Happy Mother's Day - We're One Step Closer!

Happy Mother's Day!

We celebrated Mother's Day by getting Millie Lynn's Passport today. In case I didn't say earlier, the Nepali's work 6 days a week, with Saturday being their Holy Day. That worked out great for us so that we could get her Passport today. Tomorrow we have an interview with the US Embassy and will hopefully get Millie's Visa on Tuesday. If everything goes well, we will be able to leave here on Thursday and arrive in the US on Friday morning. Keep your fingers crossed!

Tonight we and the other two families staying at our hotel ate dinner at Pastor Vijays. His wife cooked a wonderful meal. Everything was delicious - by far the best meal we have had since arriving in Kathmandu! Everyone had a great time and all of our kids enjoyed playing with Pastor Vijay's children. This is a picture of Vijay and his family.

Yesterday we went to Vijay's church. Pastor Roy (the pastor visiting from Hong Kong, pictured on the right) was preaching and the sermon was in English, so we especially enjoyed that! Vijay translated. They had a great service with about 150 in attendance. They were celebrating their fourth anniversary and had lunch afterwards. We really enjoyed the service...it wasn't much different from what we are used to.

After we got back to the hotel, Rusty and Millie Lynn took a nap. I walked around the tourist district called Thamel. I have included a few interesting pictures. Yes...that is a pig that is being butchered and a chicken foot I found laying on the ground!

There have been weddings at our hotel for each of the last three days. We watched one from the balcony of our hotel on Friday. That wedding began about 9:30 a.m. and they were still going strong at 7:00 that evening. The wedding was held in the gardens at our hotel. It began with family and friends arriving and bringing what looked to be many platters of food. Then the groom arrived and then finally the bride. It looked like family and friends prayed blessings over them and then had a party. The bride wore read, which is the traditional wedding color here. White is reserved for funerals.

I hope everyone has had a great Mother's Day! I got to talk to the boys, my Mom and Dad and Kelly on the phone. Rusty left a message for his Mom. We will post more soon!

Ellen, Rusty and Millie Lynn