One Week and Counting

Well, actually it is only 5 days. Boy, you should see how excited Pun is!! Me, too, for that matter. He is really ready to go home, and I am ready for him to take me.

Last weekend our shipping company dropped off a rather large shipping container. We had 3 days to get it packed and ready to ship out. Thank you to all of you who helped us load up. If it hadn't been for many friends from church and our family, we wouldn't have made it in time. And I just can't tell you how glad I am it is all gone. I hope it gets to Thailand eventually!

The rest of this time has been spent saying goodbye. My dear friend LaVonne came all the way across the country to spend one last weekend with me. We had the best time together. Thanks, LaVonne, for coming so far to to say goodbye. Thanks for all the good memories and for your friendship. I will truly miss you.

Another highlight has been the chance to spend many evenings with the families from our church. We have been to so many special dinners with friends. It's just making it more difficult to say goodbye. But we wouldn't trade any of the memories.

On Monday night our church had a surprise party to send us off. We all ended up the canyon at a park where Pun and I had our wedding rehearsal dinner. It was an evening we will never forget! To our church body: You will never know how much you have come to mean to us. We will sorely miss you... And we won't forget all of you who promised to come see us in Thailand, too! We are holding you to it!! Thank you everyone -- We love you soo much!!

You know, Pun and I have talked about many things we will miss here like the seasons of the year (especially fall time), the mountains, snow, certain types of food, but we always end with talking about the people we will miss. Your friendships have been our true treasures.



PS I had planned to put more pictures in of our party and gatherings with friends, but none seemed to capture the essence of the events without too much explanation so I decided to add a couple other of my favorite pictures!

So much to say...

I am painfully aware at the time that has lapsed sense I last wrote. When I started this blog, I knew there wouldn't be too much to say until we actually moved but 5 weeks have passed since my last post and I never intended to go that long!

Thank you to those who still check up on us during this time. I know you keep coming back, I see it on the stats (although I don't know who you are.) Just a few things have kept me preoccupied: taking care of mom (more on that later), taking care of sick babies, computer problems that kept me off-line, being sick myself, company for a week, and family camp with our church to name a few.

As I write, Mom is off to her first check-up since the surgery. She is doing really well at this point. It has taken time to recover, but her headaches and nausea are finally subsiding. She is rarely sick, and her headaches are manageable. Thank you so much to all of you who prayed for her. I think she is finally seeing the good results we were hoping for.

We have finally purchased our tickets. We leave on September 5th. It seems like we have been standing at the edge of the cliff for so long, that to think we are actually going to jump seems surreal. There are several hurdles to cross before that time. We have yet to ship our things. It looks like that will happen the next weekend. Pun may have to make a trip to the Thai embassy before he leaves to clear up a problem with his passport. And of course, we want to spend these last days with family and friends.

Some of my family made special trips out to visit us one last time this summer. Earlier this summer my, mom's youngest brother and his family came for a week, and just last week my mom's oldest brother and his wife came. We had such a wonderful time with all of them, and felt so loved that would come so far to say goodbye. We will miss each one of them...

I have pictures to post, but the website is not working right. Pun somehow was able to get me in so I could at least write a quick update. I will post more when the website is up again.

Brain Surgery

Well, it's over!! Mom now has a dime size whole in her head with a shunt running from her brain down to her abdomen! She did excellent and so did the doctor. We are hoping and praying for immediate relief from the symptoms. If all goes well, she should be home on Monday.

Here's how the day went:




When we arrived at the hospital, Mom's tiny room was already filled with visitors. Although she was feeling lousy, she was definitely enjoying the company.

"You're going to do WHAT to my grandma?"

Helen tried in her own way to fix Grandma's "ouch" on her head. Check out the bandaid!!

Though the surgery was short, it seemed like such a long time to wait for Mom. Some of us got very sleepy.

When we heard she was on her way back to the room, nothing could slow this man down from meeting her at the elevator!!

She looks pretty good for just having brain surgery!!

Thank you, everyone who prayed for Mom. We appreciate your love and concern.

Late News

Happy 4th!! My mom decided to have a big party for the 4th, so we invited 14 of our friends from church over for dinner. What fun! We had a great time visiting and eating a delicious dinner and homemade ice cream (including jalapeno ice cream--thanks, Dave!). Everyone left before the fireworks but one dear friend, Char. We talked her into sticking around for our neighbors fireworks display (here we are watching them),



and to do a few of our own fireworks.






Helen and Daniel always enjoy having her around. Thanks for hanging out with us, Char!



One final note, for those of you who don't already know, my mom will be having surgery tomorrow morning. They will be putting a shunt in to drain excess fluid off her brain. I will post an update tomorrow or Sunday.

Hello, Mamazhenya

My cousin, Jenni, is about to leave for Russia to be a missionary. It has been so neat to see how God has led Jenni over the last 10 years or so preparing her for full time service. Jenni has such a big heart for the people and the country of Russia. She is bright, intelligent, and funny. She has a servant heart and most of all loves the Lord and wants to be used by Him.

She has her own blog. Check it out at : http://www.xanga.com/mamazhenya
If missions is near to your heart, please pray for her as she goes.

Jenni is the one in the middle in the picture. By the way, I am not sure where her blog name came from. Jenni, if you see this post, maybe you can comment!! :)