It is final!

We are going to be leaving this country in two weeks. I picked up the tickets today. We are flying Alitalia through Milan (Sorry Boshoffs, the South Africa dream did not work :-( Hopefully, we can find another way to get over there) We had a lot of trouble getting tickets because of various European capitals requiring a transit visa (as Prachi's visa has expired)

I don't know what to feel. I have a very mixed bag of feelings - sadness about leaving an area where we established our home, grew together as a family, where we had our baby, where we have had many many great times, where we met dear friends, got graduate degrees, and much more - exhiliration about going to India after many years, be at the place where I grew up, sharing the baby with her grandparents - apprehension about the monstrous tasks ahead of wrapping up in the next 2 weeks and also about going to an unknown world, although for that I can trust God to bring us through as He has so wonderfully done so far.

We have been trying to wrap various things up. Clear all accounts, cancel extraneous things, decide what to take, ship, and throw, and much much more. It is really exhausting and just a ton of work. Today ended up to a big expense day when we spent $2350! We got a big favor with the paediatrician as they gave us about 25% discount on our bill! The only big thing left to do now is selling the car which is proving to be hard to do! I hope God has a buyer for us.

Prarthna turned 9 months today. She is such a dearie, and it is hard to imagine life without her. We went to Chitra's for dinner. It was a good fun and it was good to spend time with them. Niti had invited us over on Monday and Prarthna was all over their son, Arjun who happens to be a couple months older but is very shy, I think.

We were at Eric and Lis's farewell party at the Elliott's on Sunday. It was great to see many old friends over there. I am not sure when, if ever, will we see many of them again.

Bhuvan comes on Friday, and I think our original plans are in for a lot of change. I will write more about that in a couple days.