Apra's first Day at the Ashram after three Months in Europe

I already mentioned shortly yesterday how happy Apra was to be back at the Ashram! In fact, she was so happy, I really hardly saw her for the whole long day! It was just wonderful to watch!

First of all, she had breakfast Indian-style with paranthas out of our kitchen. She loves this Indian flat bread which is why we also made it quite often during our journey. While eating, she got familiar again with our staff members, the ‘aunties’ who love her so much but with whom she was a bit shy for the first minutes back at the Ashram.

Once the school children came for lunch however, she had completely stopped being shy! She took her own plate and sat down with the school kids, obviously feeling like one of them again. And once school was over, she was super excited to have our Ashram boys back!

For the rest of the day, she played with all of them, outside, despite the heat and humidity that made them all sweat. We have bought a training bike in Germany, a bicycle without pedals with which children can learn balancing themselves with the support of their legs and feet. We unpacked it and our daughter was excited to show it to the others. For the next hour or so, we could see the smaller ones racing around on that and a toy car through the whole Ashram!

At some point, Apra had a bath, too. We filled the tub that we use as her little pool and placed it in the center of the entrance hall – her favourite place for this activity! With warm water, some foam and at the center of attention, our girl had the time of her life, splashing around, making everyone wet who came too close.

Even though she was doing so much the whole day long, she did not sleep in daytime. She simply skipped her midday nap and kept on playing. We could see her getting tired though! Once Ramona sat down on the sofa to watch them. Apra came to her, crawled on her lap and for a moment looked like she was about to give in to the tiredness – but then she pulled herself up, climbed off her mother’s lap, walked over to Pranshu and pulled his hand saying ‘Let’s play something!’

It was only in the evening, when we were getting ready for dinner, that she hit the point of full exhaustion. She was in Mohit’s lap and just couldn’t hold her eyes open anymore! She fell asleep the moment Ramona took her in her arms.

And thus a day completed of which we know that our baby spent it in full bliss. What can be better than being home? Seeing your little daughter be so joyful and happy about being home!