We’re home. Pausing a moment to let that sink in.

I feel like a new woman compared to last night when I didn’t know who or where I was or what in the world was going on. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. I actually did allow myself the luxury of a few tears after I tried to take a cold shower (we came home to a busted water heater) and lasted 15 seconds. Cold showers in Ohio are NOT the same as cold showers in Cambodia.

Anyway.

Here we are. I have hundreds, no THOUSANDS, of thoughts and emotions swirling through my brain. I’ve always been brain-swirled, but this is a bit much. Trusting God to get me through this.

THANK YOU for going along with us on our journey to Cambodia. Some of you expressed sadness that our trip was already over, because you were enjoying all the posts. WELL. Can I just say that we have THOUSANDS (and no, this is not an exaggeration) of pictures from our trip and hundreds of stories to go along with them?

We’ll be in Cambodia for a long, long time, friends.

Each of our girls got all teary in the airport when we hugged them for the first time, and it was one of the most beautiful moments EVER. Our three have fallen in love with the other 22 and are dying to go with us the next time we go. If you only knew how badly I want to help make this happen.

Sigh.

Well, my sweet neighbor A. has offered me a hot shower two doors down at her place, so I’m heading there now. Thank you, thank you, thank you, friend! Then it’s off to church where both Cambodia teams will be sharing with the rest of the church about our trips. Wowzers.

Thank you for you love and prayers, friends. You’re beyond awesome.

Today was amazing. Uh-MAY-zing. Tonight in particular. We threw a birthday party for all the kids at the orphanage, and Oh. My. Word. Pictures are going to have to do for now, because I couldn’t POSSIBLY describe the awesomeness.

First, here’s a pic of handsome Sophann with some of the new flowers we bought for the orphanage today. Half of our team went with Pisey to pick them out, and the rest of us went to the other Asia’s Hope orphanages to deliver medical supplies and candy. I got to see the orphanage that my sister’s church supports, and her picture was on the wall! I told everyone “THAT’S MY SISTER!!” Bethy, they were SO impressed when I knew every single name of all the people in the Peters’ family photo!

And, um, I CERTAINLY do not pick favorites when it comes to these 22 precious children, but this dude has stolen my heart. His new thing today was telling me his name was Olivia. And then Ava. And then Nina. He says I need a son, an older brother for my daughters. He will be my son, he told me. IF ONLY. Crying right now (by myself downstairs in the guest house at 11:06pm while everyone else is in bed) just thinking about saying good-bye to him. To all of them.

Okay, enough of the bawl-baby already. Let’s remember some HAPPY.

Lindy, Rebekah, Srey Roth and Erin. Let’s get this PARTY STARTED!!

Here’s the whole crowd (minus selfless photographer Jen) in our Kuh-MYE Dye tees and our birthday party hats.

So, we sort of kind of forgot to plan a bunch of party games. Oops. Thankfully, we’re quick thinkers (I use this term loosely) and I got this idea to divide into two teams with one balloon per person and hit balloons back and forth over the volleyball net for one minute. Whoever has the most balloons on their side when time’s up loses. Panha, our fearless translator and timekeeper, couldn’t really get anyone to stop at the 60-second mark. They were having way too much fun. HUGE success.

Balloon relay!! Oh my word, adorable.

Jen’s BRILLIANT version of Duck, Duck, Goose. Cannot WAIT to teach this to my kiddos when I get home.

Singing Happy Birthday to everyone. Beautiful cake, huh? Panha made us keep singing and singing while he passed out these gigantic firecracker/streamer things we bought at the bakery.

Quick thinkers that we are, we let them go RIGHT OVER THE CAKE and spent the next 10 minutes picking confetti out of the icing. Brilliant. They didn’t care. They waited patiently in line for their piece and licked their plates clean.

We made each of them a gift bag and each of our 7 team members made a card for 3 different kids. We called them up one at a time and clapped and cheered for him or her and Panha read the card we wrote. Then each kiddo would go hug whoever made his/her card. After Panha read the card that Gabe made Sothourn, he ran and JUMPED into Gabe’s arms for the hugest hug in the history of the world.

