This was our second reunion trip to see Anju's friends from her children's home in India. Two years ago, we met the group in the Cincinnati area and visited St. Louis, Lincoln sites, Mammoth Cave and other attractions on the way there and back. We took our vintage camper with us that time and enjoyed seeing a part of the country we hadn't seen before. You can read about that trip in the ridiculously detailed blog entries here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. (I must have had a lot more time to myself back then.)
Last time, the Ashraya kids were 2,3,4 and 5. So, we really looked forward to seeing how a couple year's maturity would change how the kids related to one another. And, we were excited to add another family to the reunion mix. Their son was the object of our prayers for many months as he was featured in the same waiting kids article that Anju was, has a similar special need, and he was such a card at the children's home that we couldn't shake him from our minds once we got home.
It's wonderful to have family. It's lovely to have friends. But it's rare and an incredible blessing to have friends that are like family. We were lucky to have been the first of the group to travel to India, and therefore saw all the kids together before they were picked up by their parents. We saw the older ones playing together and crying together and causing mischief. We saw them help each other and hug each other. We held them on our laps in groups. Although institutional life is FAR from ideal, we witnessed the little family they had there. And, it seemed very important, once we had connected with other families state-side, to facilitate this little family in seeing each other every now and then.
We had an incredibly fun weekend together. The parents and siblings seemed to get along well, and the Ashraya kids were inseparable. There was a lot of laughter and sweating and photographs. It never ceased to move me when I saw the little Ashraya friends reach for each other's hands, as they did almost the whole time they were together, after having not seen each other for 2 years. They were drawn together, in an almost magnetic way. They are friends, but they are also family.
Iowa/Missouri border
Battle of Athens State Historic Site
Athens, MO
Cahokia Mounds
Collinsville, IL
Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site
St. Louis, MO
Jr Rangers
Ashraya kids at Grant's Farm
St. Louis, MO
Cooling off at the St. Louis Zoo
Anju and Nisha
Anju thought the penguins were stinky!
Ring around the rosie in the reptile house
Reunion group
All the kiddos
Ashraya friends
With Martin Luther at Concordia Seminary
St. Louis, MO
What Anju found on display at the Concordia Historical Institute Museum
Kirkwood, MO
Daddy helps Anju with her Jr. Ranger booklet at the Truman National Historic Site
Independence, MO
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library
Independence, MO
Money Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank
Kansas City, MO
Kansas City BBQ at the Crown Center
Kansas City, MO
Hallmark Cards
Kansas City, MO
