the raja family

Not too long ago, I removed a couple individuals from my Facebook list of friends because I just couldn't stomach the daily insensitive remarks about President Obama and the current administration. I'm very active on Facebook, and find it a wonderful way to share updates with family and friends who live all over the world. It's a fun way to keep in touch, and I look forward to reading little tidbits of my friends' daily lives. What I quickly got tired of was the individuals who would use Facebook as a way to gripe about political issues - - not just sharing their feedback or personal opinions, but by ripping people apart in the rudest, most demeaning ways. I'm all for freedom of speech, but this was ridiculous. I'd rather view twenty-odd pictures of their new dog, learn about what they ate for lunch, or read their results of the quiz, "Which Muppet are you?"

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So I "unfriended" (if there is such a word) those folks and felt good about it. No longer would I have to be insulted or disgusted by insensitive comments, and life on Facebook was good again. Until last night. After we returned from the lake, Pankaj was checking his Facebook page and came across some outrageous comments from one of the people I had removed from my friends list. He was even blown away by the remarks, and asked if I wanted to read them. I did read them, but now I wish I hadn't. The negative comments were directed towards various ethnic groups in our community (that is, other than Caucasian) who attended a local July 4th celebration which was promoted as a "multicultural event" in the first place. I will never repeat out loud what I read in that post, but it was a slap in the face for my own multicultural family. My interpretation of those comments is, "God bless America, but only the people who look like me." Pankaj quickly "unfriended" this person, but the damage was already done. Once you read comments like that, they are burned into your brain for life. What saddens me is that this person lives in our community, is someone we run into from time-to-time, and is probably a representation of what so many others in this area believe but never speak out loud. Personally, knowing now how this individual feels about people of different ethnic backgrounds, I hope it will be a LONG time before we run into each other again.

This photo was taken on Father's Day many, many years ago. It may have been 1982 because my hair was still long, none of us had braces yet, and it was before the kitchen remodel and expansion. Sure, many things have changed over the years, but some things NEVER change. You'll notice my sister Dena holding a jar of mixed nuts in front of our dad. I'm not sure when that tradition started, but as far back as I can remember, my dad always received some sort of nuts for Father's Day. Mixed nuts from Koezee's. Cashews. Pistachios. You name it.

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This year, Father's Day was a little different because Pankaj, Samedh and I did not spend it with my family. While everyone else gathered at the cottage and spent the day fishing from my dad's new pontoon boat, we elected to stay home and dry out our basement after the weekend's storms and heavy rain (7.5" of rain in 24 hours, to be exact). My parents stopped by this evening though, and we celebrated Father's Day a day late. There was no ride on the pontoon, no bonfire or cooking on the grill, but we did have one thing that was the same as any other year: Our gift. Nuts. Dark Chocolate Cashews to be exact. My dad opened them immediately, and then shared how he also received mixed nuts, pistachios, AND peanuts in the shell from my sister Dena and her family. That's what prompted me to share this photo. It makes me smile. The same smile I see on my dad's face when he receives another gift of nuts...year after year.

I've been brushing up on my mehndi, and the examples above are my latest creations. I find it so much easier to make the designs with a marker than squeezing a mehndi cone. I wonder if anyone has ever created a "mehndi marker"? I'd have so much more control over the design that way! The full size drawings actually span across an 8.5x11 sheet of paper, and I intend to turn them into iron-on transfers for t-shirts. Right now I'm debating whether or not I should add color to them and re-scan or simply keep them black and white. I read online recently that you can use black fabric "puffy" paint to trace a picture in a coloring book, and then transfer the design to a t-shirt using a hot iron. Once the image is on a shirt, you can add permanent color with fabric paints, markers, rhinestones, etc. Kids can also use washable markers to color the image. The the color will disappear after each wash, and they can use different colors each time. If the method works with a coloring book page, it should work with my own designs on a sheet of paper.

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Samedh has been creating mehndi designs of his own lately. He uses sidewalk chalk to color his hands and arms and then shows me his work. At our Bal Vikas Reunion last summer, all the kids had mehndi done on their hands. It was a big hit, and Samedh is looking forward to getting his own design this year. He wants an elephant design and asked if he can go first. Sure he can go first, but now I have to come up with an elephant design! Last year, kids asked for all kinds of designs including dragons and such. I'm afraid if I make an elephant, I'll get all sorts of requests that I won't be able to accommodate. I did try making a peacock yesterday and it looked OK. Maybe if I can perfect an elephant and peacock design within the next week, that will be enough to satisfy the kids.

Our count-down to Chicagoland has begun! We have just under three weeks left before our very special reunion of India adoptive families. Last summer, nine families met at Homewood Suites in Schaumburg, IL for our group's first official "family reunion." Now we are preparing once again to make the journey from various parts of the Midwest so our families can spend a long weekend together - - most of us reuniting from last year, and some who will be meeting for the first time. None of us are blood relatives, but we are family all the same. You see, we all have one thing in common: our adopted child(ren) from Bal Vikas Orphanage in Mumbai, India.

This year, we are expecting a total of seven families, but are certainly welcome to more if schedules allow! Only a few weeks ago, our group was convinced that this year's reunion would be much smaller, with only four families able to commit. But thankfully, the schedules of a few additional families opened up during the past week, and our numbers are growing strong! Best of all, Samedh's good buddy Anish (whom we met over Memorial Day weekend) will be making the trip with his parents, which is news we just learned yesterday.

As one of the event coordinators, I have a lot of organizing to do in the coming weeks. Thankfully, I have a lot of supplies left over from last year (craft items, table covering, table ware, mehendi cones, etc.), so it's just a matter of hauling totes out of storage and preparing for the road trip. Like last year's reunion, I am planning a very special keepsake for the children. Because a few of our BV families are readers of my blog, I can't disclose what I have planned for this year without spoiling the surprise. Everyone will know soon enough, though:)

I'm sure the time will fly by, and the end of June will be upon us before we know it. This weekend we have the Race for the Cure in Holland, next weekend is Father's Day, and the following weekend will be our big road trip! It's hard to believe that it's been almost one year since our group of families last met. It will be fun to see how much each child has grown, and we probably won't even recognize the youngest members of the group who are already 2 years old this year!