Happy New Year

   I don't know why I didn't get a Christmas card/photo out this year. My intentions were to send everyone a letter (I even had the picture picked out from our trip to India in January) but was waiting for something. Why do I do that?I was looking into the future and trying to anticipate what would come instead of living in the moment. I think I was so hoping to send you all great news of a sweet little baby in our home so I procrastinated... hoping. I am not complaining. I have a wonderful life... I was just hoping. I shared with my family that I don't know why my life has been full of waiting longer than most people wait for things that I long for (married at 40, no kids, etc.) but God is teaching me patience time and time again. I was a little emotional the other night and spent a quiet time with Jesus. I read in my devotional book, "Jesus Calling", and I felt the Lord was saying this to me at a perfect time. "Wait patiently with me while I bless you. I am preparing you for what is on the road ahead,  just around the bend. Take time to be still in My Presence so that I can strengthen you. How much better it is to walk close to me, depending on my strength and trusting me in every situation." God has Chris and me just where we are supposed to be and believe He is orchestrating so much for our family "behind the scenes." We can't wait to hold our children and comfort them knowing they have already had so much difficulty in their little lives. We want to tell them they are God's beloved children and He chose them before the foundation of the world, to walk with Him along paths designed uniquely for them. 

We can relax and enjoy this present moment. We love you all. Have a wonderful 2012.

The waiting game

  We should be receiving our foster care license any day now. And we wait... waiting on God... trusting He wants the best for us. We are confident in God's timing. It is difficult to prepare since we don't know who will come through our door. When a women is pregnant they know how to prepare the room/clothes/toys ahead of time since they know the age and approximate size of the baby:) But the size, age, gender and number of babies/kids will be a wonderful surprise to us. We may ask for lots of last minute help to get things in order. The anticipation is building and we can't wait.
                  Who knows, maybe a baby by Christmas???......

Trusting God

Hello to our family and friends. We want to update you to what is happening in our lives and future. We made the big decision to get licensed to be foster care parents! We are excited and also a little nervous not knowing what to expect. But that makes it more exciting to see who God will bring to our home to grow our little family. Yes, this path we have chosen may be difficult but we know that this is how God is leading us to “love these kids while we have ‘em.” There will be a possibility to adopt if parental rights are terminated. We would appreciate your support and prayers as we enter this new challenge in our lives. We will let you know when we get our first placement... it won’t be long now! Chris and I have a heart for kids and desire to have a family. Unfortunately after seeking many different doctors and advice we still struggle with infertility. After praying about it we agreed to make foster care our ministry by offering a safe home to babies and young children. We would love to keep you updated on the crazy challenges, the comings and goings, the tears and the anticipation of our journey.
Welcome to our blog! The Sahrs

Thinking...

   Now that we are home from India, where do we go from here? I don't mean do more traveling right away I mean, how do we respond to what we have seen, what we have experienced? A passion has grown inside both of us to see all the Dalit (untouchables) children get educated.  The leaders of the school we visited stated that if we could get more and more Dalits educated the caste system would be gone within 20-30 years. This would be amazing. The DEC's are run by Christians but the Hindus and Muslims want their kids there anyway because the educations is so much better than the government run schools where the higher up caste send their kids. We need more children sponsored so more kids can go. We will be sending a link to let you know how this can happen.

Home with India

We have made it home after about 30 hours of traveling. We have brought India home with us. We would like you to return to this blog over the next few weeks/months (or longer?) to hear more detailed stories about our time in India. I am encouraging you to join us in prayer and practical loving actions that we can do together to bring more hope and love to the people we met and to many others who we have only heard about. Please stay tuned... we will try to keep it interesting and we will do our best to bring India home to you too. Thank you for your prayers and support!

Relationships

Janice and I have had a great time getting to know the teachers and children of the Good Shepherd School. We have been teaching at the school daily for the last week and tomorrow is the last day of our visit with them  before we travel to other places in India. I am amazed at how close we have become in such a short period of time. We will miss them and it will be hard to say goodbye.

Medical Camp

It is 3 am... Exhausted but can't sleep. We saw hundreds of people in our medical clinic today from the village where we have been teaching in the school. My mind is racing with all the stories I heard and all the questions they have about health and life in general. Can't stop thinking about the women who think it is normal that they get beaten. With my arm around their shoulders and tears in my eyes I pleaded with them to know that they are valued and created for a purpose.
Thank you to all who donated eye glasses. There were hundreds of pairs.  Chris is our team optometrist. He was energized as many were fitted with glasses and left with big smiles on their faces.

Teaching...

Hello from India! We were finally able to get on the internet at our hotel. It shuts down a lot.

These last few days have been incredible. We have been having a great time teaching at the Dalit Education Center. This school has been started for the children who have been denied education due to the caste they were born into. We have fallen in love with them. They are so well behaved and eager to learn. Chris has been teaching Math and I have been teaching health and nutrition. There are about 150 kids in grades K-6. We play lots of games with them and they try to teach us their games and laugh when we don't understand the rules. Monday was a national holiday... Kite day!! The whole city shuts down and thousands of kites can be seen in the sky. We flew kites with the kids and had a blast with them.

We have been eating lots of curry and everything we eat is very hot and spicy. Lots of chicken and rice. The weather has been in the 80's and very nice.

I taught health and nutrition at a womens meeting where the majority of the women there were HIV positive. They had lots of questions for me. I really enjoyed interacting with the women of the village. They were so open and told us sad stories of the abuse and rejection in their lives.

Today Chris shared at a men's empowerment meeting. He realized the men who attended have a deep desire to have a better life for their children and are willing to work hard for this opportunity.

We are exhausted after long hours and traffic that is out of control. 

We love you!!! Janice and Chris

This man wanted to show us his talent!

It is a national holiday here in Gujarat, India. It is kite day. We saw thousands of kites in the sky and in the trees as you can see behind the building. Everything shuts down and people are all together flying kites. We are in the city of Ahmedabad, a very busy and crowded city. Lots of sights and sounds to see. The streets are full of kids, buses, rickshaws, bikes, wild dogs and sacred cows.

Off to India

Yes, we leave for this foreign land tomorrow(Jan. 13th). As we do our last minute packing (which, by the way, I always leave packing to the last minute, I don't like that I do that, but I do), I contemplate my motives. Am I going because of my own desires or to "help people", or to get recognition or why am I really doing this? Some people ask us why we go to a land that is inconvenient, uncomfortable and full of sickness and risk.  Even though this is a dream of Chris and mine to serve God in this way together I still don't think this is the motive to go. I see more and more that this life is not about us and all about God. He alone has put it on our hearts to love the unlovable, the forgotten, and be His hands and feet on this earth. We are compelled by His love to share this with others. We are compelled to follow the call of God above our own personal safety and personal preferences. Finally, we are compelled to not avoid the call of God in the name of safety and comfort. I know this is only for 2 and a half weeks out of our life but only God knows where this will lead us as we travel along with Him as He opens the right doors for us on His path. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Dalit ... what does it mean?

Janice and I will be spending much of our time in India visiting a Dalit Education Center in Gujarat State. The word Dalit is defined on the website Wikipedia as a self-designation for a group or groups of people regarded as lower class and unsuitable for making personal relationships. You may have heard the term "untouchable" For more information please visit:
                 Wikipedia's entry on the word Dalit

As we have been learning more about the realities of the caste system in India we have been compelled to share the love of Jesus with the marginalized people of India. We pray that we can help the readers of this blog to be more informed and join us in prayer and take steps of action to help combat this injustice. Please stay tuned our trip begins in just over a week.