There’s really nothing quite as fun as spending time with the whole family is there?! Especially when you don’t get to see them very often! We were delighted to meet Stephanie! It’s weird to have a sibling dating and never have met her, but Luke definitely found himself an amazing girl! She’ll be a great addition to the family! I approve wholeheartedly of the match!

We had a work team here over the time that they were here so we didn’t get to do that much out of the ordinary… after a couple days we got to know each other better and the awkwardness vanished, and it felt like we’d known each other for lots longer than a couple days! Then we could talk about normal things and forget the small talk. Luke went to work with the guys a couple days, and took Steph to see the sights and meet the people she’d seen pictures of. His students were happy to see him! One Sunday evening, one of the Khmer ladies from Bakong invited some of the people from the church and ALL the Americans over for supper. And there was a lot of Americans! But she said she wanted to give them all a chance to try curry with rice noodles! It was a good experience for the team! most of them liked the it, but some were a bit hesitant to try Khmer food!

One night after the team had left from supper(it seemed like they left early that evening), after the house was cleaned up and we were almost ready to crawl in bed, I heard a shriek and laughter downstairs! I thought something must have hit the boys really funny! I pulled out the phone to ask them what happened and there was a loud banging and more laughter in the hallway by our bedroom… Carissa jumped out of bed to see what was so funny! She opens the door and screamed “LORI!” That was definitely not what I was expecting to hear! James and Ruth left early to go pick them up at the airport, they were the only ones who knew! Lori had us all feeling so sorry for her, she’d always send such pitiful sad emojis when she’d talk to us! It was around 11 when they got to our house. James had the key for the gate and let them in. Also this was the first time Cordell’s had been to this house so they had no idea what was where. All of the lights were off except for one room off to the side, they decided to just go in and HOPE it was a bedroom! Luckily for them it was, Mom, Dad and Luke were still up talking… We went downstairs and chatted for a bit the shock wore off and the drowsiness kicked in. It took a bit longer for the shock to wear off for Alaina. once she got upstairs she started weeping happy tears, she’d stop for a minute, come give me a huge hug and say “Joy! Peace! Happiness!” Then she’d jump for joy and start the whole process over again!

Thankfully we already had plans to take off and enjoy ourselves the next day! We went to the silk farm then at lunch and played games at the reservoir. Saturday evening we invited our closest friends over for pizza, and had an impromptu singing afterwards! Lori had so much fun surprising a couple of her friends! Mali’s reaction was priceless! She came out of the kitchen door, she saw Lori and her hands flew to her chest, “why?! What?!” Cordell’s were not here nearly long enough for us! Only six days!

There was lots of laughing, story telling, and game playing in those 6 days. The lovely evenings sitting around the table, long after supper was eaten, talking of days gone by and days to come. Some especially exciting days to come! For starters, Mom and Dad are gonna be grandparents! We’re super excited! We tried to make the most of their time here, Luke and Steph’s flight got canceled and the left a day later, so that worked out nice for us! We honestly didn’t do that much, we just hung out and talked when we weren’t busy. We went shopping once or twice. Putt putting. Before we knew it, the time was up and they had to leave. Even though it was super short, we all loved it! The next time we’ll see each other is at Luke’s wedding! 

Until next time, Heather for the Helmuths