First day on the ground.
Its 5:02 am. I’ve been awake off and on throughout the night. Even the Ambien wasn’t enough to counteract the exhaustion and the jetlag currently wreaking havoc on my body and brain.
The boys seem to have come through this remarkably well. They slept reasonably well on the plane, napped for a few hours upon arrival, went to bed early – about 6pm local time – and appear to have slept through the night. Kori reports that Xiu Dan was up for a while in the middle of the night; it must have been during the time the Ambien was working, since I don’r remember it at all.
The kids also seem to be adjusting reasonably well to the new surroundings – no fighting, no extreme grouchiness – in fact, they’re treating each other better here than they do at home. We’ll see how long that lasts; we’re going to actually try to get them out and about for a while today, visiting the Asia’s Hope Christian School around lunch time.
We were greeted at the airport by Savorn and Sony, and by all of the directors of our Phnom Penh-area orphan homes. They gave each of our kids single stem roses, and had garlands of jasmine flowers for Kori and I.
The staff hustled us off to our guest house – a beautiful three bedroom apartment in the center of the city, near the famed “Russian Market,” or Psar Tuol Tompoung. The property is managed by a local church pastored by our good friends Narin and Quenie Chey. The Cheys and their four children, Donald, Donna, David and Joshua live across from us in a slightly smaller but otherwise identical unit.
The staff handed over the keys to the apartment and to the car, and Savorn said, “We’ll leave you. You’re tired.” We quickly sorted out who’s sleeping where, and unpacked as much as we could manage – we were running on empty, so we didn’t get far.
Aside from a quick trip to the store to buy eggs and juice, we really didn’t go anywhere or do anything. I took the kids on a short walk, after which the boys went to bed. I haven’t seen them since.
As much as I’d hoped we would be able to sleep through the night and wake up bright and early, I have a feeling that we’re going to be taking it slow today. Thanks for your prayers and good wishes. I’ll try to post more tonight, perhaps with pictures from the day.
