Blessings and Turbulence

We were so blessed to be sent off by about 2 dozen of our closest family and friends at the airport on the 17^th. We left with many tears and smiles. We are blessed beyond words to have so many people to miss and to miss us. After almost interminable good-bye's we went swiftly through security and set out for our 23 hours (or so we thought) of travel time. Everything was perfectly normal the whole way…until we got to our first gate. This is how our itinerary was supposed to look: Leave Denver at 9:04 p.m. and get to San Francisco about 10:40p.m. After about 1 ½ hr layover we would board a plane for a 14hr flight to Taipei, Taiwan. After that, a 1 ½ hr layover before boarding a plane for a 3 ½ hr flight to Phnom Penh. Easy enough…23 hours and we are at our new home. However, that is not quite how things went. That brings us back to our first gate. Our Denver flight was delayed about an hour and 15 min due to mechanical problems. So our 90 min timeframe to make our connecting flight in San Fran was diminishing quickly. We were grateful to have such helpful staff call ahead and even ask all other passengers to wait and let us off first even though we were basically riding in the tail cone of the plane (that is the "aft" portion of the plane for those seasoned air travelers). So we exited the plane in lightning speed (imagine how fast that is…6 of us with a total of 12 carry-on's each with the equivalent of 2.2 cinder blocks in them), and ran/walked/panted our way to the security checkpoint that would bring us to our next gate. Apparently we didn't look pitiful enough as the staff there just looked at us and with as much of a smile as they could muster at 12:30 a.m. told us we just missed it. Needless to say we were all thrilledJ. Actually, the kids (and Carolyn and I) rolled with it well. Consequently, we were guests of United at the S.F. Hilton and also had breakfast on them. Later, after about 33 phone calls and 94 min talking to a woman at the United counter who was "somewhat" difficult to understand, we ended up doubling our total travel time. 23 hours of travel is now about 47 hours. So as I type this it is about 1:00 p.m. pacific time. We are somewhere over the Pacific en route to Tokyo where we will spend 2 hours. Then we will be on to Singapore where we get to spend 8 hours. Yippee! From there we will fly to Cambodia where we hope our layover is about 3 years. All in all this "turbulence" has us arriving in Cambodia about 23 hours later than we first thought. Oh well, we are all together, healthy and ready to begin this next phase in our lives. Thanks again for joining us on our adventure.

It's Here

So the day has finally arrived. We leave for the airport in an hour and I don't think any of us have really wrapped our minds around it. How do you adequately prepare for a move as big as this? Not that we haven't spent the last year preparing (mentally, spiritually, emotionally, logistically...etc.) but we know that no matter how much time we put into getting ready there will always be some surprises that we didn't anticipate. Oh well! That is part of what we signed up for and are running at it full steam.
We spent a lot of our last week and a half visiting places and people that we wanted to say good-bye to and shed our share of tears. We are truly blessed to have sadness (on our part and on the part of others)as we leave. The alternative would be worse (people cheering our departure from the country).So far we are all healthy and so thankful for that. Again, we are so blessed to have so many of you sharing in this journey with us. We will be updating you on our progress...hopefully during our travels. Blessings!!

Grateful

We are so grateful for so many amazing people God has placed in our lives. So many of our friends and family showed up for our open house/going away party on Saturday. We were blessed, honored, humbled, thrilled, excited…etc for the outpouring of love that was shown to our family that day. I think we ended up with enough encouraging notes to open one every day for the first year we are there. Wow! We truly appreciate each and every one of you. There were some tears, a lot of laughs and great conversation. It is a great way to leave the country…with great memories of great people. We were also commissioned at Faith E Free church in Fort Collins yesterday. It was good to connect with old friends after both services. Then Alex had a going away party with some of his close friends. He has some amazing, supportive friends that we will all miss. Abby had a neat time with her friends in her 7^th grade small group as well. She felt very loved and honored by their words of encouragement. In all, it would have been hard to script a better weekend for connecting with so many valuable people in our lives and saying so many important good-byes. Thanks to each and every one of you!

