Still Remembering 2009...

As I said in a previous post (Remembering 2009), I have been reviewing the incredible memories, the life-changing moments, the glorious victories and the miserable defeats, the people that came and the people that went, and how it all brought me to where I am at the beginning of 2010. I encourage you to do the same.

I spent the last few days at my sister's house, watching Baby Face, so on New Years Eve, this is only my 2nd post in the series of 2009 memories. But here are a few more::

3. In May, while I was in Cambodia, my grandmom (who is so very very dear to me) got very very very sick. At eighty-years-old, she isn't as strong as she used to be, but she has always been independent, and she has been healthy (since she was my grandmom at least.)

I was three weeks into my six week trip, and made my first phone call home. Dad answered, we talked for a couple minutes, and then he told me Mom wasn't home because she was at the hospital with Grandmom. He was Grandmom was in the ICU but getting better... I was promptly devastated (like I said, Grandmom is always well and she means the world to me) and asked to talk with twin sis, Jessie, who had just returned a week early from the Philippines.

I wanted to ask her all about the Philippines and tell her all about Cambodia, but unfortunately it took me too many minutes to calm down and be assured that many people were praying, and Grandmom would still be there when I returned.

I didn't want to leave Cambodia, but I wanted to be no where else except beside my sick little Grandmom's bed in the Intensive Care Unit. The next day I found myself with a 104 fever, nausea, aching, exhaustion, etc., I was pretty sure that I was only sick with worry, but doctor tests a week later proved otherwise.

Anyways, three weeks later, Grandmom was improving when I returned to America six weeks after her emergency trip to the hospital. The last three weeks in Cambodia taught me a lot about trusting God with the care of my loved ones, because there was absolutely nothing I could do from the other side of the globe. It stretched me.. it broke me.. it gave me a better idea of life in Cambodia, with family and friends in the States.

I'm glad to have it behind me!!

4. Although I lost some friends to disagreements or moving away, I gained some lifers, six in particular: Aimee, Loren, Ashton, Hannah, Angela, and Zoey.

These are the girls that I spent three weeks with in Cambodia (and also hours of preparation before and meals and chats since,) and we had some life-changing experiences together. We have laughed together, cried together, slept together. It's been real - real fun, real interesting, real exciting, real awkward, real hot, and real beautiful. I love them and couldn't imagine 2009 without them!