A Walker!

Here is a short clip of Leila demonstrating to the world her latest accomplishment!   Enjoy!

One

ONE Year Old!

Leila turned One two Saturdays ago, on October 17.  It has been one amazing and spectacular year!  Seen above in her classic ankles-crossed pose, our little princess has won the hearts of many friends and family all around the world.  However, she has won no other hearts more fiercely than her Mom and Dad’s.  Each little trial, and each little joy are time well earned and spent as we have watched Leila grow and mature throughout her first year of life.  How we love her…

We managed to create an international birthday party for Leila at my parent’s home in Holland, along with her Uncle Ben, Aunt Heather, and cousin Eleanor.  I say international because we had a lively video conference with her Indian relatives who were all staying at her Uncle James’ house for the weekend.  After singing Happy Birthday with them and eating lunch, we web-conferenced with Aunt Amy and Uncle Kyle in Seattle for a second round of Happy Birthday.  Quite the delight, and very special to have the technology available to celebrate in worldwide fashion!

Connecting with India

Happy Birthday, Bumblimas!

Make a Wish!

Amy & Kyle's bird's eye view of the cake tasting

Reading a new book with Daddy

Receiving a blessing from older cousin Eleanor

After Leila’s little-Big party, the three of us headed off to Wisconsin where JP spoke at one of our friend’s churches.  It was good to see Pastor Bill and his wife, Amy, settled into their new church after graduating from seminary in May.  We also got to spend time with other seminary friends, Terika and Nick.  It was nice to be able to catch up over a delicious meal and a game of “Ticket to Ride.”  Leila was proud to sit at the table with the adults and share her thoughts on world matters.

Good food, Good friends

We have not been posting very often because we’ve been in the thick of travel and speaking season.  JP just arrived back from a trip out to San Francisco yesterday, and that will be the last of the out-of-town travel (we think!) until we head back to India in January.  We feel that the September and October travel was necessary, and rewarding, and blest, but it sure feels good to be home together for a couple of months.  Through all of it, Leila has been a trooper, adjusting and adapting to the new places and the new people with amazing flexibility.  We could sense the change in her, however, after we came home from Wisconsin and she recognized that she was home to stay.  She seems to sleep and eat better, and her little monkey-smile comes out more regularly.

In honor of Leila’s Birthday, we’ve complied this pictorial growth chart for you to enjoy!!

One Year (holland)

11 Months (holland)

10 Months (holland)

9 Months (holland)

8 Months (holland)

7 Months (india)

6 Months (india)

5 Months (holland)

4 Months (seattle)

3 Months (holland)

2 Months (holland)

1 Month (holland)

1 Day (zeeland)

How great is our God!

Thank you for this gift of a daughter, our little Leila Ruth.

The Same but Different.

This year’s trip to Crane’s was just a bit different from last year’s trip.  :)

It was fun to go poking through the apple orchard with three people who had never been picking before.  Dan and Teresa, and Leila, along with JP and I, all had a marvelous time.  The temperature was mild and there was just a slight cloud cover, which made for good picking.  After we took advantage of the sliver-sized samples at the barn, we rumbled off toward the Honeycrisps, our apple of choice this Saturday.  Leila was perched happily in Dad’s backpack, and was more than delighted to receive her own little apple from Teresa Auntie.

Leila held on carefully to her apple for the rest of the picking expedition, which may have been the cutest part of the whole day.  Oddly, she never tried to eat her little apple, but immediately took a chomp out of my prize Cortland.  As you saw at the top, Leila enjoyed grazing on the apples as much as we did.

a Tiny apple for a Tiny hand

The Picking (and eating) Crew!

We probably all came home we several pounds too many apples, but we’re choosing to live into the adage, An apple a day keeps the doctor away, as we head into a big trip  to Iowa at the end of the week.  We’ll pack a sack of apples in the car to keep any sickness at bay, especially since Leila has just recovered from her first ear infection, and JP and I are getting over our first (and hopefully only!!) colds for the season.  Good thing we like apples.  (And what about apple pie, does anyone know if that counts too?)

My pookie pie

Last year this time…

JP, Katy (and Leila)!

Weekend Crazy-ness

Life can be sometimes so very hectic.   Jobs can become demanding, school work may pile up, while your social obligations spiral out of control.   To grant respite from that syndrome, we celebrate Labor Day.  A day in which we stop working so we can spend time doing other, more pleasurable things that will re-charge your batteries and celebrate the lives we lead.   It was exactly that sort of weekend for us.   Fortunately for Katy and me, life doesn’t change too much.  We constantly live into this chaos and love it (most of the time).  This weekend was no exception.

