My small sidekick and I traveled for 30 hours before we said hello to America again. We hooted and hollered shamelessly when the plane touched down in San Francisco. And I held back tears when the border patrol officer smiled and welcomed me back. It had been a long time...
My romance with Cambodia started when EJ was still in my womb. I met some friends who were missionary's there, and through their stories I felt both intrigued and attracted to this weird country. Even though my life was in shambles at the time, I told them I hoped to come join them in Cambodia someday, and I meant it. After 2 years of praying about it, I finally sensed God was giving me a green light to go for it. At the time though we were living off of $300. a month, and for us to move to Cambodia would cost around $6,000.-$10,000! I just thought, "Okay Lord, I'll do my part, and you do your part". Well like always He did, and in October of 2010 we flew across the oceans and started a new life.
Since it's all been said and done I'm free to tell you the cold hard truth:
Teaching in an orphanage was immensely challenging. I sure loved their little faces and hearing them laugh, but most days on our moto ride home I struggled with feeling overwhelmingly incompetent. I've learned through this process to do what God has set me up to do, and let him worry about everything else.
I'm not God and I don't need to save the world.
Raising a small child by myself in a totally foreign culture was a fantastic challenge that I both loved and hated. Only by his grace did I get through some of those days. And only by his grace did I know how to handle some situations that arose.
It was exciting, satisfying, life-changing.
Hands down one of the hardest things I've ever done and I'll never do it again!
Mission Accomplished, Season 2, Game Over, Next Chapter....
The minute you claim you will never do something again, God says "wanna bet?" :-) So happy to hear you are back in the states Elise and Ella-Jean!
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