Sopheak's visit so far.............

has been a lot of fun I think! She and Malachi went shopping together:on the motorcycle .............and bought canoe paddles. We all went to a church family get together last weekend to welcome our friends the Morgan family who were visitng from their transplanted home in Athens, Georgia, after being part of our church body from its very earliest days . We have not seen Susan and Chris and children Tyler, Ally and Spencer for two years. They had changed, as had our kiddos. We all got a smile and a couple of good laughs that Sopheak, who looks a TINY bit like our Leah, was mistaken for Leah. She fielded a lot of "OH MY YOU HAVE GROWN!!!!" comments until the identities were straightened out. it was a really fun day. That same night Hannah and I took Sopheak to an American wedding, something she had hoped she'd get to see, but had no idea if THAT would be a dream come true or not. High school friends of Hannah's, Jennifer and David, married each other on the terrace of one of the stately buildings on the Oklahoma State University campus in a simple but lovely ceremony. (The terrace overlooks a very famous and favorite spot at OSU, Theta pond, where a number of ducks, swans and geese live year round. After the ceremony we all walked down to the pond to show it to Sopheak. Malachi and she took the little girls ther the next day as a result.) In typical Oklahoma cowboy fashion, the guys wore black jeans, black cowboy boots, cut away tux jackets with tails, and black Stetsons. The brides attendants were so pretty in their pale orange/peachy colored dresses; the mini- hit of the service were the tiny flower girl and ring bearer. We got to talk about the differences between Khmer and American weddings and discovered that while we here in the USA don't have 7 complete changes of clothing and make-up during a 16 hour wedding day, and we don't essentially send a bill to the invited guests to help pay for the wedding, boquets are thrown in Cambodia, garters are not, both have lots of music, tradition and ceremony. Sopheak told me that she and Malachi, if they marry in Cambodia will not do all the clothing changes, but will go simple. She did particpate in the bride throwing her boquet, but was not in the line of fire when it landed. THAT would have been a super fun story to tell back at home! We did get her on the dance floor with us to play around with "YMCA", also NOT a Cambodian tradition. We all enjoyed watching some of the older couples dance so familiarly with each other...........just lots of fun. Stillwater being the small town that it is , we ran into some people from our "other circles" at the reception. you never know where someone you don't expect to pop up..............does!!!!!
Father's Day was a new thing too, and another fun day. Malachi has some friends who live in the house where country music celebrity Garth Brooks lived when he was an OSU student in the late 80's. The house has a placard over the porch and it is a tourist spot, even though college kids live in the house year after year. Anyhow, Sopheak can go home telling friends that was in Garth Brook's former residence as on more of her American experiences. We have spent a lot of time in the pool since its been hot even for Cambodian standards this week. the dish washer and the garbafe disposal were two other American staples we have introduced "Pat to. They AMAZED her, especially the garbage dispoal when I shoved junk in the hole, turned it on and we watched radish greeens and left over food scraps disappear in to a noisy abbyss.
The little girls have invited her to bottle the baby goats with them, they have invited her to sleep in their room, and have come to spend the night in her (Leah's) room. I NEVER know where I am going to find the bodies of the sleeping around here. The sofa and love seat are SO comfortable it's not uncommon to find people never making it to their real beds to sleep, the kids camp back and forth in each other's rooms, I usually have company upstairs when Charlie is out of town. 'Pat has some friends in Tulsa and in Oklahoma City she will get to spend time with, but the big BIGGIE is that she and Malachi are driving to Orlando to be guests of some friends there who are taking them to Disney World!!! HEY I have lived here all my life and I have never been THERE!!! I hope they have a great time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is a Cambodian church in Orlando so Sunday morning they will worship our Lord in Khmer together in the USA. The drive to Florida will be a super experience for Sopheak to get to see that not all of the USA is flat farm land. She has been to Australia and Thailand, the southern USA will give her lots to compare those places to, for sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, she shares my children's disdain for my home grown radishes too..........oh well!!!!!