Icing on the cake!

Another evening of acrobatics with Devi in the middle...not as active as the night before. She seems to really feel most comfortable sleeping on our chests. It is something to feel the heart of this tiny child beat so very close to yours. She is simply a joy.

We seem to have found our routine; up for breakfast, and out for shopping! Today we headed to the New Market which seems to be about the middle of town. Meat, belts, spices, sarees, and auto parts, you can find it here in abundance. Another gauntlet to walk, there are store fronts on one side and vendors on the other. Salesmen working on commission try to lure you into the stores that they have a prearranged deal with for a little pay-o-lah. Then there are the beggars coupled with the fact that we seem to draw a crowd anyway. I'm sure we looked like the pied piper as we made our way from store front to store front. It is always so interesting to take one of these shopping trips on foot. People watching is insurmountable.

Air conditioning is something I thought I would never wish for, but the heat here is really something else. Even the babies are drenched with perspiration the second we step outside. AC is what lead us to Ontrack, our lunch destination. As it happened we were able to sit in a railway car from the Orient Express. It was really cool.

Back to the hotel, it was time for a little siesta. Devi is very good about taking naps although she continues to wake her self up to check and recheck that we are still here for her. She looks to me for comfort and to Patrick to be silly. Each day a bit more of her personality comes through, today she is a bit more fussy than normal....like I know what that would be from one day of being with her :). I'm sure it is partly the heat that we walked around in and also I think she is aware that she is not going back to the place where she spent her first 10 months. Her cry has a mournful tone to it and she raises her arms up to me to pick her up, but that is a great sign! We now know she loves formula, banana and rice and she HATES dal (lentils), guava juice and noodles. She loves to giggle at Roger and the boys and loves the wind to blow her in the face when riding a taxi.

Picnicing in 525 was the choice for dinner tonight. Room service was ordered and the Welser's came into out room with extra chairs. We were all exhausted from the heat and the girls were just plain done for the day. Enjoying one last conversation with the Welser's we chatted about how we would continue to see each other in the years to come. Departing in the early morning, we said our goodbyes and hugs all the way around. Patrick and I don't leave until the early evening.

The kids: Andrew, Devi, Evan, and Jenya

We are so fortunate to have met this family. Their ideas about things, likes and dislikes, are very similar to ours. Experiencing this trip together has made it a much more rewarding quest. Because of them, we took more risks on this trip. We tried more things and went to more places than we could have probably handled on our own. We now ask what our best and worst thing of the day was, know about whoopahs, and have seen India through the eyes of other adults, an inquisitive nine year old and imaginative five year old boys. It is hard to believe that a family from the west coast and a family from the east coast had to go half way arouncd the world to meet and become fast friends. We owe it all to our two beautiful girls born in Kolkata.

This will be the last post until arriving home I think. We will have a small outing tomorrow and then we head to the airport to begin the final journey home. Wish us luck, we are going to need it. If all goes well, we will be arriving at SeaTac on American Airlines on Saturday at 10am. Departing as two and arriving home as three. This trip all ready feels dream like. It is hard to fathom how much we were able to do while here. IT has been so far beyond great. Adding Devi, our princess, our daughter, our little Indian souvenir, to our family was amazing. Everything else is just icing on the cake!