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!