Our Trip to Chicago

Here are some photos from our first family road trip to Chicago. This weekend trip was planned many months ago with the intent of meeting other families who adopted from Samedh's orphanage. Long story short, we were the only family who showed up. Disappointing? You bet. Embarrassing? A little; especially since I tried my best to coordinate the reunion. Would I ever attempt to coordinate another reunion? Not likely.

So we turned our "one family" reunion into a "Raja family reunion" and spent some good quality time with Pankaj's brother and his family. Samedh had fun with his cousins, whom he hadn't seen since May when they visited our house. The highlight of the weekend was our visit to the B.A.P.S. Temple in Bartlett, IL. The grounds were beautiful and the marble temple just incredible. Though we were not allowed to photograph inside the temple, we took plenty of photos and video from outside. Once inside the temple, Samedh was well behaved and silent (for the most part). He enjoyed seeing the marble statues of Ganapati (whom he affectionately calls "Bapa") and Hanuman. The evening was spent at a local park, where we joined about 2 dozen other Indian families for a neighbor's birthday party. It was so nice of my brother-in-law's neighbors to include us, and Samedh really enjoyed running around with the other children. He and I also had fun watching Pankaj and Uncle Subodh and the other dads play an impromtu game of cricket.

Our wonderful weekend ended with a visit to the ER for Samedh. Looking back now, it's not as bad as it sounds. We believe Samedh got bit by a mosquito at the park Saturday night, and had a bad reaction causing his eyelid to swell up. The doctor diagnosed him with "cellulitis", which is a bacterial infection of the skin. He's been taking antibiotics since Sunday night, and the swelling has gone down considerably today. Poor little guy could hardly open his right eye yesterday morning. And he is taking his medicine very well. The strawberry flavor helps a lot, but Samedh always tells me, "Docker" (Doctor) and "Nancy" (the nurse) whenever I take the bottle out of the fridge. I reply, "Yes, Dr. Golin and Nurse Nancy want you to take this so your eye will get better." Another plus with the medicine? The pharmacy gave us an orange colored syringe. Orange is Samedh's favorite color these days. Every little bit helps.