Two weeks later....

Well, it's been about two weeks tomorrow since we stepped foot back on American soil and returned from India....wow, really, I went to India two weeks ago?!?! Oh, how life changes from one country to the other and how quickly a person can just go back to what they were doing before. Even though each of us have now returned to our jobs, our lives, our families, our old realities before India....we are different. It's not an easy task coming back from India to what sometimes seems to be such a mundane job....making sure a software application works just doesn't really seem to matter much when children are starving, women are getting beat, patients are getting turned away because they have AIDS....a little helpless is what you feel. Or being disappointed because I can't come home for Thanksgiving....but those children don't have anyone...they don't know who their parents are....their parents may have sold them to a brothel to pay for a meal to support the rest of the family....but I can call home, I can see my parents on Skype, I sat on the beach today, I still get to eat turkey with all of the fixins'....wow, how do you adjust? Helpless....how can I change their world? How can I make this world a better place? How can I make the injustice stop? I want them to feel all of the love I feel....but I am thousands of miles away and I don't know when I will see them again....how can I help?

We are changed. Each one of us is different....we understand a little bit better, a little bit deeper the injustices of the world....we understand a little bit better there is beautiful, human life outside of this nation and how the sun comes up over there and shines just as bright over there as it does here....we understand a little bit better how to love a little deeper....we understand a little bit better that God is everywhere and He loves everyone....no matter what...we are changed.

As I spoke to my cousin today about our trip, it sunk it a little bit more about what we actually did in the two weeks we were in India. We touched the Untouchables, we loved the unloved, we gave kids the world, we rattled some cages of pastors whose cages are unblemished (in their eyes), we stood up for those who have no voice....and we stood strong and spoke loudly! I am so proud of our team. We were authentic, pure, and real...I believe each one of us opened our hearts a little more than we ever imagined we could open them and I believe we were blessed in ways we haven't even found yet.

Since it is Thanksgiving, I should give my thanks. I am so, so, so grateful and thankful for the people of India. They have brought so many blessing to my life and have opened my eyes, my ears, my heart, and my soul...sometimes more than I would like them to be open, but they are wide open now!

I am thankful for the team of people I traveled with....they too have touched my heart and I couldn't be more proud of each one of them.

I am grateful I live in place with so much abudance, however, I am more grateful for the trip I took two weeks ago....for it taught me what it really means to be happy, to have everything, to have faith, and to love unconditionally (I could go on and on). I am so grateful for India.

I'm still not sure how to put this all into my everyday life, but I know I think about those children's smiles each day. I still feel the little old ladies' touch who grab my hand so tightly, but so softly. I still see the pain. I still hear the hope. In some sense....I am still there.

Happy Thanksgiving.