A day with my Big Family

I have 5 siblings and out of the 5, 4 of us are married with children.  Now we are just waiting for our little brother to get married.  All 5 siblings with their families were able to make it to India for our family gathering which took place in December 2014.  It was an amazing time to be together once again with our parents.  My dad has been recently going through a lot of health issues and we were all worried about him but by God's grace and everyone's prayer he was at his best during those days when we were together.  My parents have 14 grandchildren.  Together we were 26 of us with wives, husbands and children.  We all went on a trip to a beautiful place called Vagamon, Kurisumala.  This was just 2 hours drive from our house.  We rented a mini bus to fit all of us in.  It was perfect and the best time ever.  We sang, played games and prayed.

We have lots of memories at that place and that's how we chose to go there.  My parents lived there in their initial years of marriage when my two brothers were younger.  Also my dad worked for a good number of years.  We were able to see the house they lived in and also my dad's work place.  Our first stop was for mass which was celebrated by my dad's brother who is a priest.  I just felt so  blessed to have this moment together as a family celebrating the beautiful mass together, which was celebrated by my very own uncle.   I am not sure when will we get this opportunity again.  I am so very thankful to my Lord for this beautiful time.  

After mass we explored the scenic places.  We stopped by my dad's work place and there was a beautiful hill there.  The next thing you know all my little nieces and nephews along with my single brother ran up the hill.  Even the 3 year old was running up without any fears.  It was fun. I wish I had joined them but Anna was sleeping on my shoulders and didn't want to run with her.

This place is famous for its tea plantation.  Those bushes you see all over are tea leaves. 

This was the biggest grasshopper I have ever seen.  It was huge.  

Half of the children while the other half wandered off to somewhere

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That night we stayed at a Bungalow which was arranged in advance for us.  It was beautiful.  The evening we spent together praying, dancing, singing, sharing and playing.  Everyone had a great time.  You can see us going little crazy in the pictures below.

Even my mom joined the party haha

The next morning it was already time to say good bye to my eldest brother and family.  We took few more last minute pictures and they took off.  

Morning Tea 

These two naughty boys had way too much fun that morning. 

After my brother and family left we continued our journey through the tea plantations.

Sony gave them a timeout..lol

A beautiful, fun filled, memorable day.  At this moment I can only think of my dear parents who raised us and brought us thus far in a loving happy environment.  It is their faith in God and  their sacrifices that gave us good lives.  My dad is going to be 76 years old next month and my mom just turned 65.  Their constant love of us is what keeps us going.  They are our example in our married lives.  I thank God for such wonderful and loving parents and also thanking my parents for saying yes to life.  If it was not for their Yes I might not have been here.  If they had stopped having children after the first two or three,  I will not be present here to write this blog.  I pray for them and their long lives.  They are our strength and support, always.  

I love my big family! :)

My Big Family

We reached our home in Kerala on December 27th by 9:30 pm.  My entire family was eagerly waiting for our arrival since we were already a day late due to all the delays at the airport.   It was joyful to meet all my brothers and sisters and my little nieces and nephews around.  We haven't met together as a family in like 10 years.  That made our gathering even better.  Did I already mention that the main reason why we decided to go to India was for our Family Get together.  

We were supposed to take these pictures during the day.  Since we did not reach there until late the photographer came right after we reached.  We were so dead tired but still I think due to all the excitement we were able to smile through the pics.  The children were so tired and had just woken up.  They were still very cranky and upset also since they were meeting half my family for the first time.  

Sisters and Sister in laws

Brothers and brother in laws

My whole family

I don't think our faces show the tiredness of just arriving from a 35 hours of journey.

The last Adventure of 2014 - Trip to India

This Christmas we were on a plane to India.  We started December 25th early morning.  Our flight was at 1:30pm.  We were all excited.  Our first trip as a family to India.  My first trip since I got married.  We packed, prepared George for this long 18 hrs journey on a plane.  We prayed for the children to behave and for us to have the patience to handle everything.  We went for Christmas Eve mass and got out the house by 10:00 on Christmas morning.  

Things did not go as beautifully as we thought that morning.  I had just changed my maiden name to my husband's just a week ago while I became a citizen of the United States of America.  But I had booked my ticket under my maiden name.  The people there made a big deal about it and they had us step aside for around 30 to 45 mins.  Finally all that was taken care and we got our boarding passes.  As we were about to board the plane is when we both realized that we did not get seats together.  My husbands seat was far away from us. 

At the Airport

We had 6 big suitcases in two carts

My boy was so excited and so well behaved during all that wait time

Looking their plane which will take them to India

During that wait they made friends with another boy

Good play time

We checked with the employees there and they said they can't do anything but check with the person sitting next to you to switch seats.  What a nightmare!  How will I sit with two little children for such a long hr flight without Sony next to me?  I started to freak out and get really worried but what can you do.  As we were about to get on to the plane is when I realized that I did not have my purse with me... oh no.... perfect timing right??  We told the flight attendant, Sony ran back outside looking for it while me and children stayed right outside the door waiting for Sony to come.  10 minutes went by and Sony is no where to be seen.  I knew where exactly I left my purse but Sony didn't.  Well, finally I told them I will go check and they were not too happy with sending me but they finally did.  I ran outside and found my purse right where I left it. Thank you Jesus.  Sony came right in time and we got on the plane. Pheww....  I couldn't breathe after running around looking for my purse with Anna and George in my hands.

