Well Loved Shoes

Pediped is our favorite maker of baby shoes. We fell in love with these little pink and brown ones last fall, and since then Addie has worn the life out of them! She has worn holes in the soles, and they are now to the point where we can't tell if they barely still fit or if they are too small. So, this week we purchased a new pair, and we are so excited that she will be able to wear them for a few more months! They are soft-soled and leather, and we have found that they eliminate toddler foot odor (who thought little feet could be so stinky!). Check out the Pediped website for more adorable styles, and don't get scared by the prices. They do cost more than a pair you would buy at Target, but when one pair keeps you from picking up other shoes throughout the season it is definitely worth it!

Sunday Morning

Here's a little video of Addie from this morning. Pretty cute!

This made me laugh!

On the Hebron website they post highlights of the previous weeks' events and activities. One thing that caught my eye was this... "outdoor activities for the weekend have been cancelled due to an elephant and tiger census taking place." What in the world?!? This is going to be an adventure!

Ooty

Ooty (short for Ootacamund) is the town we are moving to in July. It is known as "the Queen of the Hill Stations". After the British rule, it was renamed Udhagamandalam. Unfortunately, we have no idea how to pronounce this name, so we will continue to call it 'Ooty' until we can ask on of our Tamil friends how to say it. The elevation of Ooty is 7,440 ft - similar to that of Estes Park, CO. The climate, however, is very temperate. In the summer, the average high temperature is 78 degrees. In the winter, it can get down to freezing during the night. The population of Ooty is around 90,000.

We heard about Hebron from a friend...

I think the best way to tackle all of the topics surrounding our new adventure in India is to write short blogs about each one. Since many of you have asked how we first found out about Hebron, I'll start by telling the story.
As you may already know, Ryan's dad was the Field Strategy Coordinator with the Church of the Nazarene in South Asia from 2004-2007. During that time, they met a young women named Stuti. She was the daughter of the district superintendent in Mumbai, and she was one of the first women in India to be ordained with the Church of the Nazarene. Stuti was working in Mumbai with International Justice Mission - rescuing young girls out of prostitution. In order to continue her work with the girls, the Indian government mandated that she be licensed as a social worker. She had done her undergraduate studies in religion, but she really needed to get her master's in social work. Ryan's parents encouraged her to attend Northwest Nazarene University here in Nampa. We met Stuti in January 2007, just after she moved to campus.
One night in early February, Stuti and I (Angie) began talking about India and the work that Stuti had done with IJM. She told me about her former director and his wife, Greg and Mala Malstead, who were currently living in a beautiful town called Ooty. They had started their own organization, Freedom Firm, and were continuing to rescue and rehabilitate girls who had been involved in prostitution.
When I searched the internet to find more information about the work of Freedom Firm, I came across a blog of a family that had recently moved to Ooty to join FF with the Malsteads. Their names were the Parks, and they had just moved with their four children from Nebraska. In that blog was a link to Hebron School, the school in Ooty that both the Malstead and Parks children were attending.
On the Hebron website was a listing of the staff openings for the 2007-08 school year. One of the postings was for a resident expatriate nurse. After looking up what 'expatriate' meant, I figured out that they were looking for a nurse from a western country to come and live on the school campus. As it turns out, Hebron employs three staff nurses - one western and two Indian, to care for their very diverse community of staff and students.
At that time, I knew that we were not ready to leave Nampa. We were still very deep in debt, and we didn't feel released (at all) from our ministries at our church, schools, or NNU. So, Hebron was put on the back burner, but God really began to work in us. We felt deeply called to get our lives (finances included) in order so that if God called us to minister overseas we would be ready.

INDIA

I'm not sure why we haven't written anything yet about India on our blog. Maybe because it seems too overwhelming to put it down on paper. Well, here it is... we are moving to INDIA!!! In early February we interviewed and were accepted to join the staff at Hebron School in Ootacamund (often called "Ooty"), Tamil Nadu (that's the state).

Hebron is an international, non-denominational Christian residential school situated in the Nilgiri Hills. Angie will be the resident nurse (the school nurse who lives on campus) and Ryan will stay home with Addie during much of the day. On the weekends Ryan will help out with church music, and may teach music lessons as well. For the most part, we will find out more about our jobs when we arrive. The older girls will attend Hebron, and will be in Standards 3 & 5. Since the school is run on a British system, the grade levels are called "standards" and the numbering is a little different because they call kindergarten "Standard 1". We are really excited for them as they will be in smaller classes with children from all over the world. The children who live at the school are children of Christian workers serving in Asia or Africa, but they come from India, Korea, UK, US, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand, etc.

Lauren's Piano Recital

Today after church Lauren played at her pre-'Junior Festival' recital. It was here in Nampa at Bethel Church of the Nazarene. She played two pieces that she'll be playing this coming Saturday for the judges. Here's a video of the two songs: "With a Yo, Ho, Ho" & "Spot". She did really well. She nailed a couple tricky things we've been working on at home. Way to go, Lauren! And all this after less than six months of lessons.

[Sidenote: the students weren't supposed to use their music today, in preparation for the Festival, which requires memorization. But the first student to play in the recital today accidentally took her music up and so the other students followed suit. You'll notice in the video that Lauren has her music with her, but we here at home know she didn't need it all. : )]

[Sidenote #2: a grandfather of one of the students got a call during the recital. His cell phone rang and he scrambled to turn it off. The ringing stopped, not because he silenced it...but because he answered it. His wife jabbed him. He kept talking! About a minute later he hung up, after thoughtfully allowing the rest of the audience to enjoy the conversation right along with him. Yeesh!]