Happy Birthday, you darling, beautiful, dearly loved kiddos!!

Love, Ma-la (for Gabe, Doug, Jason, Erin, Lindy, Kim and Jen)

p.s. More great pics and stories on  Jen’s blog!

Today (Tuesday) was way more low-key than yesterday but SO much fun. After breakfast we headed to the orphanage for a big painting project (we painted the stone wall at the entrance–both sides). I’ll be honest, I didn’t do very much (okay, any) work. We didn’t have a whole lot of rollers and brushes and who am I to deprive these strapping young pre-teen boys who wanted to paint a wall?

Instead, I took tons of fabulous pictures of everyone else (Jason, Lindy, Erin, Gabe, Savong, Bun Ny and the older kids who were home from school on a vacation) working hard. I did get stuck painting the bottom of the wall with a paintbrush when most everyone else was finished. I painted over quite a few spiders and some dirt.

After painting, we unrolled our Kuh-MY-Dye shirts, rinsed them, wrung them out, wrote names on the collars, and hung them on the clothesline. We were a little low on dye there at the end of yesterday, but they still turned out super cute.

Savong and Pisey invited us to stay for lunch, and HOO BOY, yummeroo!! Fried noodles with chicken and greens and SOS Hot Chili Sauce. Yummoyummoyum! We’ve had a fair amount of American food while we’ve been here, and this Pei Wei girl CRAVES Cambodian food. No more fries! Bring on the rice! This is Longdich and Pisey preparing our meal.

After lunch we made birthday cards for the kiddos (we each made three), and we’re having a big birthday party for them tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon. We’re just going to shower them with love and gifts and let them know how special and beautiful they are.

The little kids got home from school and it was pouring rain, so Somphoas held up a tarp for them to walk under. Melt me.

Tonight was Boa Night. Be still my heart. Gave me chills to see all these beautiful kiddos making boas with all the fabric so many of you donated. AWESOME.

I’m telling you, friends, there’s gonna be an ache the size of Texas in my heart when we have to leave them in 2 days. And there are a handful of them that have wormed their way into the deep, deep parts of my heart, and I’d better just stop before I start crying. I’m sitting here with Jen while she updates her blog (I’ll finish mine in the morning with pics again). We’re talking about the kiddos and SIGH.

I’ve loved every second of this week. LOVED. God is so good. And Livi, Ava and Nina, we’ve told everyone ALL about you, and the kids LOVE the picture we gave them of you. See you SO soon!!

Thanks for praying, friends! You ROCK!

You guys, I’m telling you, I’m head over heels in love. Love this country, love these people, love, love, love. Not so crazy about the sweat pouring off of me 24/7, but that’s a minor detail, right?

I have a few minutes tonight (Monday night, Monday morning for you) to blog for a bit. It takes a long time to upload pics, so hopefully I can write tonight and do the photo part tomorrow a.m. I can NOT wait to show you tons more pics when we get home. My husband is amazing.

And, um, thank you for those of you who specifically told me you’d be praying for my relationship with the Gabester over these 10 days. We’re good. Good, good, good. (we do have 3 more days here though and a 30-hour plane ride, so feel free to keep praying awhile longer)

I loved, loved, loved visiting Daughters of Cambodia today (and buying things at their shop–Livi, Ava, and Nina, you’re going to LOVE what Mama got you!!). We couldn’t take pictures (to protect their privacy and keep them safe) but I have lots and lots of emotions and stuff to share soon. Let me just say that I have such a heart for restoring value and joy to these precious women. (Jen has much more about this amazing organization on her blog.)

We visited Toul Sleng today, the museum that commemorates the horrific genocide of the Cambodian people under the Khmer Rouge in the late 70′s. More on that later too. Wow. So much to process, so much hurt, so much horror.

Here are the girls and I by the graves of the last 14 people they killed. And Gabe has a picture of one of the rooms on his photo blog.

Tonight was Tie-Dye Night at the orphanage. John, the Executive Director of Asia’s Hope, was there with his wife and three beautiful children. They live about 10 minutes from us in Columbus, but we had never met them until Cambodia.

