Bangalore traffic!

Rickshaw rides

This guys is making some Hot Chips.  These are basically deep-fat-fried snacks.  

Watching Bangalore wake up one Sunday morning from the rooftop of my apartment.  

Watching the ladies make a bracelet.  If you look really close you can see who it's for :)

One of the many churches here in Bangalore.

I thought I would end this post with these two beautiful girls!!  

   Oh and by the way…BIG ANNOUNCEMENT coming soon!!  So stay tuned to find out what is up next for the Isakson family!!  Much love!

Shack Family

        These are pictures of our newest neighbors.  We have named them the "Shack Family" because they literally live in a one-roomed shack.  We know their names, but I couldn't begin to guess how to spell them.  They are construction workers building a new home in our neighborhood.  It is traditional for the construction workers to live onsite until the work is completed.  This new home is being constructed without any modern machinery or tools.  I have seen a power saw being used every once in a while, but other than that everything is being constructed by hand.  Most homes in India are made out of cement.  The cement is also mixed by hand.  For larger projects I have seen cement trucks, but for this small home all the cement has been mixed by hand.  All day long they carry sand, rocks, brick, or any of the building materials on their heads from one side of the site to the other.  They work tirelessly ALL DAY LONG.  

       At first I couldn't bare to watch them work so hard.  My heart just ached to see them lift and carry load after load, day after day.  I haven't seen people work that hard maybe ever.  But I found myself drawn to them.  I couldn't help but stare out my back window and just watch them, sometimes for hours.  I am so intrigued with how they work and live.  Everything they do is different from how I do it.  They eat, wash, clean, parent, work, talk, and do life incredibly different from how we has Americans do it.  It is fascinating yet heart-wrenching at the same time.  

       So we decided to get to know them a little bit…well as much as we could without actually being able to exchange words.  Most of our communication is through facial expressions and hand gestures due to the language barrier.  They have 2 children, a 1 1/2 year old and a 3 year old girl.  Molly and the 3 year old (Thulsi) have become quite the friends.  Molly begs to go down and play with her every single day.  Somehow Molly and this little girl can spend over an hour playing with each other, with Thulsi speaking in her own language, and Molly speaking english and neither one understanding a word the other is saying.  They have so much fun and laugh like crazy.  Kids have the uncanny ability to look past outward barriers and still make a connection.  It doesn't matter to them whether you are rich or poor, white or brown, pretty or ugly.  To them life is about having fun, playing, learning and being joyful.  Nothing else matters.  Sometimes I wish I wasn't so tainted.  

       I will never forget this family.  They have changed my world and I thank God for bringing them into our lives.  I am grateful.  God has blessed me.  When I get frustrated about finances, I will think of them.  When I don't have the perfect home, I will think of them.  When I don't have the nicest things, I will think of them.  

      Be grateful today.  Thank the Lord for all that he has given you.  Count your many blessings and say a prayer for the "shack family" too.  Pray that God will give them the strength to endure each day.  

Blessings!!

July in a Nutshell

   July proved to be a busy month.  This post might be a little long and full of random happenings, but I guess thats what I get for waiting until the end of the month to share what we have been up to.

   Molly began her 2nd month of ballet lessons.  She has fallen in love with the class and looks forward to every Tuesday afternoon.  I look forward to it as well as I get to socialize with the other moms and it gets me out of the house.

Happy 4th of July!!  We celebrated with some other Americans by having a BBQ with hamburgers, bacon, chips…just good 'ol picnic food.

John in his red, white and blue.

I made festive cupcakes for the occasion.

One of Molly's best friends here.

Kris and John at the party.

  We spent a day shopping on commercial street with Roopa to buy some Indian clothes.  I feel like I'm almost back to my pre-pregnancy size/weight so I felt like I could finally buy some real Indian outfits.  

Shopping on Commercial street is always quite an experience.  There are always a ton of people, cars, vendors, and shops.  We had a great day despite the chaos.

Molly even found an Indian dress.  

This is on of my Indian suits.  I bought this fabric, took it to a tailor, got measured, and had it sewn.  It fit me perfectly and the pants were actually long enough!!  

John turned 5 months old in July.  The big accomplishment of the month was starting solid foods.  John for the most part remains a very happy and content baby.  He still won't sleep through the night, but hopefully starting some solid foods will help with that.  Thanks to the team from ARISE church for bringing a supply of rice cereal!!

Molly wanted to try feeding him.  She is a big help!

This photo was taken on his 5month birthday. 

I was able to quick snap a photo of him sitting up on his own.  He still is quite wobbly while sitting up, but he's almost able to do it.

Every afternoon from 5:30-7:00pm Molly spends time playing with these friends.  We have a lot of kids in the apartment complex that she can play with.  She looks forward to playing with "the kids" and races down to meet up with them.

Molly was able to celebrate a huge accomplishment this month.  She finished her 100th reading lesson. The book we were working through in homeshcool claimed that you could teach your child to read in "100 fun and easy lessons."  While these lessons were not fun, nor easy…she accomplished it!  Molly and I had many, many arguments during these lessons making the task quite challenging.  The book also ended up in the garbage after one heated disagreement!!  (I did pull it out of the garbage and wiped it off.)  I'm very stubborn and determined and so is she…so we finished it!! As a reward she got to pick out any book that she wanted.  What was my reward for teaching her, you may ask…the sweet victory of not having to go through another agonizing lesson.  

Molly posing with her new book!  She is a very good reader by the way.

We had the wonderful opportunity to see our friends at the end of July from ARISE church back in Sioux Falls, SD.  They brought us some wonderful treats sent from family and our life group.  It was so wonderful to see some familiar faces and also for them to catch a glimpse of our lives here in Bangalore.  They were very busy with traveling around southern India so we didn't get to see them much, but the two days we did get to spend with them were wonderful!!

Katie rocked John right to sleep.  

We hosted the group at our house the day before they left.  We were able to spend some time sharing a meal and worshipping together.  It was a beautiful time of worship!

This month we had to go to the FRRO to get John's Visa.  This is an agonizing process that requires a lot of patience and preparation.  So we spent several hours at the FRRO and $100 later he officially has a visa.  We are excited to finally have his passport and visa in hand.  If you ever decide to have a baby in another country, be prepared for A LOT of paperwork! While we waited for them to process his paper work we decided to go to Lalbaugh (the botanical garden).  We packed a picnic lunch and spent the afternoon walking around a quieter part of Bangalore.  I've posted other pics of Lalbaugh on previous blogs, but here are a few more.  

This man was carrying a huge load of grass on his head.  It never ceases to amaze me what people will carry on their heads. 

Kris enjoying some sweet corn.  Not nearly as good as the Hoogland sweet corn from NW Iowa, but it'll do for now!

Well that wraps up our 8th month in Bangalore.  Can't believe that we have been here almost a year now!!  God is sustaining us and slowly revealing his future plans for our family.  We still don't know what that all entails but we are hopeful that in his perfect timing all will be revealed.  Blessings!