On Friday night, Katy and I went out on a date.   It was a double-date with our friends Dan and Teresa.   We got Leila a babysitter (the lovely aunt Betsy) and we drove out to Grand Rapids to have dinner at this new restaurant called, “The Electric Cheetah.”  As strange as that name might sound, it was one of the best restaurants we had been to in quite some time.  The food was delicious, the atmosphere…well… electric, but most of all, it was good to just head out and celebrate the weekend with people we love.   Leila did well that night!:)

Saturday opened up quietly.   Beula and her friend Becca stopped by to say hi and meet Leila.   Beula is getting married in January and has requested that Leila be her flower girl (even if she can’t walk by then!).   I (JP) will also be involved in the wedding as the emcee.   It was good to see the bride and her flower girl getting to know each other.  They got along splendidly.   Later that afternoon, Katy and I were joined by our dear friends Chris and Lindsay Zeller.  Our destination this time was the zoo!   This was Leila’s first excursion into the zoo.   She has lately preferred to ride on daddy’s backpack (versus the stroller) as she can get an unobstructed 360 degree view of everything.  And for those of you who have gotten to know Leila, you know that she is VERY curious about EVERYTHING!

Sunday came along.   We were still not ready to breathe normally.  We took Leila to the nursery in church.  Handed her over to the lovely people at the nursery, slapped on a name tag on Leila, picked up our pager and made our way to the sanctuary.  We were able to sit through the whole service for the first time since October of 2008, without a baby that was ornery!   I must admit, Katy and I kept looking at each other and wondering when that pager would go off!  It did not.  Jayme Aalberts took wonderful care of Leila that morning.   In the afternoon, we headed back up to Grand Rapids to have a barbeque with our dear friend Lori.   The food was spectacular.  Katy and Lori can cook up a storm together.   I benefited greatly from that partnership.

Monday…yeah… we are not done yet.   Monday, the Wings had a family get-together at a park here in Holland.  The menu was chicken, both grilled and fried, from KFC!  Leila’s cousin Eleanor was there to join in the festivities with her parents.   We had, again, GREAT food, relaxing walks, and just good ol’ fashioned family time which was good for the heart.   Monday night, my friend Miki joined us for a couple of days.  Miki and I went to college together over 10 years ago.  She is from Japan but currently just finished up some grad work at the University of Washington.  Before heading back to Osaka, she decided to make a quick jaunt over to the mid-west to meet up with us.  It was truly special to have her with us.  I enjoy introducing Katy (and Leila) to people in my life who were such an integral part of my college experience.  Miki was an important section of that chapter.

Miki left this morning.   We have a “quiet” week to negotiate now.  Sunday begins the first of many Sundays when I will be speaking in places all over the U.S.  It was truly the perfect way for us to celebrate with friends and family.  We trust that regardless of where you are, you have weekends like that (even if it is not that busy or full).   Here are a sampling of pictures… enjoy!

Lori Aunty and Leila

Space Monkey?

The Other Monkeys

Beula and Becca with Leila

Katy and Leila

My beautiful women

Learning to walk with Ava

The Gang

Hair

a little wild thing

Glen Lake

the view at Big Glen

We spent Tuesday up north in Glen Lake.  It was a two-fold trip.  We went mainly to celebrate my Dad’s 60th birthday (on the 6th) and my Mom’s 60th birthday (on the 8th).  Neither of my parents seem anywhere near the ripe old age of 60.  I told them that I think there must be some sort of miscalculation.  My brother, Ben, along with his wife, Heather, and daughter, Eleanor, were up for vacation, and even my 82 year old grandmother made it for a delicious Steak lunch and Birthday cake.  It was good for my soul to be up north.  It was good to hang out with family, and it was especially fun to see Leila interacting with her relatives.

Leila with the Birthday Girl and Boy (Ava and Tata)

Eleanor and Leila

Leila with Great Grammie

We also went north so that we could “say good bye to the ol’ place,” as my dad put it as we were about to leave on Wednesday morning.  My parents have lived next to Big Glen Lake for nearly 13 years, but the time has come for them to move on.  (JP and I are particularly excited that they will be located in Holland for the next chapter of life… at least until the chapter after that begins.)  I was very thankful for this opportunity to have my “good bye” day in Glen Lake.  My family moved to Glen Lake after my sophomore year in college, and while it never felt exactly like home, it has become a favorite place of mine.  From the beautiful drive up from Holland, to the scenic hikes and picnic spots, the Glen Arbor area won my heart long ago.  During our day there, we were able to do two of my three favorite things…  We walked down to Old Settler’s Park, which my family has done at least a thousand times, and we played on the swings with the little ladies.  I’m not sure that I have ever played on the swings at the park, but hey, it is Leila’s very favorite thing to do these days.  We also walked out on the dock, which is where I took the photo at the top of the blog.  Later on that night, we sat in the backyard around a bonfire and roasted s’mores.  I love to sit by a fire, and even better, I love to eat s’mores.  It felt good to my soul, and my stomach!  The only thing  guess I missed out on was one last trip to the Cherry Republic.  When my sister, Amy, worked there I learned to appreciate just how yummy All Things Cherry can be.  If you have not been there, You MUST Go.