Here are some of the kids completely mesmerized by the tie-dye process. Witty Mr. John said we shouldn’t be calling it Thai-Dye but Khmer-Dye (which is even funnier when you know that Khmer is the word for the Cambodian people and language and is pronounced Kuh-MY). Kuh-MY Dye. Nice. Pics of our gorgeous t-shirts tomorrow!

Here’s a leftover pic from yesterday. This is sweet, beautiful Longdich.

Here’s Jason with Cheata and Yohan. So cute. I can’t really describe to you the intense love I feel for these kiddos. NOT thinking about Thursday evening and saying good-bye.

Here’s Lindy holding Rebekah, Erin holding Srey Roth and Timothy, Srey Rose and Srey Mich in front.

Somphoas and Gabe are pretty tight. And so adorable together. What a precious young man.

The kids are pros at Ladderball. This is Sophann showing off his skills. (and he proudly showed me a card trick last night that Spencer taught him. it was great!)

One more photo of the day. We experienced our first downpour yesterday afternoon, and Bunny (Boo-NEE), our driver, was absolutely brilliant driving through the “floody, floody” roads (Panha’s description). Poor Kim stepped on a nail sticking out of a board in the middle of a muddy puddle, and Doug rescued her by pulling the board out of her foot. She’s such a trouper though. It’s still hurting today, but she’s going to be okay.

Well, I’d better sign off or my ravenous teammates will eat all the breakfast.

Thank you again for praying and following along! Don’t forget to check out Jen’s blog. Can I just say that this girl is UNBELIEVABLY AMAZING? Seriously. She rocks my world.

See you tomorrow!

I’m sitting at the breakfast table with six of my favorite people. We’re all making fun of Doug. The banana pancakes are yummy this morning. Lindy opted for a fiber bar and Erin just doesn’t understand. “Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day!”

After breakfast, we’ll be heading to Daughters of Cambodia, a ministry that offers women in prostitution a better life. The women come voluntarily and are given a salary and taught skills. I can’t wait to spend some of my $ on their beautiful handiwork.

Yesterday (Sunday) was an awesome day. We went to church and worshiped the same God in two different languages. “I am freeeee to run! I am freeee to dance!” It was UH-MAZING. Loved praising Jesus with my brothers and sisters on this side of the globe.

Here’s our team before church:

After lunch we headed to the state-run orphanage, gift bags in hand. They greeted us with shy smiles and led us into their big, open room where they sat in rows of all boys or all girls in order of height. We taught them Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah! and stood up and down on their parts. They LOVED it. And so did we. Gabe got some video and promises to share it when we get home. So awesome.

Gabe and Panha made a ROCKIN’ team sharing the gospel with those kids. Thank you for praying!! It was incredible. I can’t wait to share Panha’s story of how he met Jesus two years ago. Incredible, incredible, incredible.

We had the amazing privilege of helping our sweet girlies get rid of some of the lice in their hair. Lice is just a fact of everyday life over here, especially for girls with long, flowing locks. They pick the bugs out of each other’s hair on a daily basis. We sudsed them all up with tea tree shampoo, rinsed them off and picked nits and eggs out with little combs and our fingernails. They sat still for soooooo long.

Sophann took this picture. Great job, Sophann! Gabe gave his camera to the boys for quite awhile last night, and they clicked away. Somphoas, Sophann and Phalla did most of the shooting.

We know that one of our words for our trip is “Flexibility” and we got a taste of it yesterday. Bunny, our driver, couldn’t come take us to the state-run orphanage because his daughter got sick and he had to take her to the doctor, so Panha called his dad, who just happens to be a tuk-tuk driver. We got to take turns riding in the tuk-tuk. So, so much fun!

Well, breakfast is over, and Erin ended up convincing Lindy to eat not one, but two, pancakes. And Gabe has put his finger on the difference in the heat between here and Ohio. “Back home I feel like I’m getting BURNED. Here I feel like I can’t BREATHE.” Now Jen is here, and I need to go brush my teeth.

Talk to you soon!

p.s. More photos and fun accounts of our day on Jen’s blog!