It seems like just a week ago that I posted to our blog but when I reflected back on our last month I wasn't terribly surprised that it had been as long as it had. I wish I could go into every detail of our last 30 days or so but: 1. I wouldn't remember everything and 2: if I did, your eyes would be rolling up into your head by day 3 or so. In light of this, I am going to give you our month at a glance.
I would say the first big event that happened in our family is that the kids finished up the school year at Logos International School. Alex finished 9th grade, Abby finished 7th, Calli finished 5th and Cameron finished Pre-K 4. We are so grateful to God and proud of the kids with how well they adapted to their new setting. They went from homeschooling in America to attending a private international school in Cambodia and did it well. Besides the major, obvious differences, one big thing to get used to in an international school is that many teachers and students are only there for a limited time. Most of our teachers sign 2 year contracts and then they are done. Also, many students' parents are only here for a short amount of time so the good-byes will maintain a sort of regularity. That is just another unanticipated aspect of living internationally.
The second big thing that happened to us in the past month is we ended our 15 months of homelessness. I do use the term lightly as we always had a comfortable place to lay our heads but we hadn't had our own place for over a year. It was difficult to not have a place to call our own, a place to personalize and have friends over. Our yearning for a place of our own came to an end on June 1st when we moved into our own place here. We are in a new and growing region called Phnom Penh Themey (meaning New Phnom Penh). It is near the kids' school (15 minute walk) and just down the street from House of Hope (HOH; Asian Hope's boy's home). Our neighborhood also has several other families that we know so it really feels like home. We are also really enjoying living near HOH. Several times per week the boys stop in to play ping pong, hang out, play a game, watch a movie or just eat some banana chips and chat. It is so much fun and very consistent with our family's heart to have an open home and open hearts. Thanks God!
I could write for hours on the humorous journey of purchasing EVERYTHING for our new home but that would take…um…hours. But suffice to say, it was a crazy time. First finding where they sell a certain item, then negotiating a price (with language barrier), arranging delivery of larger items (all done on moto's), trying to communicate our address or directions…etc. Some days it was charming and endearing and other days I would select a descriptive word which would be the antonym of endearing (unendearing?). However, through all of the unpredictable and sometimes unimaginable obstacles we had to endure, I am so grateful to Carolyn for so patiently and thoroughly making this house into our home adding touches that really do make it home. To add to our excitement, right as we were starting to move some of our stuff over to the new house, I pulled, tore, strained or otherwise injured my hamstring playing street hockey. OUCH! I quickly looked up treatment for a hamstring pull and read about the RICE protocol and was relieved because we are in Southeast Asia and we have a lot of rice. But then I realized that RICE was an acronym for rest, ice, compression and elevation. So out of those four, I did roughly none of them and I think it is healing just fine. My hamstring has reminded me several times, by way of a sharp shooting pain, that it is still not back to normal but nonetheless we successfully moved in during that time.
The third big event that happened during the past month was that we hosted our first official mission team for Asian Hope. It was a group of 10 wonderful college students from Louisiana Tech. They were here for about 3 weeks and during their time here we ended up kind of adopting them into our family. It was busy but fun. I love having a job where I can have some of my kids or even all of my family be a part of it. While they were here we spent a lot of time serving many who are less fortunate alongside the students from our House of Hope and House of Faith. We hosted some VBS/fun days at our school, taught children from the dump, scraped and painted, removed trees…etc. It was such a great help to have them. The timing worked out great, too, as we were able to host some get-togethers at our new house. A couple times while they were here we were able to have about 3 dozen people at our house, which presented an awesome time of fun and fellowship. Alex, Abby and I also accompanied the team to Kampong Thom, a province about 3 ½ hours north of Phnom Penh. There we visited a ministry which houses, teaches and trains and nurtures orphans. It was a great opportunity to serve and also for me to connect with another ministry. God sure is moving here in Cambodia.
I know this is a brief description of our last month but I will diligently try to make more regular updates to our blog. Reflecting on our last month, I am left with a greater excitement for what God has in store for the people of Cambodia and more specifically for our family. There is a lot of oppression and pain in Cambodia but the longer we are here, the more we can see God's hand at work. We are humbled and honored to be a small part of that. A huge thank you from our family to each one of you reading this, because in doing so you are joining us in our journey.
