Santosh's Journey

Favorite pictures from Nepal...

2008-03-13T12:36:00.001-07:00

Nepal is filled with so many sights and sounds -- it is hard to take them all in, let alone share them with others. Here's a small collection of some of my favorite images from our two trips. Hopefully they capture some of the emotions that we that we experienced during our time in the country (watch for more in the future) ...

Santosh and Olivia...

2008-03-05T21:22:00.000-08:00

At last, updated pictures! Sorry for taking so long to post an update to our site. We've been home for just over 3 weeks ... we're over jet lag and getting used to being back in the States. Perhaps the best part of being home is enabling Olivia and Santosh to be together -- its wonderful! While they don't always play together smoothly, they are off to a great start.

Here are some pictures from our first few weeks together ...

Brother and Sister! So happy to have them in the same country! Olivia is beginning to be her old self again. She's had a tough time sharing the attention.

Santosh's first snow! Olivia and Santosh looking out our back door at the snow.

Hanging out at home!

Breakfast of Champions!

As I was folding laundry the kids wanted to try on dad's t-shirts. Well that was enough to entertain them for at least 30 minutes. It's wonderful to see them enjoy each other and play, play, play!

The following shots were taken at one of Santosh's first visits to a park in KC -- its been chilly, but we are starting to get our first taste of Spring!

WOW ... THAT'S ONE TALL TREE!

Santosh's "finding ad", plus workers at his orphanage

2008-03-05T21:18:00.001-08:00

Here's a copy of the ad placed for Santosh in a local newspaper. When abandoned children are discovered, by law a picture of the child is posted in the newspaper to notify the public.

... and here's a copy of one of our key adoption documents:

The staff at the children's home where Santosh lived were wonderful. They took great care of him, and they took great care of us while we were in Nepal working on Santosh's adoption. Here are some members of their team:

Lastly, it didn't take long for Santosh's roomat the children's home to be filled again with new children. Before we left, we learned that they already had received 27 new children!

Last days in Nepal...

2008-03-05T21:18:00.000-08:00

Our last few days in Nepal were fun and busy! While it feels good to be home, there's a big part of me that misses being in Kathmandu. Here are some pictures from the tail end of our visit -- we enjoyed spending time with new friends, doing a little sightseeing, completing our shopping, and eating at some great restaurants...

Santosh is a great eater! Perhaps he's making

up for lost time.

The skies were remarkably clear at the end of our stay,

enabling us to catch a glimpse of the Himalayas in the distance.

Our hotel was very comfortable and relaxing. It also served as a hub for NGO's operating in Nepal ... at breakfast, you could meet people from all over the world.

Here's one more shot of some of our new friends at breakfast.

This gate leads to some of the central government's offices. While such

buildings may look grand on the outside, the interiors are often a much different story.

Here's a picture of one of Kathmandu's major public parks -- it sits right in the center of town. Note the European style statue and the starkness of the park ... this park serves many different purposes -- a big cricket tournament was held there during our stay, and soldiers from the British Ghurkas train in an adjacent field.

A typical street scene ... notice the man that is walking along the road with
a desk strapped to his back.

Here's a picture of two new friends -- Hari, the "best waiter in Kathmandu!" and Durga his
brother -- visiting the British Council school.

We're heading home!

2008-02-06T18:05:00.000-08:00

Santosh's visa is signed, our tickets set and our bags are almost packed!

We're gearing up to leave Nepal. As you might guess, we're excited and very thankful that Santosh's adoption has been completed and that we're able to bring him back to the US. We leave Nepal later on this afternoon (Thursday) and will spend the night in Doha, Qatar. On Friday we'll fly from Doha to Washington D.C. and then go directly into KC -- we should arrive at 11:30PM on Friday night on United Airlines.

We'll post more pictures on this site after we get back to KC.

We look forward to seeing everyone!

John

Rescuing children ...

