i was born in new york city.
There are somewhere around 100 kids I think at the Rising Star school. Every afternoon we played with the kids on the playground until we were completely exhausted and dripping with sweat. Since there are so many kids I would be doing the same thing for a very long time. Like for instance, I pushed girls on swings straight for at least an hour and a half. Here I was giving piggy backs for a serious chunk of time.
We had the opportunity to go up to Delhi one weekend and ride an elephant, see a HUGE Indian wedding, shop, see the spice market, and see the Taj Mahal. So sweet.
Archana and I working in the school library. Some days you went to the colonies and helped with the medical team and other days you spent the morning tutoring the kids.
Here I am with the nicest man at a leprosy colony called Moot. We just looked at stickers together not really talking. It was amazing to see how we could communicate without having to talk to each other.
When we went with the medical team our job was to rinse the feet of the people so they could get new bandages from one of the nurses.
Every night we ate dinner on the roof of the school and saw the most beautiful sunsets and lightning storms from up there. I'm not even a huge fan of Indian food but I managed and the cook actually made some yummy stuff. My favorite were these little crisp chip-like bread things.
Rising Star also does micro-financing and gets people going with businesses. They have an art school where people who have leprosy can express themselves through art and then actually sell their paintings for a lot of money. I bought this one from this lady that honestly was probably 4'8'' no lie.
just one of the wonders of the world. nbd.
We went to this cool temple festival thing one night in the village that's nearby where we stayed and got this henna done.
Making some sand cakes one afternoon.
Every night I went to a "family" where I read to them and helped them with homework. Every night as I left all the boys would say, "Love you Auntie Sarah!" It was so sweet to see the immense amount of love they had.
They dedicated the school and dining hall while I was there and had a huge festivity. It was such a big time ordeal that we all put on saris. I felt very pretty in mine except that I could barely walk. After that I had so much more respect for some of the construction ladies that full on built buildings in saris just like these.
Leprosy kills the ends of your nerves which can be seen by this beautiful lady.
This man was blind but because of Rising Star he was able to have surgery and regain his sight. When he was trying to tell me his story he just kept crying and saying, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"
We had a Lange family tradition/favorite LEMONADE CAKE which was made with love by Rachel. It was super good.
Mandy and Brittney at the ice cream eating festivity. If you feel like you are in the room with them it's because I got a new camera which I love because it takes bomb photographs.
Kelli's family even came into town from Vegas so we got to spend some time with Adam her broski.
Cute candles.
We also went up to Park City for the Sundance Film Festival. We didn't see any shows but we mostly walked down Main Street and embraced the ambiance there. We did get some free hot chocolate too so that's always good.
Just the crew waiting for the shuttle. It was freeeeeezing but still super cool and fun.
We also went to Joe Vera's for dinner. Apparently this is an Edwards family tradition and everybody goes all the time with my grandparents so I'm a little confused on why I had never been there before but it was good. Kelli also wore a sombrero for some of the time which is always fun but when we started singing Happy Birthday nobody joined in or even gave us a pitty clap so that was a little weird but whatever.
I was supposed to put the dash between the B and the day so it said B-day but I didn't understand what Rachel wanted so it just says Happy B'day haha
Rach had the great idea to decorate the family room to surprise Kelli when she got back from school on Friday. It was fun to put up streamers and stuff. Oh and you KNOW we are gonna keep them up for at least another week. Party all week baby.
Running with all my homies during track season. We had a lot of fun with my flip video this season .
Angela is one of my teammates from South Africa and her mom works at a school there so during this track season we become buddies with some of those kids and wrote back and forth. I also taught the whole team how to knit and we knit about 70 scarves for the kids which they LOVED.
My mom ran for her second term in the House. I was her campaign manager again....we won. woo hoo.
Took Sally the Suburban up to Northern California for our friend Jenna's wedding. Slept about 8 hours in three days.
Went to India with Rising Star Outreach and worked with the leprosy affected and helped in schools where their children stayed. Loved it. I really want to go back.
Passed off #72 on my life goals sheet and rode an elephant in India.
A lot of the kids had hard names to remember like Bala Kumar, Nanda, etc. but the little boy in red's name is Ebenezer. That alone made him one of my favorites.
Lived with Rachel and Maddie during the summer in cs#304
North Carolina trip with the family which included eating kettle potato chips which I am now obsessed with.
Another life goal achieved with riding on a segway and yes that is a wild horse behind us.
Silly bands were huge at my family reunion up in McCall. My cousin Sunny had 60 on one arm. I don't think she totally understood the concept of trading bands but mostly taking others that she thought were pretty.
The whole family with our matching moose shirts up in heaven aka McCall, Idaho this summer.
The Fall was the last time we all got together before everybody started embarking on their new lives.
Cross country in the Fall with the best trip being Notre Dame with the beauty of Fall in full bloom around us.
Winter with the family especially my sweet nieces.
We went up to the cabin and went sledding a bunch on these sick tubes....so fun
Up at the cabin we played a bunch of duets on the piano. Sage obviously was loving her life during this time.
Naomi is four years old and she can seriously read. It's amazing. We were playing this game where we told her to spell words and she could totally do it. FOUR YEARS OLD!! (She can also skip) We also tried to teach her the whole song "Do a Deer" from the Sound of Music and she did great. 
Love this picture of my dad and Sage.
Naomi (you may call her Naomini or Naomi but nothing else) on Christmas morning. Please notice her little cheetah leggings and hot pink sparkle TOMS. Hahah I couldn't believe she actually got TOMS.
Sage repping her new little leotard which she didn't take off for quite some time. I loved her in this little leotard because her belly just poked out so cute.
The family doing the nativity scene. The unicorn outfit is supposed to be a donkey I think.
Sage was the angel. During the prayer she was bothering Naomi and Naomi got so frustrated that she finally yelled at Sage, "Sage, you are the BADDEST angel EVER!" Needless to say there was a lot of laughter during that prayer.
The family all reading the "Night Before Christmas" in special voices given and everybody had to guess who was being portrayed. Very fun.
Beata, Sagey in her cute snowman pajamas, and Sunny.
Please notice the little jumpers on the girls. My mom, Annie, and I made those outfits so they would look cute on Christmas Eve....mission accomplished.
Literally Naomi was obsessed with me this whole break. She always chose me to sit by her, put her to sleep, read her stories, play with her, etc etc etc. I was loving it and everybody else was green with jealousy.
My grandmas are beautiful.
Mom and Sage.
We made some divinity together which is a tradition we always make. My grandma and grandpa are the experts. It is high stress because it is very time sensitive but according to everybody, it was the best divinity EVER.
Not only can Naomi read but she learned how to ski this year. It was adorable. But while we were at Brighton the power went out so the lifts stopped working but we wanted to see all that she learned so my dad carried her to the top of the hill so she could ski down. She did great.
The cheerleaders on the sidelines.
Naomi and I at lunch during skiing. She was sure to show me her little button that said how great she was during her ski lessons.
Snowgirl inspired by Naomi who wore that wig for a whole evening. Naomi really really REALLY wanted to make a snowman and luckily we made one before the snow went all away. One of Jayne's friends brought us 6 more snowmen so we had a whole snowman village in our front yard. You wouldn't even believe how happy this made my mom.
So much time and effort went into this gingerbread village. It was even a two day project. So worth it though.
Naomi probably ate more candy than she actually put on the gingerbread house we worked on together.
So cute.
Sage was killing me in her outfit and she wouldn't let go of Matthew's finger which was even more funny.
Naomi was set on wearing her princess dress and tiara to the lights and tour of the conference center by g-pa alvin. oh what beauty and grace.