Oct. 1, 2018
Today was extremely busy. Of course it had to be today, when we needed our wash to dry fast, to rain. Finally, I decided to just string up a rope from the grating on one of my windows to another. Then I hung up the clothes, and brought a fan in and dried the clothes like that. Most of us used the time packing… around 4:30, James and some of the Khmer guys came to take us to the airport. Guess what? We actually left on time!!!
11:40 pm we just got through security at Guangzhou China. After we got through security, we came up to a place where there was stairs and escalators. The escalators were motion censored, so they were stopped. Forrest saw that they were stopped, disappointed, he started trudging up the stairs. Dad got on the escalators, and when he caught up to Forrest, the beat out look that went across Forrest’s face was priceless! Now we are all sitting in the lounge, the kids are playing in a PlayStation right by us.
Oct. 2, 2018 6:40 AM well, we made it to the states! The time zones really mess you up, we left china at 1 this morning, flew for 14 ½ hours, then we get to the states around 4 the same morning!
After that we flew to Charlotte. Lori picked us up, we went out for lunch and stopped and got groceries on the way back from the airport. We spent the next few days at my uncle’s place then we headed down to South Carolina and stayed with our friends for the weekend.
Monday, we went to my Uncle Arlyn’s house for supper.
The 11th was moms fiftieth birthday! Lori made crepes for breakfast, and with the crepes made a cake with fruit and whipped cream. It was delicious! That afternoon the boys and some of our cousins went on a bachelor camping trip. I think they all enjoyed themselves immensely. I was going to make a birthday supper for mom, but there was a power outage a couple cities wide so we couldn’t get groceries… so those of us that didn’t go camping went out for Mexican food. The next day was dad’s birthday. And the day after that was Cordell’s. We now have four birthdays in October. Three of which all come a day after another.
The next two weeks were jam packed with wedding preparation. The week of the wedding, relatives started arriving. Everybody helped out a lot. Family and friends. Thursday we went to the church and set up tables, decor etc.…
apple polishing
The day before the wedding was very busy and very fun (for me at least) A lot of the cousins were there. We did all the last minute preparations, then headed over to a park for the rehearsal supper. Uncle Roger made his famous chili… then we went back to the church and rehearsed. Over. And over. And over…
Then the day came for the wedding! We ate a hurried breakfast, ran around getting ready, then went to the church and took family pictures. We finally made our way inside… then all the hellos started. It was so good to see people. We had a mini Cambodia reunion. Matt’s, Jazzy, and Jon and Veasna with their adorable baby girl were there.
Photo Credits: A Thousand Words Photography
After cleaning up, the relatives from both sides, and friends, went to ‘our’ house for a supper of leftovers. We had a FULL house, there was 80+ people in the one house. It was all good though. It was pretty late by the time everyone left. The next day was full of goodbyes… the only bad thing about family being around, is that everyone leaves so soon.
That weekend we went down to South Carolina. Sunday we older kids went to our old church, and mom and dad went to Cold Springs. That evening we all went to Cold Springs, where dad gave a little devotional and gave a presentation of the work here. We were going to leave right after church, but they had a snack. We went back up to N.C. then. Lori and Cordell got back from their honeymoon that night. Cordell was sick with a fever and a stomach bug.
Monday morning we went fishing with our ‘brother” Jonathon and his wife Tina. Lori and Cordell waited till around lunchtime to come. Cordell was feeling a little better by then. Ryan had very good luck! Most of his were 5 lbs’ers. Jonathon caught an 8.15 pounder! I, as usual, didn’t catch one until the end of the day, and even then it was a cute sized one (it sounds better to say cute sized than small). Lori came home from fishing not feeling well. That evening, Rogers came over for a delicious supper of fried fish, bannock, and sweet potato souffle. After supper, Lori and Cordell opened and recorded their gifts. Then we just sat around and talked for a while.
Lori was sick all the next day. We hoped and prayed we wouldn’t get sick on the flight over. We basically just packed all day long. Took our showers, went to Rogers for a hurried supper, rushed back to the house, loaded everything up, and said tearful goodbyes and headed to the airport. This is the first time that we left Lori that she’s not alone anymore.
Flying back was pretty uneventful, Alaina did get a slight fever, and threw up once. But other than that, it was all good. When we stepped out of the plane, the wave of familiar smells, and the humidity was shocking. And now we’re back to normal traffic (it’s worse than it was when we left though), school, well drilling, and pretty much just everyday life.
Heather for the Helmuths
cambodianchronicles.com 