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*Click on the photos to make them bigger WE ARE HERE!!!!! 26 hour plane ride later and we are finally here. I feel like the other part of my heart is back now...as cheesy as that sounds. Although this is my 3rd time to India it never ever gets old! You guys the poverty here is insane and nothing will ever prepare you for poverty in India I don't care what country you've been to. I could show you thousands of pictures, give you hours of descriptions of what it looks like or is like but you will never really understand until you come see and experience it. In India there are over 40 billion poor people. Almost all of those people live below what the standard poverty line is. It is so crazy. I gotta say traveling by myself to India and then traveling with Jace is way more fun! It was and is so fun to watch his expressions and reactions to all these new things. I'm pretty sure he peed his pants 400 times while being in cars here. Their driving here you guys, is INSANE. Honestly soooo crazy. There are no rules, everyones practically running over families of 8 on one motorcycle, almost hitting people walking in the streets and people begging. They drive on literally the wrong side of the rode. Which is scary when you're on like a one way or two way road... Its definitely an adrenalin rush to say the least! It would be a hard life to be an Indian Women. In this culture as I'm sure most of you know women are inferior to men. Women are looked down upon and not respected. The men here cut in line for the bathroom for food for anything. I have many examples of this happening to me but one of them I'll share. Jace and I stayed at a hotel the night before we came to Rising Star Outreach I was standing right at the front desk, my body was leaned up against the front desk, just so you can have an idea of how obvious it was that I was waiting for help. I was completely ignored because about 6 men kept coming up and asking questions and totally ignoring me. I had to have Jace come up to the desk and ask my question instead because I would have been standing there for hours before I had gotten my question answered! One of things Jace said he will have to get used to is the staring and "not punching someone in the face". My first time to India it bothered me but now I find it kind of hilarious. They will stare and stare and stare. Granted for them, they have no clue that it's even rude. The first day Jace and I arrived I wanted to show him around Chennai! We had a driver from our hotel take us to an Indian beach. Lets just say the beaches around the world are ALOT different than a beach in India. Stick to other beaches people. All over the beach were peoples huts and little houses made out of sticks and trash. Lots of people begging. Lots of human poop everywhere etc. So we got up to the beach and some random guy came up and said "ride horse, 100 rupees, ride horse" so Jace hops on this random guys horse and starts cantering down the beach. Hahaha it was quite a site to see you guys. When he was done he came back and there was an old guy in his turban and traditional Indian clothing. Which looks like a skirt/loin cloth. Anyways, Jace's horse stepped on this old mans dead fish and the old man freaked out and started yelling and screaming at the guy who owned the horse. They almost got into a fist fight but our driver pulled them away from each other thank heaven. While this was all going on I had a girl probably 12 or 13 years old holding her baby and kept tapping me and asking me for money to feed her baby. It is pretty dang heart breaking. Especially girls that are so young that have babies asking for money. With the charity that Jace and I came with they have a rule that you can't give any free hand outs. Which means no money, no buying them things or giving them things because it teaches them to keep begging and that begging is okay when it really isn't. Which as hard as it is not to give handouts its a good rule! Next, I wanted to take Jace to this Hindu temple. It is a pretty incredible temple and the oldest Hindu temple there is. When we got there a random man kicked our driver out of the temple so that he could give us a tour. Which we did not ask for by the way. So the guy starts giving us a tour and is very pushy and keeps asking us how much money we can give to their temple to feed the blind, deaf, poor and disabled. So Jace and I said we can give 20 rupees. The man was extremely upset and swatted Jace's hand away and said "No. I don't want that money. What can I even buy with 20 rupees? Nothing!! I want more." Jace and I again said no we can only give 20. Well the guy got even more upset and started yelling and harassing us/following us out of the temple all the way to our car yelling at us and yelling at our driver to make him give us our money. That was a frustration experience and we were pretty bummed about it. There are tons of beggars here literally every way you look and turn but I hadn't experienced one so hostile. Now to the good stuff!!! We are FINALLY at RSO and could not be happier about it!!!! It was such an amazing reunion to see all my little Indian babies who are now getting so big and old!!! I was so worried that they wouldn't remember me but thankfully they did! I was SO excited to see all of them and I think they were excited to see me too! Some of my girls are taller than me now I can't even believe it!! Everyone is obsessed with Jace. But seriously who isn't? Everyone that knows him loves him. The kids are all fascinated to see that I'm married now and that my husband is here with me! They are all amazed at how tall he is. It is so fun to watch him play and love these kids who need so much of both! Unfortunately in India the boys can't play with the girls and they also can't be in the same room. So Jace can't play with the girls, play by the girls or go by the girls house. So they all love him from afar ;) It's definitely been a challenge for Jace and I because we can't kiss, hold hands, hug, or touch at all because in India its not only super inappropriate but against the law. Jace and I also can't even be in the same room together alone unless it's our room that we sleep in. It's been interesting in our room so far because we sleep on Indian size twin beds which is pretty uncomfortable and