Tues Sep 15

Lonnie got up early this morning and grilled chicken for me to put in the crockpot for lunch🤎

After the girls were in school, Lonnie and I were visiting out on the porch while watching the littles play. Suddenly Gentry is trying out his 1st solo run down the ramp off the porch, which is about a 2 ft elevation. He did really great till he got to the bottom where he went head over heels with his face receiving the brunt of the meeting with the concrete😫resulting in a skinned nose and forehead.

After supper, *while the girls cleaned up supper, Lonnie and I took the littles, in their strollers, on a walk to Neeconjo for eggs. The dark evening seemed especially hot and still. 

*when we got back, the girls hadn’t got as far as they could’ve on the cleanup. They had taken the opportunity to practice Hindu ululating..

Mon Sep 14

 This morning Lonnie spent some time putting Gentry’s feet under him in a crouching position attempting to teach him how to stand up in the middle of a room

This evening he did it all by himself and continued to do it and enjoy his new capability 🥰 it’s so wonderful to be past the stage of him begging all day for us to hold his hand and walk with him, it was sweet, but very wearying to have him always trying to get a hold of a finger and pull us away from whatever we were doing to go walking around the house Or better yet, outside!

Harun Brother from Tala stopped in this afternoon. His teenage daughter Mukta is doing 3 months of schooling in Khulna. She has been sick with some kind of virus so he was wanting help with her medicine bills.

After supper, follow up School board mtg.

Sun Sep 13 The Bud walks independently 🤗

 Gentry really took off today with independent walking, cruising all over the place from room to room💙… 1 week shy of 11 months.. 

an interesting note… he walks with both hands upraised, as high as they can go, spread eagle 🦅 style everywhere he goes

Dipti’s son Turjo’s scheduled nose surgery

Made a batch of pickles with an imported Mrs Wages mix

Made a double batch of tortillas. Lonnie fried them up putting a spoon of oil on the pan making them just a bit crispy and flaky like the local paratha/fry bread. Ate them with dhal(lentils) for a most delicious supper🤤

Sat Sep 12

 Dipti came in today also since she plans to take off tomorrow for Turjo’s broken nose operation

Got a load of laundry thru and hung out

We went in to Khulna for our weekly outing. Mambo’s was closed so we went to Domino’s Pizza for lunch. Safe N Save, at Day-7 went upstairs to do extra browsing and found 2 dresses that looked like they would work for Annslie , fruit and veggie market, and Shwapnos for milk. 

Fri Sep 11 Day of Worship

At Choygoria S.S. Kobid started off by having the girl, that didn’t have an answer last week to the question of “what she wanted to be when she grew up”, give her answer.. this girl has some little handicaps and comes from a very poor family…today’s additional children answered the question also with one future police in the group, one girl that wants to be a banker and otherwise the popular answer of doctor. On the way past our place  to Chakrakhali we could see a lady with baby waiting at the gate, so we turned around and the rest of us waited while Lonnie took care of the need. Gentry fell asleep on the rickshaw van ride over, as he often does. so I took him right in to the house when we arrived in hopes that he would get a nice little nap in. Chaity’s family had been on a 3 day vacation to Cox’s Bazaar(a15 hr bus ride to the Bay of Bengal) so she shared treats from there with us.. peanuts that were a little bit sweet and had quite a hard coating and then little individual packs of prune mash😉  She gave us little gifts…sea shell key chain and little butterfly clamps for the girls’ hair, she showed us videos of them at the beach..taking horse rides, her brother and her singing a Bangla song about the sea, etc… She called husband her “Black Diamond” as he’d gotten quite dark in the sun🖤💎

We were there an hour… Their son Taritro was supposedly out and about letting the children know we were there. Dudjoy was the only one that showed up. His foot was all bandaged up with a plastic bag over it to keep it clean. So Lonnie told Nee-tie to load everything back up. Lonnie sent us home and he stayed to talk over some of the particulars of the room that CSI plans to rent from the for clinic in the building complex that this family is building on their road frontage.

Dipti came in to work today as she had taken her son Turjo in for his broken nose exam(in preparation for operation)yesterday. The girls were very happy to have her come in and wash up the breakfast and lunch dishes😊 that was a nice surprise for them ✨

Caribbean jerk chicken, fruit and homemade marshmallow crème for dip , fresh squeezed lemonade made from fruit of our tree☺️, and O’Henry bars for dessert

We got the word that Lewis’s cancelled coming at 3:00. 

4:00 service

Both pastors that we supply with gospel literature showed up today. Lonnie’s message brought out how God supplies our needs and shared 2 special examples of answered prayer from his life.

Right after the “amen”, 2 ladies that Lonnie had told to wait till after the service came in asking for financial help for medical needs. It was neat that Shanto was friends with the lady’s father and somebody went fetching him so they could say “hi” again.. So Shanto’s stayed while Lonnie went over the 4 yr old prescription from a Dr in India with the pharmacist.. the lady’s family is in dire straights all the way around.. she is not able to work due to her lung problem, her husband died 4 years ago, her father/father in law? Has suffered a stroke …. So… their food supplies have been Very limited and they will soon have to sale their property, with nowhere to go, at the current direction of their life.. Shanto’s suggested that we could visit their home next Fri and maybe give some basic dry goods… rice, lentils, oil…

Shanto’s came in when we got back to the house. Popcorn, lemonade, fruit and marshmallow crème, and O’ Henry bars. They said they’d never had a fruit dip before but liked it😊 Shanto also mentioned that when it’s time for us to go back to America, it’s Gentry that’s gonna make him Really cry! He loves our little Bud and always holds him/walks with him at church and any other time we’re with them. The feeling is mutual and Gentry always wants to go to Shanto also🤎  Antoor wasn’t able to come this afternoon due to his ongoing back pain😔 so I sent a bag of the snacks I’d served for him.. they also have Shotti’s folks with them now too as their health has taken a turn for the worse…

Thurs Sep 10

 In the evening, Lonnie grilled chicken for our lunch tomorrow. Then we went to Bissho road for chotputi and fuska and picked up some fruit on the way home.

When the power came back on, Lonnie was able to print the pictures to color for Sunday School in the morning

Wed Sep 9 Big News 📰

 Spent time on the phone with my oldest sister Crystal answering questions as she made those monumental data entries on her computer on the other side of the world in California.

And then the most amazing thing!! Tickets were bought!! For her and her 2 daughters and my Mom to come visit us for 2 wks, end of Nov. thru Dec 11🤗🤗🤗🤗 We are over the moon!! We actually have family coming to visit us and this country, people, food, etc.. that we love!🥳🥳💝💝🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽 It is a Very exciting feeling to say the least🥰 later, Lonnie and I were discussing some aspects of guests coming and Annslie’s like, “what’s going on?” So we tried to explain about Grandma, Aunt Crystal, and the cousins coming.. and she’s like “They are coming from America? And going back to America? And they will stay for the night?…. Oh, yes, just like Brian’s do..(Dhaka missionaries😉) I’m thinking this will add a little to her “in America” stories that have been her favorite the last couple months🙃. A bit later, “My family from America is coming😌”

Later I was calmly working at my sewing machine upstairs but had a giddy feeling inside with the excitement of fun planning for family that is actually coming!🥰 I think it will take a bit for this exciting news to actually sink in