Peace cannot be preserved by force.
It can be achieved only through understanding.
Albert Einstein
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Child Number 8???
Yes, you didn’t misread that...Fatima has now delivered her 8th child. She can’t take care of the other seven, but another one has come.
On June 29th, Fatima delivered a healthy baby girl at home. We don’t know why she wasn’t taken to the hospital, but everything ended up being safe. Fatima was healthy and though the baby was kept at the hospital for two days, she was released very healthy thereafter.
Surprisingly, the baby has been adopted. Fatima, realizing that she would not be able to aptly take care of the new child, then gave the child for adoption to a family that lives across the street. The family was not able to have children of their own.
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Baroda Business
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Timing wasn’t ideal as I was only days away from traveling to Canada, but on the 12th of June Roshan, Pappu, Bismilla, Sanju and Jayenti arrived to a truly life changing experience. When we arrived, there were no children, and even though the first day of school was the 14th, all of the children hadn’t arrived until about the 28th!
The environment is completely different from Mumbai and it took the children a while to adjust. Some longer than others. Jayenti, Bismilla and Sanju (despite a few tears for his mother) settled in quite fast and loved school right from the start. Jayenti and Bismilla jumped into Grade 3 English and from what I here catching up fast. Sanju is in Grade 1 English and loving school.
Roshan and Pappu on the other hand aren’t finding it so easy. Roshan would be ok, but he is worried about Pappu crying and just not being happy. In fact, Roshan was so worried that he decided one day to take Pappu to Mumbai by running away. The children walked 17km before they were found.
Since then, even Pappu has adjusted and all the boys seem to be taking advantage of the incredible opportunity.
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Dance Extravaganza
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A good friend of One!’s, Vicky— a Bollywood film director, put us in touch with a local Dance Studio who wanted our kids to take part in their end of year performance.
For two weeks, an instructor from the Studio (Hritesh) took time out every day to give ten of our children free dance lessons. The lucky dancers were chosen the first day when all of the children danced in front of Hritesh. The most talented got lucky: Reshma, Manda, Usha, Dilshaad, and Geeta; Dharam, Bismilla, Roshan, Parvin, and Mukesh.
After practicing and perfecting their routine, the big performance finally arrived on the 10th of June. The dancers were in dress rehearsals starting at 2 in the afternoon. It sure was a LONG day. The guests finally started arriving at 7:30pm, and 13 of our older children were chosen to go and watch. Over 800 people were in the audience!!!
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The children were third to last to perform, but definitely worth waiting for. No one forgot the routine, no one was star struck and no one fell or slipped. What they all did do was dance better than ever with big smiles on their faces!
After their dance, they were praised by the dance studio and the two Bollywood guests. They were then presented with certificates. Boy what a proud day for the children who danced and for One! International.
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