Embracing Chennai

Chennai...

Southern India...

Thinking I was going on a business/leisure trip with Ken...

Somehow having it become the trip that will always stay close to my heart...

I naturally love travel & new cultures (especially when it includes warm weather & water) so I wasn't surprised I was ready to go to Chennai.. Plus, a trip with Ken and I is always priceless.

Yes, it was amazing - it’s hard to beat the energy of Chennai, the back waters of Kerala, the beauty of a culture ready to treat you with kindness - but it was beyond that my soul was touched. As I was playing tourist and Ken would go to Spencer Plaza, I was seeing a part of a world that felt like home. I was seeing faces that looked like family. My spirit felt beyond alive. All I know is by the time I left Chennai...I left a piece of my soul....more importantly, I left a piece of us.

I found myself falling in love again - Ken and I were falling in love with something bigger than us. As much as we were falling in love with Chennai - we were falling in love with the hundreds of faces with empty smiles...how could we go by in “our car” and not do more than extend a smile back to these faces - they easily could have been the face of myself, Sophie or Cole?

Somehow in spite of staying in the grandest of hotels, enjoying scents and sounds from the indian ocean, being driven around from this place to that place - all I could see and feel were priceless children crowded the streets in Chennai. My heart was becoming more passionate about something than being passionate about decorating our home to a “T” or finding the latest shoulder bag...At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to invite the thoughts that were flooding my mind..I knew for me to act upon those thoughts - helping orphans - would crash my world of comfort - and bigger than that, would crash my children’s world of comfort.

Orphans were nothing new to me - I knew there were millions - but now my heart was calling me to do something about - even if I did live in the comfort of my home back in the states.

We could no longer just send money.

Coming back to the states, we knew we wanted our family to invest in the lives of orphans...but how...

That was 3 years ago....

And at last Ken and I are ready...

I’m ready to let my eyes be exposed to the village of these precious orphans
I’m ready to let my heart be challenged on where I spend my time and resources

I’m ready

I’m ready to let go of trying to take care of every detail
I’m ready to let go of being in control 24/7

I’m ready

I’m ready to see eyes of little girls that hold themselves at night - wondering if their mom is going to be alive in the morning...

I’m ready to see empty smiles of little boys that are aching for someone to show them mercy - and not be treated like a slave...

I’m ready

I’m ready to be in a kitchen without a perfect refrigerator

I’m ready to have a bedroom without the perfect decor

I’m ready to show my children what a life about extending grace looks like - no matter how uncomfortable it feels

I’m ready

Embracing Chennai...

Or do I say -

Embracing Freedom

Sweetest blessings from my heart to yours.