The good news is that I won’t be staying away from the beauty of Glen Arbor  for the rest of my life.  I learned to dislike and avoid official goodbyes long ago, and simply put, Glen Lake is a place I must return to.  So even when I won’t have my parent’s home to visit, I know I will go there, and my soul will be glad.

Dad and Mom at Old Settler's Park

Some photos from the past couple of weeks…

Jet-lagged

It is a beautiful sunny day here in Holland, Michigan.   The thermometer in our house is hovering at a gentle 70 F.   We left for the US exactly a week ago and cannot believe in some ways that it has only been a week since we boarded the Paris bound Air France flight.    

I know a lot of you have wondered how we fared in our trip.   Our flight from Bangalore to Paris was the longest leg of the journey.  This was also, coincidentally, the most problematic flight for Leila on our way TO India.   I was a little nervous but Leila did sleep for about 5-6 hours on this flight (this was a 10 hour flight).  I was quite relieved to arrive in Paris.  We were hopeful about the shorter (6 hours) flight to NYC.   However, that hope vanished in a couple of hours.  It was a noisy flight.  We had a baby that wasn’t sure what was day and what was night.   Needless to say, I walked the aisles of the airplane for almost 3 hours.  Now, I must preface all this by stating first that Leila was a really good girl.  She just did not sleep.  In over 36 hours of travel, our little wonder got maybe 7 hours of sleep TOTAL.   That began to wear on her and exponentially began to wear on us.  

We landed at the JFK International in New York City.  We found out at this time that while all our luggage made it, our stroller did not.   This was a pretty big blow because now we had to negotiate 7 hours at JFK with 7 suitcases, 3 carry-ons AND a baby.  For as great a city as New York City is…JFK leaves a LOT to be desired.   We had to switch over to the domestic terminal which reminded me of a crowded bus station in India.   The only difference being that we were hauling a lot of luggage on a rickety little trolley up and down elevators and over floors that were carpeted heavily.  (Note:  Katy and I try to avoid O’hare Airport in Chicago and Heathrow in London.   After this trip, I have sworn to not make fun of those fine cities ever again).  Our journey was, however, not over at JFK.  We had to catch our connection (2 hours) to Detroit.   In all honesty, the passengers (well…one loud mouth and his friend) on this flight were probably the most inhospitable to new parents and a baby.   That made the 2 hours extra long.    

We were so glad to see Katy’s parents waiting for us at the Detroit Airport at 9:30 PM on Monday night!   We spent the night with Katy’s brother Ben, his wife Heather and Leila’s cousin Eleanor.   Best sleep we had in a while.   Sometime on Tuesday, we loaded up the car again and began the three hour ride to Holland.   Leila did well in her car seat.  

Anyway, we are still battling jetlag.  Our stuff still lies strewn about in the living room as we unpack, do laundry, and get things back in order.   Thank you for your prayers.   We are glad that the travel went well.   How did we fare?  I’d say that I’d give the trip back to the US a B-.  

Leila is slowly beginning to behave like the Leila we know.   We are excited and happy about that.  For a little 7 month old she sure is quite the traveler!   

We hope to update more now that we are settling in.

One fine day in India

Most days, JP and I wake up at 6:30am. JP heads to the shower, and I wake Leila up for her first feeding. Leila and I often play on the bed for awhile, especially if JP has to iron a shirt. Then, the three of us head downstairs, and make our way “home,” which is just a hop, skip, and a jump across the campus to JP’s parent’s house. Leila usually goes for a short walk with Tata, and looks at the plants. She also has a nice good morning chat with Ava, who is usually cooking breakfast. Ava also brings JP and me two hot cups of sweet, milky Indian coffee, and then we know for sure that the day has begun. JP reads the newspaper, and I think about a plan for the day, drink my coffee, and head to the shower.

