Oh, the places you'll go

Today is the day! Three long years have passed since we first committed to this ‘labor of love’ and today is the day we give birth to our new daughter. My stomach is in knots. I woke up several times last night thinking of every little situation that has occurred to us during these last few days and tried to imagine our lives over the next few decades. First, the last few days…

Driving here is an art form. We have driven to many parts of the city and countless times I said to myself, “We are not going to make it”. Remember the British? The one legacy they left was the ‘driving on the wrong side of the road’ legacy. Here you are driving on narrow streets with millions of bicycles, millions of motorcycles, millions of buses, millions of cars, traveling at high speeds directly towards each other down the middle of the street to avoid the millions of people walking on the side of the streets. And at the last moment they go left of each other. Now friends, I can adjust to new foods, smells, language, ect., but I will never get use to swerving left at the moment of a head-on collision. And the horns. The use of the horn is not a symbol of ‘hey you jerk move over’, it is a simple reminder of ‘excuse me sir, I happen to be coming up on your left”. Which makes it the most used item in the city of Kolkata since each soul that lives here is constantly coming up on someone else’s left. Some people simply never take their hand off the horn. They see the thing as a constant reminder to the world they exist. You must be heard to be seen. Last night we had to go out and while driving we noticed over half of the cars in the city did not have working headlights, but when they did, they keep them on bright. Either you are blinded by your fellow driver or you cannot see them at all. And when stopping at a red light everyone turns off their lights as a courtesy to other drivers. Many turn off their cars. So after the chaos of driving inches away from everything around you at fast speeds, everyone stops, turns off their lights and cars, and sits in darkened silence exchanging quiet glances with one another.

Enough about driving. Our luggage arrived! My undershirt began to cry the moment we got the call from the front desk that it had arrived. Now all of a sudden our room is a mess. It was so tidy before not having many material possessions to get in the way. When I saw the bags I embraced them. People in the lobby thought I had lost it. Opening the bags in the room felt like Christmas morning, everything so new and interesting. Oh look, pants! Oh wow, a pair of socks! Shaving cream! We are so American.

Our last night as a trio was spent at the home of the young lady we met on the plane from Milwaukee. She is originally from here but works for GE in Wisconsin. She was coming home to surprise her folks for their 25th anniversary. I had mentioned previously we were invited to her family’s home but last night was the first chance we had to go. It was a very beautiful home in a very nice neighborhood in Kolkata. We had what I called a pre-dinner meal. I was full after eating it but I managed to consume such more afterwards. We met her parents and brother who had also traveled to be here for their anniversary. What a wonderful family to invite strangers into their home and how lucky were we to be able to travel 8,000 miles for a home cooked meal! Everything was superb. After dinner I asked if they had a bed we could crash on and just stay with them for the rest of our trip. So if you read this, thank you Preeti, and thank your family for a wonderful evening and a chance of a lifetime.

Yesterday we went around they city starting with a trip to Science City for Henry. This place was a trip. It was a very large facility with unusual buildings housing different exhibits relating to science. It cost about 70 cents to get into and then each building you entered was another 50 cents of so. We tried to go through the Dinoworld exhibit, but after entering a dark room with barely visible life-sized dinos, Henry said “no way!” (Later in the car, we asked if it scared him and he said, "It scared me to death!") We walked into another building with Mid-America Museum like interactive exhibits and Henry wore himself out with those. The odd thing was while walking throughout the complex; we had numerous people asking if they could take pictures of us, with us, with each other, and so on. I don’t know how many times we had to say to Henry to ‘get over here and smile for the camera’. Wild. I mean, I finally know what Madonna feels like. People were very kind but I can’t imagine walking up to an Indian family at the Little Rock Zoo and asking if I could take their picture. Oh, well.

Again, today is the day. In four hours we will be holding our little girl. We have packed everything for the children’s home into plastic bags, gotten her diaper bag packed and ready, and we are about to work on our list of questions to ask about her when we arrive. We all sat on the bed last night and talked with Henry about everything once again, He was like yeah-yeah I know already! I cried for quite some time. I realized I never need to take any moment with Henry for granted. He is such a loving and kind soul. I thought about everything we have done together as a family of three and how everything is about to change. They were tears of sadness, but mostly they were tears of joy. We can’t believe we are here, experiencing the things we are experiencing, and about to embark on a life adventure like no other. Tess, we want you to be with us so deeply. Henry, we know you have too much love to give to not share it with a sibling. And Ellen, hold on, the rollercoaster is about to begin…