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| Kisses from sweet baby Guinness |
Happy (belated) New Year! 2011 Woo!
Okay, so you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t written an update in awhile (like, a long while). You’re likely wondering:
“What happened to Jamie?”
“Is Jamie still in India?”
“When is Jamie coming home?”
“What is next for Jamie?”
Well. Even if you’re not wondering these things, I am here to finally deliver some answers!
First things first.
December Highlights:
So, during the first week of December, I was rushing around Mumbai like a mad woman training a new team member at work (on both her position and the duties she would be helping me out with during my furlough), doing last minute Christmas shopping, packing and day dreaming about my long awaited reunion with Starbucks. On December 6th, my best work friends came over for a little goodbye dinner of California Pizza Kitchen (oh yah, we have one of those in Mumbai). Then, they whisked me over to the international airport to send me off on my month and a half long vacay in the US.
Around 5:30am on December 7th, my plane touched down in beautiful Newark, NJ (that’s me being sarcastic). AMERICA! Seriously though, people…Newark is beautiful. From above. Tears started welling up in my eyes as the perfect gridlines of quiet streets peppered with warm little houses, miles of pristine highway sparsely populated by morning commuters and well planned trees and shrubbery came into view. I never thought I’d see the day when I would look upon the armpit of America and feel breathlessly captivated. I WAS HOME (almost!)
After getting through customs (“Welcome home, Ms. Elkins”, CBP officer), I beelined it for the closest green and white clad gourmet coffee shop. With pride, I ordered a Grande White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha! I barely had to wait 1 minute before my steaming hot beverage with MY name scribbled in sharpie was placed on the pick-up counter! JOY! As I walked down the terminal to find my connecting flight, I imagine that I looked a lot like a crazy person – whacked out smile, tears streaming down my face. What a delicious way to start my furlough! I wanted to drop my luggage and cartwheel down the long hallway…but I held back. I didn’t want to get arrested. Also, I haven’t done a cartwheel in 10 years and I highly doubt a debut in the middle of an airport would be the most successful.
Finally, after a layover and quick flight to Cleveland, I landed in the glorious state of Ohio - The Heartland, if you will. After making a quick stop in the CLEANEST RESTROOM EVER to try and make my hair appear less filthy (18 hours is a long time to go without washing my Scandinavian locks), I followed the signs to baggage claim. As I rounded the last corner before the escalators I saw my family. Right. Where. I. Left. Them. No joke. They were literally standing in the exact same spot, wearing the exact same winter coats as when I saw them last. It was freaky. Talk about a time-warp. All of a sudden, I forgot I had even been in India for nearly a year. It was as if I had just gone through security and looped around to come back out. We hugged and laughed, retrieved my 100+lbs of luggage and headed straight for Olive Garden. Oh yah. Bring on the breadsticks.
I spent my first week back in the States in Medina (where I grew up and where my parents still live). I idled away most of my time sleeping, trying to get my cat, Mia, to love me again and simply enjoying home. On December 14th, I packed another suitcase and headed down to Cincinnati, where I last lived, to spend a week with my friends. I made a quick stop in Oxford, Ohio (where I went to college at Miami University) to have dinner with a friend at Mac’n’Joes (yaaay!) before arriving at my best friend Katie’s house where I would be bunking up for the next week.
The first week back in Cincinnati was great. It felt SO good to be home. Also, it felt weird. It didn’t feel different. I had left Cincinnati last year with a sprinkling of snow on the ground. That same snow was still there…trippy. As a bonus to being able to see friends after a year’s separation, I got do some work! My church, Crossroads, is embarking on a project in India (that I will be a part of – more on that later). During the week I was in town, a couple from India who are in charge of the Indian-side of operations were also in town! I know them from Mumbai so it was nice to see some “familiar faces” in Cincinnati! I got to spend much of my week in planning meetings which were actually rather awesome – I love seeing projects take shape and it felt good to be doing something while all my friends were at work (both in Cincinnati and in Mumbai).
One thing that surprised me about my week in Cincinnati was how much I missed my friends in India. I missed them so much. I was having such a great time experiencing the LOVE and WARMTH of my Cincinnati community, eating my favorite foods (ie: Beef) and simply being GOOD at living in a familiar culture…all I wanted to do was share it with the people I share everything with!
On Friday of that week, my Cincinnati friends threw me a “Welcome Back, Jamie!” party! It was so great! All my favorite foods and favorite people in one of my favorite places – my friend Bob’s house! For years, Bob has been gracious enough to host many events at his awesome casa and I am so grateful that he was willing to open it up yet again just for me. One of my favorite parts about the evening was when I was invited to give a little talk about my year in India; about my job, daily life, funny anecdotes and what’s ahead. People asked good questions, laughed at my many poop jokes and made me feel loved. It was awesome.