I am a Type-A personality. India is either Type-B, or in a category all its own… I’m note sure which. This incongruity is an on-again, off-again struggle for me, especially if my aforementioned plan for the day is too detailed. If I’m not careful, I end up feeling like I spin my wheels a lot in India. I’m constantly trying to make myself meet India in the middle. Perhaps what I need more to do, is skip the plan-for-the-day part of my day. That is what I did today (unintentionally, of course,) and it was a very superb day.

Let me tell you all about it.

Last week I ventured out to fabric and tailor shops. By Saturday, I had three brand new, neatly tailored “dresses” in hand. The only problem was that we had neglected to take the dupattas (scarves) to be finished, and so I could not really wear the outfits until Tuesday of this week. So today, my day happily began by wearing the second of my new salwars. I like it very much…

Next, timing things properly with Leila’s second feeding and nap time, JP and I went to the shopping district where it was our mission to buy 60 green scarves from “Dupatta House.” A friend from home asked if we would bring these for the purpose of decorating her wedding, and to hand out as gifts/favors. It was a worrisome venture for me, as I was having to choose from limited stock, dozens of greens scarves that may or not not actually match or be the correct style of material for the right cost. It took about 45 minutes to dredge the bottom of all the scarf seller’s piles, and even he said that no one else would be able to buy green scarves from him for awhile. I took a picture of our 20 lb. bag of scarves, but what I wish you could see would be a picture of JP and I riding the motorcycle back with this parcel between us! I am so relieved to have this project taken care of… at least until we have to Fed Ex them in Michigan.

it is bigger than it looks, I think...

DISCLAIMER: We will not be doing this again for obvious reasons!:)

One of the things I miss most when I’m in India is cooking and baking. As it turns out, there were some very ripe bananas at home that were just begging to be added to some bread. During the first weeks that we were in India, two things happened. First, we bought an oven for JP’s parents’ 32nd anniversary. It is like a very large toaster oven, and is actually an oven/toaster/grill, akin to the microwave/oven/grill that was here previously.

Oven on right, next to the microwave.

Next, I found a very decent looking recipe on a favorite cooking blog that I follow. I actually like to follow this particular blog because Ilva, the author, posts a lot of beautiful photos from Italy, where she lives, but I’ve never made one of her recipes. However, she posted a recipe for Gluten-free Chocolate Banana Bread, using Chickpea flour, and it jumped out at me because chickpea (or channa) flour is very readily available in India. So, this afternoon I was able to go to town on the banana bread. I was excited to use red bananas, as well as one mini-banana to fill things out. I even thew in some walnuts, as I’m newly converted to walnuts.

Leila is introduced to red bananas

The bread turned out quite well, especially considering my baking history here in India is less than perfect. (Many of you have heard “The Cake Story,” which nearly ruined my relationship with JP the first time that I came to India.) I’m grateful that things get slightly easier each time I bake here. For example, JP is always careful to buy unbroken eggs from the shop nearby. I’ve learned where the oil is. I know how to “powder” the sugar, which is very granular here. I even found something to sift the flour with this time! And, I especially enjoyed using this recipe because the measurements were in milliliters, (she also converts to American equivalents) and she listed the celsius temperature, which I usually have to convert with JP’s help. The only “oops” that I had, was forgetting to flip the switch that turns on the electrical power for the oven. (Outlets here often have an on/off switch next to them that you must turn on for the current to flow. That is the switch that I forgot to flip.) So, when I went to put my little loaves in the oven, it was still cold, and I had to wait another ten minutes. (Oops.) It was worth waiting for, thankfully, and we ended up with a nice warm loaf of bread to eat with our evening chai.

note my innovative cooling rack

Chocolate Banana Bread with walnuts

Just as the last loaf was finishing in the oven, I went upstairs to check on Leila and came upon the man who came to fix our water filter. The apartment has its own aqua guard filter, but it broke down about two weeks ago. It took about four days to get the guy to come look at it, and since then we’ve been hauling our water bottles up and downstairs, waiting for the correct parts to arrive for our 17-year old water filter. At long last, the parts came, the man came, the filter got fixed, and we have drinkable water again. Hooray!

Aquaguard-- all lights say go

For a day without a plan, I sure felt like a lot of things got accomplished.

…And now, for the ironic ending… I was having so much trouble with loading the pictures from the computer to the blog that I gave up and went to bed, and now I am posting this the following day!!

Leila being a little crabby, and chewing on Tony the crab.

Showing Off

One day after Leila turned 1/2 year old, our niece, Judith, turned one month old. In honor of the occasion, JP and I tried our hand at taking (me) and fine tuning (JP) baby portraits of Judith. It was a very fun project. We want to show off our handiwork, I suppose, but mostly we want to show off our cutie little niece. Enjoy!!