2008-02-02T10:13:00.000-08:00

Several days ago we visited a place that touched our hearts and hopefully will be an encouragement and reminder to live differently in the future. Nepal has that effect on you ... after visiting the country and seeing such stark contrasts -- breathtaking mountains, beautiful views, warm smiles... yet stark, even devastating poverty -- one leaves challenged to somehow make a difference in the lives of the people that you have seen.

On Wednesday, we visited the Esther Benjamin Trust -- a special place that rescues trafficked children from circuses in India. These are children that have been taken from Nepal and typically live in horrid conditions in Indian circuses. Often, desperate, poor parents in Nepal are tricked into signing contracts that essentially sell their children to individuals that transport their children across the border. It is hard to believe that this happens in the 21st century. A gentleman named Philip Holmes, leads an organization that goes into India to rescue these children and bring them back to Nepal. In many cases, they can be reunited with their families. However, in some cases they cannot and in the case of many girls -- who often carry a stigma -- they have difficulty in finding jobs or getting married. Philip, with the help of others, has created a home for these children and has created a organization that provides training in ceramics and other arts. The ceramics and other artwork are sold to help raise funds. Over the years, probably several hundred children have been rescued. The organization has other programs which assist needy children in Nepal, including housing over a hundred boys and girls.

When we visited the center, several things came to mind. First, one could not helped but be touched by seeing the children -- mainly teenage girls -- that had been rescued and were now working on creating artwork. We knew that they had experienced such awful things... it was heartwarming to see them now smiling and living in a safe, healthy environment. Second, I was impressed by the volunteers that we met that were busy teaching the girls new skills -- all were from England and dedicating time to help out such a special cause.

For more information about this effort, please visit http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/. If you are an artist and desire to help in any way, please let me know.

I hope that these pictures provide a glimpse of what we learned and perhaps even inspire you to get involved in this or other efforts to help others in this country or back home. Even as I write this note (in my comfortable room with Cadbury chocolate by my elbow), there are adults and children living within a mile or two in desperate poverty. How will I live differently when I get home? ... John

Friday Night Update

2008-02-01T09:45:00.000-08:00

Greetings! The last couple of days have been full! Yesterday we spent 7 hours going to get Santosh's travel document (type of passport) and having his medical completed. We spent 5 hours either sitting in the car in front of the doctor's office ... having lunch at the Indian restaurant up the street or walking up and down the street trying to kill time while we waiting for the doctor. It was a long day, but we are very thankful to have his passport and medical completed. This meant we could go today to schedule our interview with the U.S. Embassy. Our interview will be at 2:30 on Monday afternoon. Please pray that our interview goes well.

As of yesterday all of the families we are here with have their signature from the Nepali government. These families have become very special to us. We rally around each other through each phase and celebrate together. We have much to be thankful for.

Our friends Greg, Elsa & Nolan left yesterday to head back to the States. They are the family that we were here with last year when we first met Santosh. We'll miss them, but are happy they are getting to head home.

Nolan and Santosh ... being silly.

Group pic! Our group is getting smaller ... we celebrate each signing, flight to the U.S. We like to celebrate everything!

Santosh and Nolan running around at the hotel.

Greg, Elsa & Nolan ... goodbye! Have a great flight!

Rick, Tonya & Suresh ... a family from Alaska that we've journeyed with the last couple of days.

From outside the Doctor's office

Random picture from John ...

Note to Steve Dunn -- I need your new email address!

2008-02-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

Steve -- can you send me your new email address? Thanks! jo

We signed -- the Government signed!!

2008-01-29T08:12:00.001-08:00

Our adoption documents were signed today by the Nepali government! We went to the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs this afternoon and received our paperwork -- as you might guess, we were/are very excited and thankful. Santosh is now "legally" our son in the eyes of the Nepali government. It is a wonderful step forward in our process.