I came back to Medina on the 22nd to spend a few more days with the family before we left for Illinois to celebrate Christmas with our extended family. It was a fun few days filled with baking and present wrapping! In an effort to show my friends in India that I missed them, I made sugar cookies in each of their likeness, took pictures of them and tagged them on facebook . Then, I ate them! Haha. I also made cookies that resembled my family members (including aunts, uncles and cousins) to share on Christmas!
Sadly, our family dog, Guinness, passed away unexpectedly on Christmas morning after 15 wonderful years of precious adorableness. It was a rough start to such a joyous day, but I am so thankful that I was able to spend time with him during my trip home before returning to India. In the weeks before he went home to Jesus, Guinny and I had lots of good cuddle time and we even rough-housed a little I miss him terribly and am getting choked up writing this so I am going to move on! LOVE YOU GUIN!
Christmas in Illinois was a blast, as usual! It was great seeing the family and eating my weight in holiday goodies. My older brother, Jeff, even came up from Nebraska with his boys Tony and Jake. I hadn’t seen them in a long time so it was good to catch up. Dang those boys grew fast. Tony turned 16 in August and Jake just turned 13. Wowzas. Makes me feel supa-old!
Shortly after we got back to Medina on the 29th, I did laundry and packed another suitcase to head back to Cincinnati for 10 more days of fun with friends. I had the pleasure of ringing in 2011 with my bests. When I think back over the course of 2010 I have a hard time understanding how SO MUCH could happen in just a year’s time! During the first weekend of the New Year, I participated in the weekend service at Crossroads by giving the announcements and being interviewed by my pastor about what spiritual growth looks like in my life. What a cool experience! For those of you who aren’t familiar with Crossroads, it’s a church in Cincinnati that has up to 15,000 folks in attendance on the weekends. I am blessed to have had the opportunity to share a part of my story with so many. God - you are SO good. If you’re interested in listening to or watching the service check out http://www.crossroads.net/my/media/playVideo.php&idMedia=1282.
The rest of my last week in Cincy involved a lot of lunches and dinners with friends, lots of laying on the couch at my friend Katie’s while she was at work (Jersey Shore is addictive) and a little work with Crossroads here and there. All-in-all: a fabulous week.
Now, I’m back in Medina and am fixing to head out for ANOTHER YEAR in Mumbai! Woo! So. Here is the skinny:
-I will continue with my Internship at the human rights agency for a few months to wrap up some final projects and train my replacement
-Upon the completion of my time with the agency I will transition into a new role with my church, Crossroads! They are starting a 4-prong initiative in India and I will be helping them set up infrastructure that will result in last impact for victims of trafficking in Mumbai and Calcutta. More on that in upcoming posts!
-I have committed to staying in India for another year! After that – who knows!
-Crossroads is paying me a small stipend this year – yay! This is hugely helpful!
-I still need to raise support!
My stipend from Crossroads will cover the most basic living expenses (rent, bills, food from the market) Any additional funds I can raise on my own will be a huge blessing! I would love to invite you to partner with me as I embark on another year in this journey to bring restoration to the lives of trafficking victims in India.
There are several ways to make a monetary donation to me…
1)Give online using your credit or debit card: The easiest and fastest way to give is to go online to http://www.paypal.com .
(Or, click the “Donate” button on my blog!)
Scroll over the word “Send Money” near the top of the page and click on “Send Money Online”. From there, simply enter my email address (elkins.jamie@gmail.com), your email address, and the amount which you would like to donate. Alternatively, you can also type this link into your web-browser:
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=marketing_us/send_money
Make sure you select the “Personal” tab (as opposed to the “Purchase” tab). If you do not already have a paypal account, you may be asked to set one up. If you do have a paypal account this is a fast and simple way to support me financially!
2)Set up monthly giving: If you would like to set up monthly giving through paypal or by writing a monthly check, just send me your email address and I will be sure to send you an email every month to remind you!
3)Write a check: If you prefer to write a check, please make the check payable to “Jamie Elkins”. Checks should be mailed directly to me at my parent’s address which is:
Ed & Carol Elkins
1311 Vineyard Drive
Medina, OH 44256
In closing, I say this: THANK YOU for everything that you have done to support me in 2010. I am blessed beyond words by such wonderful friends and family. I am so excited about what is ahead. We are changing the WORLD here people! Let’s go. Let’s go and end slavery. RIGHT NOW!
WOO!
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