i'm not dead

despite an alarming lack of writing, both me and this blog are in fact NOT dead or even on a respirator.

the past two months have been a good kind of insane and happy and full and fulfilling.  i'll share some of those most favorite moments soon, but it has been the best to feel, daily, completely and utterly serene with one's place, both emotionally and physically.

i still get excited thinking about my career post-cambodia and where we'll go next as a little family- do we grow? when? are we ready?- but mostly, i'm content in the day to day, simple life here in cambodia.

it's a heady thing, realizing how unflinchingly lucky you are when you are given over two years to simply exist, experience and expand with your favorite person.  we gave up a great deal- me, a job i adored with people i admired and respected and both of us, a home that we love welcoming people to or enjoy lounging around in on a lazy sunday afternoon and families that love us more than we deserve- but we're getting a great deal in return.

we've received swarms of amazing friends, both american and cambodian alike.  people whom, i have no doubt, would do anything to help us at the simple request of "please."  people who feel comfortable sitting, talking about nothing for hours on end.  friends that i know we'll have for the rest of our lives, and that our children will grow up calling aunt and uncle.

we've received an additional family, complete with a host mother who gets mad when i don't return her calls fast enough and asks me every single day if i need anything, a host sister that loves to joke around with us but can kill a menace on eight legs faster than anything and the best three little host nieces and nephew who's screams of "aunt! uncle!" when they hear our bikes click up to the front gate are enough to turn any sort of frustrating, sweaty, disappointing day into an instantaneous success.

we've received new skills in the art of living and working with people, especially those whom initial ideas and customs are inherently completely different.  and i've received a new motto for my life that will guide me through my deepest fears of not-over-planning and not-being-the-best:

mistakes are new experiences.

so, in sum:

there is contentment taking a permanent hold of my heart.

there is anticipation of what the next fourteen months holds.

there is commitment to sharing the steps along the way with you all.

*******

and now i have to go watch topher attempt to beat a new level of angry birds.

and then gloat about my supreme awesomeness of crushing those irksome little pigs. ha!