What a day!!!!!!!

Greetings!

Lot's to share so let's get started...

Today was Emma's 16th Birthday.  In India (as in the US), your 16th b-day is a "big one", celebrated with much to do.  They really wanted Emma to celebrate in the traditional way so they made her up into an authentic woman from India.  She looked beautiful and it was fun celebrating her day in this special way. 

So you know there's a story that goes with everything and at the risk of sharing some of my personal embarrassment with the whole word, I'll do it for the sake of a good laugh.  To start of with, I've been what you could say a bit "back up"...I was even tempted to drink the water here just to get things going, but I didn't.  So we're sitting at Emma's big birthday celebration and I realize that things are starting to move.  My stomach is grumbling and It knew I wasn't going to make it to the end.  I decided to politely excuse myself and went up to Novahu's house to use the bathroom.  One of the house helpers was up there so the door was open and I slipped in without being noticed.  Sweet freedom, everything came out okay...only to come out of the bathroom and find out that the helper had left and locked me in.  You see their doors aren't like ours...if you're in the house you lock yourself in, once you leave you bolt it from the outside.  I can hear the party going on downstairs and I am a prisoner up stairs.  All the pounding didn't matter because the drums were in full force and I couldn't be heard.  After a short while the helper returned and was mortified to think she had locked me in.  So I can't tell you much more about what took place because I missed it.  All I could do was laugh about it...after all, I have 3 more daughters who would love to come back for their 16th so maybe theirs will go a little better.  On a good note I was able to enjoy the cake that Oma made arrangements ahead of time to have for the celebration...delicious!

After that we had a great time playing games with the orphans then took them all to the beach.  The Landowgals then treated all of us (56 people total) to dinner and ice cream.  The total bill came 7,800 rupees...in USD that would be $180 tip and all. 

I don't have time to go into anymore detail as a new day awaits.  Enjoy the pictures and hear the rest of the stories when we return.

Namaste ~ Jenny

I'm sorry to say that I'm having trouble downloading more pictures here (but at least you got a good story), hence the reason I sending this out late.  I'll keep trying.

On a side note, Olivia has been doing just fine with her foot...it's only slowed her down a little.

Thanks for all the prayers.

Namaste ~ Jenny