Life With Ananya

Saturday February 17th, 2007

We woke up again to all smiles from Ananya. We had breakfast in the hotel again. We arranged for a car at 1:00 to take us sightseeing. We got a call from Grace. They were in the hotel and we went to their room to visit. We finally got to meet Grace, Shane, Anila, and Lenin. We have had so many phone conversations with them. We all cried and prayed together so it was wonderful to finally meet them in person. They all loved to meet Ananya. They were waiting to leave to pick up Jadyn and Jay. We told them alittle of our trip and we showed Anila and Lenin the pictures that we had taken of Jay. We went to visit Victoria Memorial. The gardens were beautiful and we had a nice walk. The weather was beautiful. We probably spent about an hour there. We went to the planetarium next. Ananya took a short nap. Anthony and Patrick liked the show. I just enjoyed holding Ananya after so long. We tried to go to St. Pauls Cathedral next but it was closed. We decide to go back to the hotel. We ate lunch at the restaurant again. We all relaxed alittle. Anthony finally went swimming at the hotel pool. The water was little cold but he enjoyed it. Ananya liked sitting outside too. I couldn’t take the suspense any longer so I went down the hall to see if Grace was back yet. I met her in the hall. I got to see Jadyn. She was adorable laying there asleep. Grace had the same smile that I had on Thursday. She was glowing. Jay was in the next room. He didn’t sound too happy. We planned on having dinner with them later that evening. We had to go back to New Market and pick up Patrick’s Indian outfit. We got to New Market at dusk. We started heading for the shop and our guide from the previous day found us. People kept pointing us to the right shop. I guess everyone knew we were coming back. We got the outfit and went to a couple of other shops. We got outfits for Ananya in several different sizes. We found another outfit for Anthony as well. We went to the jewelry shop again to look for a watch for Patrick. I didn’t look at anything new. The man was too persistent and I didn’t want to spend all of our money. A little girl started to follow us on the street and was talking to me at the jewelry shop. She said her name was Puja. She was so beautiful. I didn’t have anything to give her though. I gave her several pieces of gum. Ananya started to fuss a lot. I didn’t have any formula with me and I just thought that she was tired. I figured out on the way home, once we finally pulled Patrick out of the shop, that she was hungry. Starving is more the word for it. I didn’t really have any warning. She just started crying and would not stop. Finally after what seemed like the longest car ride ever, we got back to the hotel and I could feed her alittle. We had to cancel dinner with the other families because I couldn’t do anything with Ananya at the time. I finally got Ananya settled down after a whole bottle and found that in the screaming she had a bowel movement finally. It was no wonder that she was fussing. It had to hurt. She went to sleep without any problems.

Sunday February 18th, 2007

We decide to stay in the hotel all day after the disaster the night before. Ananya woke up with smiles yet again. She is so sweet in the morning. We had breakfast with our friends and their wonderful children. We got to talk to them a lot. I could see some of the delays in Ananya watching the other 2. Anthony got a stomach ache during breakfast and Patrick took him back to the room. I stayed with the others. I got more food into Ananya this morning and managed to eat a little myself. We played in the room. Anju came to visit us. Ananya wouldn’t let Anju hold her. We did get a picture of the 3 of us though. Our family will treasure it forever. Anthony went swimming again in the afternoon. There were some boys at the hotel that he played with for a while. They were from England. We were all starting to get tired so a easy day of nothing was wonderful. Ananya had her first bath. She didn’t really enjoy it that much.

Monday February 19th, 2007

We had the normal morning. Ananya wakes up smiling. We went to breakfast. No bellyaches today though. We had to start to get ready to leave. We had a 5:45pm flight from Kolkata to New Delhi. We got to the airport about 3:45pm. The ride was longer than I remember but there was also traffic because it was afternoon and not the middle of the night. We saw more of Kolkata. We got to see New City which is still being built. The new buildings were kind of like condos in the US. We saw a lot of cows along the road. The airport was a lot nicer than I had expected. We had to put our bags through security immediately upon entering the building. All of our checked baggage was sealed. The men who got our bags outside directed us to the right desk to check in. The Jet Airways desk gave us 2 small yellow roses. They were beautiful. We had to wait a while to go through security. I hadn’t been thinking when I packed our carry-ons this time. I had our hand sanitizer and a bunch of batteries in one bag. The nice lady let me keep my hand sanitizer and moved the batteries to other bags. We rode a shuttle out onto the tarmac and boarded our plane. It was really crowded. Ananya started to fuss alittle after we boarded and I got her a bottle. She drank it during takeoff. She didn’t have any problems. I got sick during take off. I had to take Dramamine. They luckily served us a meal during the flight. I didn’t have enough on my stomach to handle the flight. Ananya quickly went to sleep. I finished my meal and fell asleep myself. It was dark when we landed in Delhi. The airport was a shock. It was a lot more busy that Kolkata. It was also more modern. We got our bags and went to find a car. A guy got our bags and lead us to the Avis window for a car. The ride to the hotel was 1800 rupee. I didn’t think that was too bad. In the parking lot we got a nice car to the hotel. The man with our bags told Patrick that his fee was 500 rupee. We hadn’t had anyone actually quote a price like that. We packed off to the Nikko without any problems. The ride was about 30 minutes. We saw several parties that looked like weddings. We got to the hotel and checked in without any problems. There was a wedding in the courtyard. We got to see the bride. She was beautiful. Once upstairs, we got room service and ate dinner. I tried to call to arrange for a car the next day. The manager told me that we would have to wait until morning and call back. I tried to sort through our papers and about had a heart attack. I thought I had forgotten our home study. It was all there and we all crashed at about 11:30pm in anticipation of a long day the next day.