World's Apart....

It's amazing how two little children can come from the same mommy and daddy and be sooo completely different! I have struggled this week (well, actually the last month) with my precious 2 year old daughter, Hannah. She is very precious and sweet 80% of the time, but the other 20%, ugh...there are no words to describe it. Some people call it the "terrible twos"....I am continuing to call it the TERRIFIC two's! Terrific in every way...terrific because she is sooo much fun. Terrific because she makes me laugh so hard. Terrific because she is the prettiest little thing I have ever seen (minus her crazy fuzzy hair!). Terrific because she is so stinkin' smart. Terrific because she was made by our amazing and gracious Father in Heaven just for me and Nathan! HOWEVER, the other 20% that is terrible can sometimes be soooo extremely terrible that I wonder what in the world my gracious Father in Heaven was thinking!!! : ) I'm encouraged by others who say, "mine was just like her" or "this period of her life is normal" or anything that is sympathetic to the two year old stage. The 20% terrible is so exhausting sometimes that I have to just sit down and "cry it out"---and when Hannah walks around the corner to see mommy crying she rushes over and says, "mommy trying (crying)" and wipes away my tears....aaaaah...what a sweetheart. The very person that is making me cry is the person wiping the tears away....if she only knew. : )

Below: My sweet little Sammy. It's hard to imagine that someday he will disobey me because he is soo stinkin' sweet right now. He truly is the complete opposite of his sister. He will go to anyone who reaches out to him...while Hannah boycotted anyone other than mommy and daddy at the age of 3 months and to this day she will only go to a few select people.

Below: This picture of Hannah is indicative of her behavior lately. : ) ha,ha...

Not really...this is her showing us her mean face. We have been practicing all the different facial expressions...so when I say, "Hannah, we need to do what mommy says all the way, right away and with A HAPPY HEART" she knows what "happy" is and looks like. I think right now she is is better at this facial expression than she is the happy one....ugh! Pretty scary, huh!

Below: But, here she is...the other side of her...the funny side. She wanted the rickshaw driver to get in the back while she pretended to drive him around. Such a funny little person.

I have been wanting to post some pics of our place...below are pictures taken from the top of our house (the roof tops in India are flat and there are always stairwells that go up to the top so you can hang out your laundry and keep a water tank there). So this is the view from our home.
Above: this bridge is where "Gorkaland" begins...which is where people hold strikes so that they can have their own state called Ghorkaland. Right now we officially live in the state of West Bengal...but, maybe someday we will be living in Gorkhaland...the land of the Nepalese!!!

Above: the Himalayas. We are just at the base of the mountain...beautiful, huh?

Below: My sweet friend Megan...she is the MK teacher for our neighbors 16 year old girl. She is great...and such a blessing today when I had my little breakdown over Hannah! She did my dishes for me to make me feel better...what a sweet girl!