Departure to Coimbatore

Like a little child on their first day back at school, I’m dressed and packing and repacking my book bag in anxious anticipation, long before the rest of the house is up. :-) I’m excited about this. My conversation with the Boss is more urgent, more restless. But he’s patient with me like any parent would be at a time like this. I think he’s smiling as we begin this new adventure together.

I’ll tell you a new thing today. I haven’t told many. A couple years ago, on a whim and out of simple curiosity, I asked my mom what my first spoken word was. I was thinking of kidding her about it if she said, “Oh, it as DaDa,” or something like that – meaning my first word was my baby word for my dad. Or making her feel good about it if she said, “Your first word was Momma.” She looked at me with an interesting expression and said, “Tom, the first word you ever said was, pretty.”

When we were looking for a child to sponsor at the Michael Job Center (MJC) we had a lot to choose from – well over 300 orphan girls. Here’s who we picked:

PREETI comes from Tibet where Christians are persecuted by Buddhists as well as communists. Her father became a TB patient and hence was bed ridden. Father lost his job.

I’m looking forward to meeting her soon. Can I give her a hug for you too?