The Taj And Me

I woke up on my 5oth birthday on a hard bunk of a rocking train in India.  We were approaching Allahabad after spending a day in Agra.  We had visited the Taj Mahal the day before.  It is a beautiful sight, but I won't bore you with a lot of pictures or details since you can google that info anytime!  One thing you may not know is the Taj is over 350 years older than me so that helps when you're having your 50th b-day! :-)

The train ride was fun and interesting.  We took all night to get to Agra and then all of the next night to get home.  It was a simple train with curtains to pull in front of your bunk when you want ;privacy.  The bathrooms were filthy....most of the train was....and there was not food and drink offered on our ride.  There also was no speaker system.  Meaning that you had to figure out yourself which train station the train was stopping at and when you had to get out.  Hopefully you won't be asleep!

 Lots of people sleeping on the floor...

 Amos being a monkey!~  We did see a good number of wild monkeys climbing around on the buildings

 Above, you can see our breakfast.  Some of the group went to see a factory where they hand make Persian rugs.  They said they were soooo beautiful!

 Josiah gets excited and screams "Awwwwww!" with his hands straight up in the air. I say he's going to be a holiness shouter and aisle runner! Sometimes he screams and claps his hands! The boys had a great time playing together. All these things are experiences that we cannot have over skype. Skype is way better than nothing, but it tends to be more of a formal conversation with the children. We tend to sit around in the evenings here in India, watching the boys show us their various skills. Amos will get on his hands and knees and tell Justice to climb on his back for a ride. Justice will comply, and then jump off and get on his hands and knees and say, "Nana, watch this!" And tell Amos to get on his back for a ride. He's very proud of himself, despite the fact that Amos get's too far forward on his back and makes Justice do a nose dive onto the hard marble floor. Amos will say, "Nana, look!" and get himself in the crab walk position and try to walk. Justice then says, "Nana, watch this!" and he'll get in a crab walk position with his rump still dragging the floor and try to scoot. These are priceless experiences for Don and me!

 You know you're adjusting to the culture when you can carry two bags of eggs on your scooter through Indian traffic and not crack even one!

My birthday request was to be sung to!  These three started out with "Here is Love vast as the ocean.."  The Spirit fell and Josiah started running around with his arms straight up screaming "Awwww!"   I am blessed, and love of God is as vast as the ocean....and stretches across the oceans.....