hard to snuggle on haha. Since some of you are unfamiliar with how our life in India works I took tons of pictures! Jace and I will be going to the bathroom in holes, and bucket showering the whole time while were here. Jace is the executive assistant to the head Dr. here and I am the education coordinator. Jace basically does everything the Dr. asks him wether that be paper work, setting up days and times to go to the leprosy colonies, meeting with government officials etc. My job is to meet with the Indian teachers here, help teach them English as well as the kids, come up with strategies and new things for them to learn and new ways to learn,and to teach/train and schedule what all the volunteers that come to RSO will do here with education. But both of our jobs will not be limited to that! We will be doing those jobs a few times a week as well as going into the leprosy colonies and washing hands and feet, cutting dead skin off, bandaging ulcer, and handing out medication. So Jace and I live on the same compound as the school that we help it. The school is filled with only kids from Leprosy Colonies. When you or a parent or grandparent or any family member contracts Leprosy you are not allowed by law, to get a public education. RSO takes the kids out of their colonies for 10 months out of a year where they will be getting an amazing education, learning english and living here. All the kids live in a hostel. There are probably like 12 boys to a room and 12 girls to a room. They all have a house mother who is a single younger girl who takes care of them, sleeps in the same room, makes sure they do chores, are getting bathed etc. There are tons of rooms! All kids sleep in one little compact room on a concrete floor together. Some kids have their parents but some also do not so it is so extremely important for Jace and I to constantly be loving these kids. They grew up never being love or touched because they live in a Leprosy colony. They are considered "untouchables". These kids are SO happy and it is pretty incredible considering their circumstances and the tragic things they've been through. For example there is a little boy here who is an orphan. He was 3 years old when he watched his dad light his mom on fire and murder her and then hung himself. He was left all by himself with a baby sister. Thankfully RSO has a therapist on the grounds where the kids can go and talk to her. Some of the American volunteers get frustrated because some of the kids are rowdy in the classrooms. Its a very normal thing for kids and women to get beaten regularly. It is very rare if they do not. At RSO they tell the teachers and house mothers that they can't beat the kids up and they claim because of that rule theres no other way they can give the kids structure. It would be so hard to be a woman here. Especially being in a Leprosy Colony. One of the house mothers I became very close with the last two years I was here had Leprosy a while ago but not anymore. Her husband died and because of that she gets a bad pick for a husband since she is a widow. Her parents arranged her to marry her 54 year old uncle. She was so devastated but has no choice at all. In India they do arranged marriages and most girls are married by the age of 12 or 13 and having babies with men old enough to be their grandfathers. It breaks my heart seeing sweet little girls here that aren't so innocent and have had extremely rough lives already. A lot of times I think of my cute little nieces, Stella, Eliza, Baylee, Halle and Olivia. How lucky they are to be raised by such amazing moms and dads who love those girls and would risk their own lives to keep them safe and they have parents who love each other and get to show their kids how a marriage works. Jace and I also keeps saying how crazy hard it is for these kids and these parents. There are 3 year olds here almost the same age as my niece Liza who are sent here away from their parents for almost a year. How hard would that be? But how selfless their parents are to give the kids up to this amazing program so that they can change their lives and see their kids succeed in a way that they themselves could never even dream of. All of us have endured hard things in our lives and have more hard things to endure in the future. But it is SO very important to remember that someone always has it worst. It really is so important to always put things into perspective. Yes some of us think we have hard lives because we don't have this or that or because we feel sick or whatever it may be. But at least we're not being sold into brothels by the age of 3 years old and living a life feeling unloved, ashamed, unwanted, alone and being isolated by your entire society or being disowned by your family for having a certain disease or being a widow. At least we have so many freedoms and can get an education and marry who we choose and have laws to keep us safe. This blog is going to be a mumbo jumbo unorganized journal of our thoughts. You guys in life this is what it is all about isn't it? Letting Christ use us as his tools and hands as well as using all our talents to do what he gave them to us for. I wish so bad every single one of you reading this blog could come out here and do this. I promise you it will forever change your life. I know it can be uncomfortable coming out here and facing the poverty and the wounds of those with leprosy and hearing tragic stories that these sweet people have gone through but it is so important to not avoid thinking about or hearing about all that goes on in the world. It's real life. It is so worth it to get out of your comfort zone and to do some of what we are here on this earth to do. I can't tell you how many times already I've turned to Jace and said "Aw this person would be so amazing here they really should come out here". Sorry this is so long there are just so many thoughts going through our heads! We are counting our blessings for: clean water, families, food, homes, friends, freedoms, religion, god, education, opportunities, america, showers , toilets, medicine, dr.'s, nurses, military, laws, equality and so many more things!! Jace and I are SO happy here. Make sure you count your blessings tonight friends. PS tomorrow I will be posting a couple videos from the trip so far and lots of outside footage of the village we're living in!