One would only hope after all this chaos things would go smooth.  Nope!! Not yet.  Finally we get our seats. George and myself with Anna (no seat since she is an infant) got two seats next to each other.  Next to our seats was another guy.  Who would want to sit next to a mother and two toddlers, right??  Yea right.. this guy very firmly told me that he will not move.  Huh!!!  Oh Lord I was almost in tears at that moment.  What will I do, what if they both cry and want to go to the bathroom at the same time. I do have to breast feed Anna.  How will I do all this sitting next to a stranger?   I have never traveled before with children on a plane for such a long distance.

After all that drama Sony went back to his seat.  Few minutes later two young guys  came to me and told ne that they will sit there.. WHAT???  I didn't understand.  By then Sony had come and told me that these two guys sitting next to Sony said that they will switch seats with me.  They were the nicest boys I have ever seen.  Boys at that age are willing to switch seats??   Anyways, we thanked them and myself and children went backwards to were Sony was sitting.  Thank God for the angels he sends when you are in trouble. Those boys were truly angels.

His first gum.  We told him we will give him gum to chew when the flight takes off

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Watching Mickey Mouse club house

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Books kept her going for a while

Different ways in which we entertained her.  Used the remote control as a phone

We thanked God for keeping us safe and together during all that time.  I apologized to Sony for being so mad at him for not getting seats together.  My husband he is such a sweet heart, I was going crazy by the end of all this that I did not know what I said and did.  I was scared, tired and so worried.  He dealt with all that so beautifully.  God would have known this earlier that he gave him to me.  

My brother Joe had mentioned that two of his friends from Canada are also travelling by this flight.  They were also part of the Jesus Youth Movement in Canada.  Later on only we found out that the two boys who switched seats with us were the friends my brother was talking about.  These guys helped us throughout our trip not just by switching seats but by taking care of our children and playing with them.  They were also going to Kerala.  I am so glad to know that there are good Christians out there who are willing to help people.  

So we went on putting the one single cartoon that was available for George, Anna fell asleep for two hrs and then we entertained her with several other things.  We were on that plane for 8 hours and then it happened. We heard this loud cry and noise coming from the other side of the plane.  There was a mom with an 18 months old boy who looked like he is going to faint, or not breathing or choked on something.  We didn't know what was going on.  The next thing you know Sony is holding the baby trying to get whatever he choked on but nothing came out, and the kid seemed to be still struggling to breathe.  Oh lord...I was holding on to the kids and praying for things to be okay.  The mother said he didn't eat anything to choke.  Then the lady sitting next to them who happened to be a doctor started checking the baby, laid him on the seat and found out that he has a high fever and has got very low breathing.  Flight attendants, people everyone was around trying to find out what is going on.  My only prayer was to save that poor child.  I cannot imagine anything happen to that baby.  The mom and child were traveling alone.  The plane flew for another 2 hrs and that's when they decided to fly back 1 hr 45 mins to land in London airport to drop the baby and mom since his condition was getting worse. We were just another 6 hrs away from landing in our destination but the plane flew back to London and dropped off the baby.  Okay we all sat in the plane. I hoped and prayed that the delay wouldn't be too long.  But we had to sit in that plane for 3 hours in the airport until they could find their luggage and finish all the formalities of an emergency landing.  What an adventure??  We were so tired.  My back was hurting sitting with Anna sleeping on me and not being able to get up.  By then we were on that plane for 15 hours.  We should have been in Delhi, India by that time.  Well, God's plan was different.  

We took off again and flew for another 8 to 10 hrs before we landed in Delhi (Capital of India).  By then we had missed our connecting flight from Delhi to Kerala which we is were we needed to go to.  We weren't worried.  We were just so happy that we landed and the kids could just walk around in the airport.  Now only God knew what was waiting for us there.  We landed in Delhi at 10:00pm.  We were supposed to land there at 3:30 pm that day if our plane did not have to make an emergency landing.  Our connecting flight was at 6:30 pm which we missed.  Now we are waiting for them to give us another flight.  After the long hours of wait they gave us some paper which had some flight timings printed.  Whatever we really did not care as long as we could get past the security.  The paper said that our flight is in the morning at  6:30 am. We decided to stay over at the airport for that night.  We ate at the airport, kids ran around and played and finally it was 4:00 am and we started standing in line to check in.  After a long wait we came to know that the paper we got saying our flight timing is not a confirmed ticket which means we have not confirmed seats available for that flight.  The people there seemed to have no understanding of the situation.  I don't think they knew what customer service meant.  These guys didn't give us a seat for that flight.  Can you believe it?  I don't know how to describe in words how angry, tired, sleepless, hungry we all were.  We stood and we fought and fought.  By then it was 7:00 am.  Meanwhile kids are crying, I am feeding Anna, trying to put her to sleep, George playing with the phone and what not.  We tried our best to keep the kids comfortable during all this time.  Finally one guy who was seeing our situation decided to do something about it and I think since they needed us to leave the front area of the counter finally they put us on a flight which was at 1:30 pm that day.  I could not complain but thank God that we at least got a flight for the same day.  We could have easily been there another day just waiting at the airport for a plane.  

First food we bought at the Delhi airport

The two Canadians who were our angels  

Great idea, don't you think?  We had no choice but open our suitcase to put this poor child to sleep

finally on our way to board the next plane to our home land Kerala

After another 3 hrs of flight we landed in our Kerala also knows as God's own Country

In the car to our home, kids were out for hours...God only knows how long they have been sleeping.

The Kerala Traffic

 

The rest of the story for later.  The best part is that we are just an hr away from reaching our home at this time.  Looking back at it I think it was one of the greatest adventures we have been together as a family.  By the way the pilot of our plane later on informed us that the child came back to normal breathing and is in good care at the hospital.  Thank God we were able to save one life even though we all had to go through a lot.