Tomorrow is a holiday in Nepal, so we'll have the day off. On Thursday, we will visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (see the picture below) to pick up Santosh's travel documents. We also plan on getting a required medical checkup and visiting the American Embassy to drop off documents/forms and to schedule our final interview which will enable us to bring Santosh to the US.

We're excited to be moving forward. Thank you for all of your encouragement and prayers -- we really appreciate them! We anticipate that we will be able to complete the process required to bring Santosh back to the States by the end of next week -- we still have a ways to go, but we're making good progress.

Have a good day... John

Update - Monday Evening...

2008-01-28T06:18:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Nepal! This is Lori writing this time around. I hope you enjoy the pictures John has added. I always love looking at them. They tell so many stories. These last few days I continue to be a bit frustrated at the slowness of the process in our adoption on this little guy. We are not alone, which is somewhat of a comfort.

During the wait we have had plenty of opportunity to explore around Kathmandu, do some fun shopping and drink in the many sights, smells and the vastly different culture that we are in. Even though American food is available at some of the restaurants, Nepali food is obviously most common. The longer we are here, the more I come to appreciate the people, culture and lifestyle. When you walk the backroads you get to take a closer look at what life is like here. It's so different from our life in America, but most times the people seem content with their life. Our hotel which we really like is complete with a space heater and hot water bottles in our beds each evening. It's seeming pretty "normal." Not that I will complain at returning to central heat, water you can drink from the faucet and electricity 24 hours a day.

We are getting to know the families that we are here with quite well. They are a variety of personalities and backgrounds. It's wonderful to have others to share this experience with. I'm really going to miss them when we leave. Since we're all at different places in the process, we've already said goodbyes to some. We're so happy they get to go home, but we miss them on this end.

Santosh continues to warm our hearts. He's all boy, but a sweet boy! He loves to kick the soccer ball, throw anything ... from the ball to food across the table. His smile can melt your heart. His first American words are: "hallo (hello), bye, bye, dally (daddy), mally (mommy) ... his own little version of "I Love You." Oh, tinkle and poop (he's potty training). He loves to run, touch cars ... wheels are of particilar interest.

Thank you for following our journey!

Much love,
Lori

Wednesday's Walk

2008-01-24T02:34:00.001-08:00

On Wednesday, a city wide strike continued as people protested the government's recent action to raise the price of gas, diesel and cooking oil. All cars and motorcycles were prevented from being in the streets -- in some cases, this turned violent. So we went for a long walk (safely) and saw parts of Kathmandu on foot. The streets were unusually quiet -- normally they would be filled with traffic, but on this day you could easily walk down the center of each road.

The following pictures capture some of the sights and sounds of our walk. They were taken by a new friend named Andy who has the wonderful ability to capture people and places -- with all of the emotions and activities that you wish that you could share with others.

Trip to the American Embassy

2008-01-22T14:22:00.000-08:00

This morning we had breakfast with others in our group -- I love this part of the day... we have great converations and the food is excellent. (We're not losing any weight on this trip!) This is a picture of Christine, who has been living in Nepal for several months as she completed her adoption. Over this time, she grew to love Santosh ... and I can tell that she has a special place in his heart as well. Christine has been a great encouragement to us and we really appreciate the special attention that she gave to our little guy.

After lunch, we headed out to the American Embassy. Today, there were protests in Kathmandu -- these happen fairly regularly and cause major disruptions. Today's protests were triggered by the government raising prices on several key items. Much of Kathmandu was affected... we were able to travel by cab for portions of our trip, but also walked for a couple of miles. The following pictures show scenes from our walk -- as you can see, small groups can cause major disruptions easily. During all of this however, life continues -- while we saw riot police, groups of students, tires burning, we also saw merchants selling their goods and a cricket tournament all taking place in close proximity. Quite an adventure!

A little more time ...

2008-01-22T14:04:00.000-08:00

Quick update: Due to concern over one of our documents, our paperwork was not signed by the Minister over adoption on Sunday. The concern relates to whether or not one document is official. Today we went to the American Embassy to obtain an official Affadavit for the document, which should address the concern. The Minister is out of the country for most of the week -- we anticipate/expect that he should sign our papers when he returns on Friday.

