Three more sleeps and we'll board a plane for India to visit friends. While there, we'll certainly share our passion...marriage coaching. Why? We can't help it. Talk with either Jill or I for more than a few minutes and we'll turn the conversation to this life-giving way of asking, listening, and setting shared goals for our marriage.
We're excited about marriage coaching because of its effectiveness. It's a process we've used to heal and save our marriage, and we've been told by numerous other couples that its helped them in the same way. Not only that, but once a couple learns it for themselves they inevitably share it with others!
We didn't choose to go to India...first it came to us. In the spring of 2007 a couple who works there came to visit family friends in the US. Some of their friends were our friends who introduced us. There was values resonance between us, so we decided to consider building a friendship. This couple came to Washington DC to visit for a few days. While with us they offered to cook a traditional Indian meal for our family. As we enjoyed it (even the spiciness) they predicted that we would visit them someday. Next Thursday at about 3am their time, we expect to be bedded down in their home in Pune.
You might be curious about the route to get there. July 12, 1030am depart Dayton, Ohio for Newark, New Jersey. Later that night (830pm) board a plan for Mumbai (Bombay). Arrive there 15 hours later (a direct flight). What will we do on the plane? Beth Leasure's advice is to begin living on their time zone once on board the plan in Newark. That mean's adding 9.5 hours to our watches. That's 6am their time the next day. So, maybe a couple hours of sleep as we depart, and then get up! Fifteen hours makes it 9pm that night that we're due to arrive (630am your time, EDT in the U.S.). Then it's a 4 hour taxi ride to Pune (check out www.maps.google.com and type in Mumbai and Pune if you would like to see the route).
It's humbling and exciting to be invited by these friends, and many of their friends to visit, and just as humbling that they and many of our friends in the US have wanted this to happen badly enough that they've financially supported this trip. That by itself has created a very serious sense of responsibility to do well with the opportunity to make an exponential number of friends, and to share freely with them what has been given to us.
What are we doing today (with 72 hours to go)?
Jeff out for a bike ride in a few minutes, then both of us to the office for a marriage coaching appt. and then two counseling appointments for Jeff. After that, it's the honey-do list. Review the packing checklist with Jill, maybe mow the grass, let Laura drive (she got her license yesterday), and finish some handouts for an upcoming marriage coaching seminar. Oh, and put final touches on chapters 9-12 in our book, How to Coach Your Marriage before sending to the editor (it's kind of like taking a bath before going to the Dr.)
Thanks for reading, and thanks for the encouraging thoughts and messages you've been sending our way!
Love, Jeff and Jill
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