A Colorful Welcome

I was so relieved to get off that curvy road and be in the mountains! We received a very warm welcome from the hotel staff.

The guys enjoying their juice...or is it the flower necklaces putting that big smile on their faces?!

The team with our translators and in-country leaders.

First Pit Stop

We spent the night in a hotel before heading to the train station to get us one step closer to the mountains.

JJ was my roommate. We had lots of laughs as we worked around the fact that our bathroom light wouldn't work. It was pitch black in there. Thankfully she had a head lantern, which we put to full use!
It was quite a stretch to reach the toilet paper.
But we definitely fit in the bed better than Abe and Matt!

Getting there was NOT half the fun...thankfully!

I am the kind of person that loves visiting places, but dislikes the actual travel it takes to get there....Praise God that I do not live in a time that took months to cross the ocean by boat or the country by covered wagon!

Thankfully along the way, I had some things to keep me going...

...like my sweet friend Melanie, who came to church at 6 a.m. to pray with me (and give me candy) before I left.

Even though our morning started so early, we were still only in Chicago over 12 hours later because of a humongous layover...as you can see...some passed the time reading, some sleeping...we also ate, played cards, etc. etc. etc. Thankfully the team was fun to be around!

Once we were in India, we still had 6 hours of train ride...the train station was quite crowded! Then we had a 3 hour bus ride up very curvy roads (my least favorite leg of the journey!)

But once we get there...it is SO worth it!

Fall Fun

The girls had a fun Halloween with the school parties, visiting neigbhors, eating out, and going to Trunks of Treats at church. Annye wore an outfit from India. Maddie was a Jedi. Jeff made her costume! Maddie has been telling us for two weeks now what she wants to be for Halloween NEXT year! Of course, the ideas are constantly changing, but are still all things Star Wars. Maddie's class went to the Kentucky Museum and BRIMS Science Museum. We had a really fun day. We had a little dress up session while we were at the KY Museum.

We decided to head to Mammoth Cave to enjoy the beautiful weather and changing leaves while we hiked. The weather was beautiful and although the sites were beautiful...there was not much color there. We had a great afternoon together!

I have been out of the country the last two times my brother has been passing through, so it had been over a year since I'd seen him. Thankfully I got home from India the day before he passed through this time, so we were able to visit.

I have lots of pictures of these events posted on Facebook if you're interested in seeing more! Hope you've had a great fall as well!