Travel, Learn, and Explore!

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. - Mark Twain

I have to say, I whole-heartedly agree with Twain's view on travel. You may read hundreds of books and watch dozens of movies or documentaries and think you really know about a culture, people group, or religion, but there is no better way to learn than to be immersed in it. So if you ever have the chance, even if it is just for a short week, travel, learn, and explore!

Jeff has had the chance to spend a good deal of time in India and has travelled to its different areas and visited its various peoples. Last month was my chance. I was blessed to get the chance to go visit a friend who has been living there for almost two years! I am so proud, and a bit jealous, of the amazing adventure she has been experiencing. :) I was only there for a week, but I got to do and see a lot. I wish I could have stayed for a month! I got to meet some awesome people, eat some delicious food, drink homemade chai, learn how to make henna designs, visit some amazing places, and even help out with a small medical clinic. What a loving culture and people. Just a little tidbit I learned about their family-oriented lifestyle... A woman who is older than you is called Didi (older sister) as a sign of respect. They really make you feel a part of the family when they address you this way! An elderly woman would be called Auntie.

I took over 500 pictures, but here are just a few to highlight my favorite moments...

First full day in India and up at 6 AM to go see the Taj Mahal!

 

My very first design attempt with henna :)

A friend I made who did a great job
with her first henna design!

At the Lotus Temple

Agra Fort

Akshardham - this was as close as our cameras were allowed,
but up close this place is unbelievable!!

Auto Rickshaw

        

Humayan's Tomb

Qutub Minar

These people pretty much made a line to take pictures with us
so we didn't let them get away without our own photo op!

India Gate

Jama Masjid

We climbed to the top of one of the minars...

... and here was our view of Old Delhi from the top!

I had a blast and I was so glad I got a chance to visit my friend, Meagan, and get a glimpse at what she has been experiencing for the last two years. What an amazing lady she is! :)

Unfortunately, there won't be any more overseas travel anytime soon. It's sort of an expensive deal... Our next trip abroad will most likely be to Ethiopia, but that will be some time from now. Our home study is currently in the revision stage so we are just answering some random questions and providing some random documents to be sure our home study meets all the policies laid out by our adoption agency, the state of Colorado, and also the government of Ethiopia. Once that is completed we will have it sent to the state of Colorado to approve it and will have to get yet another set of fingerprints. Once that is completed... we will get to submit our dossier documents to Ethiopia (along with another hefty legal fee) and pray that we will be approved! I knew this would be a long, taxing process, but I can't believe we aren't even to the halfway point. I'm pretty sure I'm just going to have to get used to praying for patience and trust in the Lord everyday of my life because I really don't feel like I'm getting anymore patient than I was yesterday or the day before.

Jeff will be doing some traveling soon, to Panama City, Florida! Poor him, right? He received his orders from the Air Force and he will be spending a large amount of his summer there. If I can find myself a decent airplane ticket, I would love to visit him (and to hang out on the beach...). We are trying to plan a fun camping trip before he leaves, maybe to Salida, Colorado. We got all this awesome new camping gear for Christmas and we are just dying to try it out, but with work and classes and such a short amount of time to plan, we are having just a little trouble scheduling some outdoor fun in our lives. So, hopefully that will work out before he leaves. If not, there may be more time in the summer to get some use out of our new tent before the snow comes again.

A great reminder from Paul that we are ALL made from the image of God regardless of our color, language, or location; and a reminder this Easter season that the scarlet blood of the Lamb can make us white as snow, name us brothers and sisters, and relate us to those we've never even met:

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. - Galatians 3:26-29

Happy Mutual Weirdness Day!

We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.
- Dr. Seuss

Happy Belated Valentine's Day! A little late, I know, and Valentine's Day isn't usually a big celebration in our home, but 2012 has been a little different. For St. V-Day this year, we bought a house!! Crazy, right? I always said I never wanted to buy a house until we retired, but here we are buying up real estate in a mountain town in this crazy market. A little nervous about it, but ultimately hoping this was a good investment. Jeff has at least another year or more with his Master's program and we need to be in a stable home for the adoption, so here's our new home!

It is perfect for us with a huge backyard for the dogs. They love it! We can't wait until the snow melts though to see what the yard really looks like... It has a large deck so summer will be full of grilling and hanging out by a fire outside I'm sure. We still have a guest room, so feel free to come visit us! :)

Now that we have a place to call our own, it's time to finish up our adoption paperwork! Home study done? Check! Approved? Check! Now it's time for a stack of paperwork to notarize (probably more paperwork than our mortgage loan) and we will submit all of that in the form of a Dossier to Ethiopia. Once that is approved, we will be on the waiting list! While this is an exciting step to almost have our never-ending paperwork completed, unfortunately, the waiting time with our agency is only getting longer. Once our dossier is approved by Ethiopia, we could still be waiting for up to another 18 months before a child is referred to us. It seems like such a long time away! Lord, please teach us patience as we wait...


Our soul waits for the Lord:
He is our help and our shield.
For our heart rejoices in Him,
Because we trust in His holy name.
Let Your lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us,
According as we have hoped in You.
- Psalm 33:20-22

By Car, by Plane, by Boat, by Bus... Viajamos

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

And we're back... from a wonderful Barros family vacation: a five-day cruise to Mexico! And what an adventure it was!


