Upwardly mobile

Freya is actually pretty nifty on her pins. She can't crawl, but if we put her in the middle of a double blanket she'll be off it and rubbing her face on the marble floor before you know it!! 

Big Girl Now!!?

Here's a beautiful shot of my knees!? Thought you'd like to see an up-to-date shot of the four of us. 

Enjoying the new toys

Here we all are enjoying Alistair's new toys at his birthday party. Adam was as excited as the (other) kids. 

Biker Boy

This was Alistair's present from us. He is pretty chuffed with it (but was possibly more excited by the balloons when he first woke up!). He rides his bike everyday, and our lounge is quite large, and has marble floors (fairly standard in India- carpets would be no good with all the dust and dirt.) which is ideal! 

The Big Day

The biggest event of recent times has of course been Alistair's second birthday. It was a lovely day, despite the fact that Ali had a bit of a fever. We had a party, and 11 other kids came. Alistair was dosed up with paracetamol beforehand, and was on really good form. He seems to thrive on company. 

cool dude

Alistair loved the sea, and was quite tempted to join the Indian kids who were playing in the water. However we had to insist that he didn't go for a swim for human effluent reasons! 

Beach Babes

On good Friday we had a day off, so we took the opportunity to go into Mumbai, and visited the local beach. The stalls were all pretty tacky really, and we got pretty hassled by touts- this is something we are not bothered by in thane. but the photos look good! 

13 Orphans

There is a Christian orphanage 4 hours away from us who have 13 children affected with HIV. These children were being cared for by a local Doctor, but now he has left the area, and an alternative has not been found. We have therefore taken over their HIV care, and this week we saw them for the first time in two batches. They are wonderful kids, who are so grateful to be receiving help. Some of them had simply been abandoned on the railway platform. So sad.
Unfortunately their HIV care was all wrong, and may actually have done them harm, as it is likely to produce drug resistance quite quickly. Thankfully most of them didn't actually need treatment yet, so we will be able to stop treatment and re-commence in a few years. 2 of the children have got treatment failure though, as they really needed treatment, and have been on the wrong drugs, and have treatment failure and are getting sicker. They have drug resistance now, and are therefore likely to die sooner than they needed to. It is very frustrating and sad. Please pray for them. Please also pray for us to remain strong in the face of death of children.
I gave each of them a small note-pad and pen, and they were so pleased with such a small gift!

Party preparations

Alistair had his 2nd birthday party on Saturday. Here he is helping to count the gingerbread men. He has counted to seven all by himself!, but stumbled with the task you see here. "1,3,4,7,6,5,20,5,3,....." he was heard to say. I let him know I was very dissapointed with him (only joking). He runs around the flat just wearing a nappy (or nothing) most of the time, due to the heat! 

Cute as.....

....We think! (proud parents syndrome). Freya at about 8 weeks old. 

Indian baby!

Thought some of you might be interested to see Freya's (Indian) birth certificate! (I guess that means some of you might not... Oh well!). The next step is to get her a British birth certificate, and then passport, before we come to UK in June. Please pray for this to go smoothly. 

wrong end of the (body) stick

Alistair has begun potty training. Unfortunately he thinks this involves taking his pants off and putting them on his head. He then gets his favourite toys, and walks around with them in his potty!! OOPS! We love this photo. It is typical of Alistair's mischevious and comical personality.