This delay will probably cause us to extend our stay in Nepal. There are a series of activities that we must take care of after our file is signed ... so, we're preparing to stay in the country for a little extra time. If you think of it, please pray that Olivia, our daughter back home, will be fine --- it will be almost 3 1/2 weeks that we'll be gone. She seems to be doing wondefully so far -- we get great reports from Judy Williams where she is staying during our time away. Thanks Judy for taking such good care of her! On a funny note, when we were leaving and Olivia was in the car with Judy getting ready to leave herself, her main comment was something like "close the door Daddy."

Take care --

John

Our last few days in pictures...

2008-01-19T06:59:00.000-08:00

The last few days have been wonderful. There are currently about 7 other families at our hotel that are also adopting children -- it is fun going through this experience together. We are enjoying geting to know each other and watching the children play. The children have spent much of the last year together. Each child has his/her own personality. We (i.e., the parents) are also learning from each other -- i.e. "what do you do when your child does...?"

We hope that our paperwork was signed by the Secretary over Women and Children Affairs today -- please pray that this was accomplished. During the upcoming week, we should have meetings with representatives from the Nepali and US governments, plus a doctor's appointment and other steps that are part of the process.

Hope that you have a great day -- John

We're in Nepal ... Santosh is doing great!

2008-01-17T09:05:00.000-08:00

We had a great flight to Nepal. A big thanks to Robin Askins for taking us to the airport. After spending Tuesday night in Qatar, we arrived in Kathmandu late Wednesday afternoon. Soon we were at the Children's home and visiting Santosh -- he's doing wonderfully well. He quickly jumped into Lori's lap and was full of smiles and giggles. Kathmandu is as crazy and noisy as you might expect - but it feels great to be back. There's something about the people, sounds, sites and the hustle and bustle that I love -- it is a country of so many contradictions ... its hard to capture it accurately in words.

As its getting rather late, I'll keep my comments short and share a few pictures. We are enjoying our time with Santosh and our trip is off to a wonderful start! Good night -- John

More pictures...

2008-01-17T09:00:00.000-08:00

Heading out ... our journey begins!

2008-01-12T20:46:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow we leave for Kathmandu ... and soon Santosh will start his own journey to his new home. Just under a year ago, we met Santosh during our first visit to Nepal -- he won our hearts from the start. He was born on December 27th, 2005. While we do not know much about his history, a doctor in Nepal shared that he thought that Santosh might belong to the Rye clan -- a group that we understand lives up in the Himalayas (we hope to learn more during our next visit). When he was 10 months old, he was found abandoned. He was quickly taken in by the Children's Home -- a wonderful place for children that is located in the Kathmandu valley.

Last February, Lori, Steve Dunn and I traveled to Nepal to meet Santosh and to start our adoption process. Much has happened since that first visit and now we are ready to head out to Nepal once again to bring him home.

We'd like to say a special thanks to every one that has supported, encouraged and prayed for us and Santosh -- this has been a very rich experience and we are very thankful. We look forward to you getting to meet this very special little guy.

Here are pictures of Santosh that were taken over the last year:

Elephants, Rhinos, Children and Mountains ... our first trip!

2008-01-12T20:05:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have not seen pictures from our first trip to Nepal, here are several that we hope that you enjoy.

More pictures from Nepal - Feb '07

2008-01-10T17:20:00.000-08:00

Recent Pictures of Olivia

2008-01-09T17:21:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't seen pictures of Olivia -- or would like to see more -- here are a few photos of her. She's a wonderful little girl!

If you'd like to see the travel site for our trip to pick up Olivia, here's the link: http://www.geocities.com/jovery_98/.

Please note -- this site is rather old and we did not update it for the second half of our trip. As you might guess, our trip became very busy after we received Olivia!