January 17th

This is the day our family will say good-bye to one home, one phase of our lives and hello to a new one. January 17^th is the day we board an airplane and start a new chapter in our lives. It did seem a little disconcerting buying 6 one-way plane tickets to a third-world country but nevertheless, we are all excited…most of the time. At times each of us are filled with paradoxical feelings. Excited one minute and scared the next. Happy and then sad. Fearless and then fearful. Certain of the direction we are going and then at times wondering "what are we thinking?". But above all of this, we are confident that this is the path God has laid out for us. We rest secure and peaceful in this. It is amazing to look back on the last year to see where God has brought us, uniting all 6 of our hearts around one common goal. Thanks to all of you who are sharing this journey with us. Just know, if you ever happen to find yourself in Cambodia (I know it is a common layover stop for many flightsJ) you will have a place to stay!

Amazing Gift!

A couple weeks ago our family received an amazing gift from a friend of ours. It goes without saying, although I will, that we have been blessed in so many ways over the past year since we decided to move. Many of our friends and families have shown us tremendous generosity and kindness in our many facets of change. However, one of the most unique gifts came a few Sundays ago. Rachel Olsen, a photographer friend of ours, gave us the gift of a one hour + photo shoot of our family. The pictures came out so beautifully and we are so appreciative. We could not have imagined what a blessing it would be and now we have keepsakes for a lifetime. We recommend her very highly to anyone who needs pictures done professionaly and at the highest quality. Please check out Rachel's website at www.rachelolsenphotography.com. To see her blog and some of the pictures of us you can go to www.rachelolsenphotography.com/blog. Thanks again Rachel and thanks to all of you who are so actively involved in our journey. We are truly blessed to have you all along.

Being Helpless

Wow! It is hard to believe it is already November. We are continuing to move closer to our goal of moving to Cambodia and excitement hasn't been greater. We just had a church take us on as their missionaries which could really boost our monthly support goal. We also have a meeting with the missions pastor from another church scheduled for next week. God sure is moving. We are at 70% of our monthly support now and are trusting that we can report a large jump in that number once all of the details with these 2 churches are ironed out. Thanks so much for your prayers.

In the midst of all of this, we had an opportunity to experience receiving help when we were helpless even as we prepare to do the same for kids in Cambodia. It happened on our way back from a trip to Minnesota to visit Carolyn's mom. It was a nice and productive trip as we were able to help her out when she had back surgery. On our way home we looked at the weather forecasts and knew we would hit some snow in Eastern Colorado. No big deal, right? That's what I thought until the interstate was closed...about 50 miles from home. What a bummer. With an entire interstate full of travelers converging on a small town, I knew our chance at a hotel room was slim to none. We simultaneously looked for a room and another road out. Neither would yield positive fruit and we were stranded and helpless. We didn't know anyone in that town, the snow was piling up and it was getting colder by the minute. But thanks to the kindness and generosity of strangers we ended up safe and warm. We secured a room in hotel Red Cross. We ended up spending the night on the floor of the local High School Gymnasium with 80 other stranded travelers. We were fed and housed by people we had never met and will probably never see again. It was a humbling experience to be so dependent on strangers but it is also an experience that we will never forget and showed us the other side of being helpless.

A Little Fall Fun

To be honest, we were hoping to NOT see the fall colors this year. Not that we have anything against them but we were hoping to be in Cambodia by now. For whatever reason, God does not have us there yet. As we continue to look forward to moving we also continue to put our hope in the One who has called us there as well as in His timing. As Carolyn put it, "Our hope is not in our circumstances changing but in God's plan in the midst of it." He is certainly using our time here to grow us, stretch us, challenge us as well as bless us. One of our blessings was to get up into the beautiful Colorado Rockies to see some of the fall colors. We went for a hike to celebrate Calli's 10^th birthday. How soon we all forget and take for granted the beauty right in our own backyard. We took a long walk around Long Lake, saw snow, collected leaves and generally just had a good time as a family. All 6 of us are in a way grieving not having reached our destination yet, but trying to find good from God in the midst of it…and you know what? Its there!