Jeff and I were set to leave last Friday to fly to Houston. Lo and behold, a snowstorm tried to get in our way! To avoid the heavy snow and traffic, we decided to stay Thursday night in Denver. That was helpful, except our flight was cancelled for the morning! We booked an afternoon flight only to wake up the next morning to its cancellation as well. Southwest Airlines must not like snow. Continental flights were still going out, so we had to book a last-minute flight to get to Houston. After de-icing the plane for about 30 minutes, we were finally off and had an uneventful flight to Houston. We even had time to spend with my fam before heading to our next hotel room. I finally got to try my Dad's famous Star pizza! Not bad, Daddio.



Saturday was a shuttle back to the airport to be picked up in a bus by Carnival for transport to Galveston. That ride wasn't so bad, but our cruise ship couldn't dock on time due to fog. We found a delicious restaurant, Fisherman's Wharf, to kill time in. After hours of waiting we finally boarded the ship and the vacation could begin!

Now I'm not a huge fan of boats. Scenes from the Titanic and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner are usually what spring to mind when I think about bobbing about in the middle of the deep blue sea with no land in sight. I'm still getting over that swaying feeling of still being on the ship, but we all really had a great time on the cruise. The food was delicious, the shows entertaining, and the stops exciting. 



It was so fun to watch our niece, Amelie, experience so many firsts. Her first show actually kept the little two-year-old entranced and she squealed with laughter when a giant Chinese dragon made its way through the crowd and to the stage. Her first time on a beach was in Progreso, Mexico. Not a bad place for a first beach experience. She loved the sand and found lots of seashells she insisted on calling "mermaids." All in all it was a great trip with great family.



Superbowl Sunday was actually a blast. We got to watch the game on a huge screen in a theater. I have to say, there is nothing but pride that swells in your heart when an auditorium full of strangers all rise for the National Anthem and applaud our soldiers when they show them on the screen watching the big game overseas. You get this overwhelming sense of connection with these people that you've never met.


Monday was definitely a highlight for me when we went on an excursion to see Mayan ruins. We went to a site that was not a city, but a trading post within the Mayan civilization once upon a time. Very cool place. We also got a tour of a cathedral and a cemetery where both Mayan and Spanish are buried. 

What was Jeff's highlight, you ask? The 24/7 self-serve ice cream. He went after that stuff like a starving hyena.

Tuesday was laying on a beach in Cozumel. It was beautiful, but we didn't put on enough sunscreen. We are paying for that now... :/

Overall, great vacation. Enjoy the pictures!

Dinner and a Show

Last weekend we made a quick trip up to Denver to see Brad Paisley in concert!! He put on a FAN-tastic show, as usual. I don't think he could sing a song I would hate. Though, admittedly, I could certainly do without "Remind Me." Not sure why, but that song just annoys me.

Brad Paisley

The Band Perry

Scotty McCreary (sp?) and The Band Perry were also there. Scotty was okay. Not a bad voice on the kid. I was so excited to see The Band Perry, though! I love their Rock'n'Roll-Twang-Country style they've got going on and man, can that girl sing! That have some great new songs out there. Looks like they won't be just one-hit-wonders!

Before the concert we stopped and ate at an old western saloon built in the 1800s, called Buckeyes. What an eclectic place. Ace Ventura would not have appreciated the hundreds of stuffed animals lining the walls! From elk and deer to zebras and birds. They also served a variety of meats! We had elk, quail, and ostrich. It was all so delicious!

Aside from our night of fun, things have been pure chaos! Not only is the adoption process enough paperwork to last a lifetime, but we are also moving next month. The paperwork to apply for  a mortgage loan is next to impossible. Literally. They were asking for things that didn't even exist. After the last three days of scrambling around, thinking we weren't going to get this dang loan approved, it looks like we are finally in clear waters again. We will be moving (fingers crossed) into our new home on Valentines Day! Boy, what a present! 

Our adoption process is momentarily put on hold, just for a few weeks, until we get moved and into our new place. About a week after the move we have our final home study interview planned! Our caseworker will come and check out the place, make sure we have room for our child in a safe environment and we aren't going to make them live in a closet, and finalize our home study paperwork. Once that is compiled we will be so close to turning in our dossier to Ethiopia! So far we've completed everything from fingerprints, to blood tests, to background checks... even parenting classes. Gee, some of this seems like reasonable preparation for any new parent! Once we get all our paperwork in, we could possibly wait another year before we get our referral... basically we are hurrying up to do a lot of waiting. With over 210 million orphans in the world today, its frustrating that there are so much legal paperwork and fees to get these children into loving homes.


With everything going on, including hectic work schedules and plenty of school work for each of us, we can't wait until our cruise next week! Thank you, Poppo Barros! Rest and relaxation, here we come! And snorkeling and the Mayan ruins! A family vacation with the whole Barros clan will be a blast. What  wonderful family we have both been blessed with. When our caseworker asked us why we wanted to adopt, one of our answers was simply because we both had such wonderful childhoods; we want to be able to share that with another person.

Sunday Drive