Thanks for stopping by, sweet one.
How to keep this short?
For, brevity is surely a weakness of mine.
I (Jessica) am from the West.
Raja, he is from the East.
Raja is a Psychiatrist with a heart to see healing of the body, mind, and spirit in the mentally ill.
He has a brilliant mind, a courageous heart, and a longing for the Divine.
He loves to see the blending of spirituality and psychiatry and believes in healing in the name of One.
I am a nurse with a pilgrim’s heart.
(Really, I am just a sassy mess who has been washed in extravagant, costly, blood-red Grace)
I came to India with a longing to work with women and girls.
(Really, I am just a sassy mess who has been washed in extravagant, costly, blood-red Grace)
I came to India with a longing to work with women and girls.
I love travel, nursing, & women’s health
I had (and still have) a fierce longing to see restoration in the women of this nation.But most of all, we both just have a heart to see redemption.
We have a deep longing for Abba’s heart for His people.
We were married in March 2011.
After marriage, we lived rural NE India where Raja had been for 5 years.
I was teaching in the nursing school while Raja worked in Administration and Medicine.
We had plans, ideas, and imaginations of what the future would behold.
But we never could have imagined what our Abba Father was authoring.
Our first son, Adam joined our family thru adoption in September 2011
(Yes, that was 6 months into marriage)
It was simply a matter of obedience
As we were reading thru Paul’s letter to Rome in chapter 8
We were confronted with our own adoption as His sons and daughters
And when Adam was abandoned at our hospital due to significant physical deformities
We were awakened to the reality of our own spiritual condition before our adoption
And His extravagant, sacrificial Love that adopted and redeemed us
And His extravagant, sacrificial Love that adopted and redeemed us
So we walked forward and it has been wild
Because our Abba…?
He is a wildly radiant Author of Life
And He likes to take foolish things to shame us, wise
And He likes to weave beauty from ashes
And He likes to make the bitter taste sweet
There have been some frightening steps along the way
Hard diagnoses and fatal prognoses
But Adam has thrived
He is going to be 2 years old in September 2013.
(We were originally told he would not live 2 months)
We are so thankful for you joining us on our journey with Adam.
______________________________________________________________________
But our family is much more than surgeries and adoption and such
We are really quite normal and rather awkward;)
We speak multiple languages but not clearly and we like dance parties but lack rhythm
Our newest addition to the family arrived 1 year 4 days after Adam!
Elliot Justice Paulraj was born on September 22, 2012
To say this child is a gift and a joy would be beyond an understatement
We are so thankful for these 2 boys and the joy and laughter they bring our family
We are so thankful for how our God authors our lives very different than we could imagine
Raja continues to work in Psychiatry in North India with Emmanuel Hospital Association
I am now in a beautiful season of staying at home with our two boys.
I am learning about faithfulness in the mundane
(But I am actually learning that He is a God of paradoxes…
And often when we walk by faith, we see that the mundane is actually the Glory)So this season is filled with boys, many pots of chai, & a lot of bike riding in a rural village in the North
I am attempting to scribble down His glory as it passes by
I am learning about faithfulness in the mundane
(But I am actually learning that He is a God of paradoxes…
And often when we walk by faith, we see that the mundane is actually the Glory)So this season is filled with boys, many pots of chai, & a lot of bike riding in a rural village in the North
I am attempting to scribble down His glory as it passes by
I would love if you joined me here and walked with us on this pilgrim journey.