Day 8 - We (almost) have a passport

October 10, 2022

The last few days have been pretty quiet, which was kind of nice at first. But now we're getting a little restless. We're on day four at the hotel and with a little luck, we'll check out tomorrow. We learned Saturday morning that Anandhi's passport was printed and mailed. It just needs to be delivered to Tirruvanamali and driven back to us. We've been checking the tracking website every couple of hours. At last check, it was at the local post office in Tirruvanamali as of this morning. We're really hoping that means it will be delivered today and on our hands by mid-morning tomorrow.

(UPDATE: as I was writing this Anu messaged to let us know the passport was delivered. So it just needs to be driven back to us!!)

In the days of waiting, we've spent an hour or two at the pool every day. The heat index is always around 100 so it's felt pretty refreshing. I guess this is the cool season too, glad we didn't travel back in May or June. We also found opportunities to ride a few tuk-tuks, the autorickshaws that are all over India. Ravi loved every second of them. He's been asking to go for rides even if we're only walking five minutes down the street. Leah is a much stronger negotiator than I am since there are no set fares and you come to an agreement on price before hopping in. My instinct seems to be about twice the amount a ride should cost. Thankfully the currency exchange rate is pretty good. Chennai has the second-longest urban beach in the world, so we went to the beach too. We all got a chance to do our toes in the Bay of Bengal. Anandhi was less impressed than the rest of us. She preferred trying to nap through the beach and bumpy tuk-tuk ride.

Waiting has worn on our spirits and health a bit. I've gotten Anandhi's cold, and Leah might be trending that way too. We've had some digestive tract distress, I'll leave it at that. It has still been hard to get a full night's sleep. Leah and I are sharing a king-size bed with Ravi and he is as active in his sleep as he is awake. Anandhi has her moments where she refuses to be put down and that girl has some strong screaming lungs. It's a roller coaster of emotions every day but we're mostly able to be there and support each other when it's most needed.

It's hard to believe it's already been a week since we left. It felt like the blink of an eye and an eternity. We've met many friendly people and hopefully made some lasting memories of India for Ravi. We're getting to know Anandhi more every day and figuring out her routines. A little more of her personality has started coming through and she is a pretty happy, curious, stubborn baby. Even though she's still so young, her ability to adjust to all this change in a short time still impresses me.

We can't wait to get home, settle back in, and give everyone a chance to meet Anandhi. Hopefully, our next update will be from New Delhi and we'll have a pretty good idea of when we'll be back.