A lot can happen in a week!

I was getting ready to post all about the events of this week, but then realized if I did that would make it completely obvious where we live in India. We have to be careful about being too blatant about all that we do here and specifics as to where just because of our visa situation.

So, let's just say it's been an incredible week! It has just proven, once again, to us that we may never know what the next day holds but HE does. He is there to help us and guide us and lead us all the way.

This week has also continued to provide some 'adjustment challenges.' I am wondering if we will ever really stop 'adjusting' to living here? Will this be an ongoing process the entire time?

In many ways I think it will be, but I don't think that's a negative thing. I think as we continue to change as individuals our perspective changes about what's going on around us ... which is true no matter what country we live in!

I think there are things that we do look at now as 'normal' that totally shocked and frustrated us in the beginning, but now it's just a way of life. Those more concrete things I think we can 'conquer' the adjustment curve, but the more intangibles of relating to people and functioning within this society will probably always have some kind of learning curve going on.

Learning the language though, greatly helps to understand the culture here. For instance, we were going over a phrase the other day about 'getting married.' You don't say that someone is 'getting married' here. You phrase it in a way as to say they are going to be with someone, with a family. In English, the word for my Mom's sister and my Father's sister is the same, Aunt. But here, every relationship within the family has a specific name. My Mom's sister has a different name (besides their real name!) than my Father's sister. Both of these language processes shows how important relationships and family is here in this culture. It is huge! Learning this in language helps us to acclimate to the culture and understand why some things are done they way they are.

There are some days we think culture adjustment is 'fun'. Other days we just want to hide under a blanket! This week proved to have a little of both! haha It's been a big week and we know that more good will come out of it than what we even know of already.

So, although I can't go into the details (sorry!), for everyone who prayed for us this week, thank you. Prayers were answered and doors were opened here in ways that we could have never orchestrated. We have been humbled and reminded, once again, who really is in control and we are thankful for it ... we know that we are here for such a time as this!