No Time for Tears

About a week and a half ago I bought some milk dated to expire on May 24^th and right there in the middle of the grocery store it hit me that the milk I held in my hand could stay in Cambodia longer than I could.  It made me so sad and I had to run next door for a cup of coffee and some personal time and self reflection before I could finish my shopping and go home.  Oh yes, and some tears.

Lots of tears.

Then one of my dear friends left a few days later and there were more tears.  She’s pregnant, see, and she is going “home” to have her baby and as I hugged her and realized that I might never meet that baby, my heart was filled with sadness.  I cried like a baby over that goodbye.

But since then I’ve had no time to shed a tear.  Cambodia is kicking us out with chaos! 

Let’s see where to begin?  We have this online forum for buying and selling things here.  It’s similar to Craigslist and has been really useful for us, especially since we had to purchase so many things here in country.  We came in June and bought things from other expats who were leaving at that time.  Now it was our turn to sell things, so I posted – on a Tuesday – that we would be having a moving sale the following Saturday.  I even added a fancy .pdf file with photos and prices to the ad.  I figured we’d do it two Saturdays before we left so we’d have the second Saturday as a back up to sell whatever was left. 

I had no idea what posting that ad would mean!  I got over 100 texts, calls, and emails within 24 hours, most in the middle of the night.  People didn’t want to wait until Saturday.  They were ready to buy my whole home, and I still had to live in it for 11 days!  I gave up after answering so many questions and moved the sale up to Thursday.  A couple great friends showed up to help me out that morning, coffee and muffins in hand, and almost everything sold in the first 2 hours.  It was chaos.  But I was happy to be rid of it all.  My friends gave me some essentials to borrow to help the family survive the next 11 days.

But things stayed crazy!  I got a bladder infection, which I’ve never had before, and had no idea what to do about, and it happened when I couldn’t find a doctor to see me because it was the king’s birthday and that’s a 3-day national holiday. 

Then our youngest son got what we thought was a small cold sore on his mouth but quickly spread and grew into an infection on various parts of his face and hand and we ended up at a doctor with him just after the holiday only to find out it was Infantigo, which just means that he had a bacterial skin infection.  Still, one more thing to take care of since life wasn’t busy enough! 

And then we realized we forgot to sell our bikes, so we listed them.  I took a quick photo before we sold them.

But we never got to sell Stephen’s because he got hit by a car on his bike.  Yes. Hit. By a car. While just sitting still at an intersection waiting to turn.  Don’t worry.  He’s fine.  I mean, he’s physically ok, but he is pretty annoyed.  The lady just drove away!!  Ugh. 

Chaos.

No time for tears.

People keep asking, “Are you all packed yet?”

Sometimes I lie and say yes.  Sometimes I laugh and say no.  Sometimes I want to punch them.  Hey, just being honest.  It will get done, right? 

It’s almost done now, I promise. 

Well, I mean, since we leave our apartment in about 24 hours now.

   

Which is why I should get back to work.

No time for tears.  But they will come.  I am sure of it.

Thank you for all the prayers from around the world.  We can feel them, I promise you that.
Keep ‘em coming.  We love you.