Our family of five will return to India for one month over the Christmas Holiday 2023 and will welcome 2024 among new family and friends! We began planning this trip almost immediately on our return to the states in September of 2022.  When we said our "goodbyes" after our first visit our hearts hurt, and we knew we had to go back.  

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During our upcoming December trip, we have planned to spend one on one time with the many people we fell in love with that September and want to build lifelong relationships with each of them, getting to know them more personally and learn more about their culture.  We have planned to visit the church, the school, church plants, and the girls' home. 

 

While visiting the girls' home, we will deliver coloring books and also the Holiday cards that the restaurant customers gathered from the Christmas tree project, writing notes of blessings from America. The donations that have come through our restaurant fundraising projects has made funding the daily needs of the girls possible and even provided for a well to be dug.  We will see the well during this trip and be a part of its dedication.  This creates additional traveling expenses for flights and hotel stays to another region of India which will be funded through Slice of Hope as well. 

 

We will also return to the Jaipur marketplace putting our favorite tailors to work supporting their industry and using our rupees to invest in their livelihood.  We also have plans to purchase an oven and some baking goods as we hope to include some of our American traditions at Christmas as we love on those around us with food and fellowship.  

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We also hope to pass out blankets and food in the tent villages of the city.  Nights can be extremely cold.

 

And we will spend time with our Indian family!  We will play games, work on our Hindi speaking skills , go on coffee dates, have dinners together, visit the Taj Mahal, meet their extended family in the village, celebrate two January birthdays, dance together, sing together, and simply love on one another.  We have all been counting down the days from 215 since we left in May!  

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December is about continuing to build relationships that began in 2022 and offer a boost of income to anyone from the uber driver to the milk man.  And we will look forward to seeing what opportunities present themselves for 2024.  

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