Pink or Blue?

Well the answer is actually Green ;) We are past the halfway mark in our "South Asian Pregnancy" and normally this would be about the time that we could find out the gender of our child. However, in this part of the world, that luxury is actually illegal.  We were told at our first prenatal appointment (before even asking) that we would not be able to find out the gender of our baby and not to push the issue with any medical personal. At first I thought this was a little strange, however, after becoming better acquainted with the culture here, it became evident why this policy is in place. 

In this part of the world, as a general rule, the male gender is favored over the female gender. That being said, typically when expectant parents  find out the gender of their child before the child is born, some couples opt to terminate their pregnacies if they learn that they will not be giving birth to the "preferred" gender. 

So what does this all mean? Well, it means that we will be having a Surprise come this March :D

So we won't be going out and purchasing any gender-specific baby items. However, we did decide on a general "theme" for our childs' nursery and that will be The Jungle Book (we know its cliche, but whatever).  It seemed very fitting since we are living where the whole thing takes place.

So think, Elephants, Monkeys and Jungle leaves ;)

We also decided on some general colors of Green and Chocolate Brown ( jungle inspired of course ;)

Requests:

1)Continue to Lift Up Stephanie as she progresses in her pregnancy. 

2) We are finished packing and getting ready for our Big Move in less than week! :)

Please Ask that it will be a smooth and easy transition from the Rural Mountain life we have grown accustom to, to our new "Big City Living" ;)

Hail in India?

When one thinks of india, normally thoughts of warm weather come to mind. However, that was not our experience this last week.  Being that we are in the mountains, we honestly have yet to experience the “hot and sticky” weather that is so famously associated with South Asia.  Believe it or not, we have actually entered into “Cold” Season.  The temperatures are so cold in fact that we have actually had to break out the cold weather snow jackets! We even experienced HAIL last week!

The Hail piles on the roof tops and side walks.

You can see the Hail in the grass pictured in the top photo 

and us bundled up nice and snugly to brave this new cold front in the bottom photos.

Also, it could not have been better if it was planed this way, but our Hot water Heater had quit working only a few weeks back and we were without warm water for showers for a few weeks.  We took the heater a part and tried to diagnose the problem, but it proved to be quite a difficult task. However, we were totally provided for, because right before this cold front set in, our hot water heater was fixed! Literally only a matter of days before the Hail started!

Hard at work trying to fix our hot water heater.  

To say that the whole "process" to fix the heater was a Big Mess would be an understatement. Having never taken a Water Heater apart, we didn't realize just how Messy and Wet  the project we were undertaking was. However, now we can add this new accomplished task to our ever-growing list of skills that we have accumulated since living abroad.  

Requests:

1.We are going to be embarking on yet another transition in our lives in less than two weeks.

 Please Ask that this transition will be smooth for us and that we will settle into our new home with ease.