So many emotions...

We are HERE!!!!! We made it back yesterday morning at 9:30! We are back in the U.S.A for good. The girls were absolute angels on the airplane. We are so blessed to have such sweethearts. Brielle had an earache that started the day before we left and even she was a gem.

I have so many feelings and emotions right now. I am devastated to leave behind the people and city I love, but so excited to be coming back to a beautiful, smog-free life. I think I have cried more this week than in the last year. Here are some of the expressions that elicited the most emotion:

"Thank you for being nice to me" (said by my friend's live in maid). I saw her randomly in the city before I left and said goodbye and this is what she said to me. I managed to smile and hug her and get through it but as soon as I walked in the door I fell apart on Hoss. You see these people are treated so badly by everyone. The entire city is racist against them and everyone else only sees them as a workhorse. They work 15+ hours a day/six days a week. If they complain with what they have been given then they could get fired with a bad referral letter. This letter means that they will not get another visa and will not be able to get the $450/month that goes to feed their entire family and extended families back home. They live in closets (if they are lucky) or they have to wait until their family goes to sleep and then they may have the couches. Sometimes they sleep in the child's room to make sure the parents aren't bothered during the night. And yet despite this, they are the most beautiful and joyful people on the inside that you have ever met. There was one in my building that never said he was having a bad day. I would see her and ask how she was doing and she would say she was happy everyday and would say bless you and make sure the girls got a hug. This is the same one that I watched with a newborn and a high energy two year old and the smile never left her face. You would never hear a negative word or complaint leave her lips.When I left her I asked if she knew any maids who could use my prepaid cell phone. She said she did but asked instead if she might keep it herself to remember me by. That made me cry too; so I did leave it for her and erased everything but the random pictures of us that we had taken. So anyways, when the last thing that the other maid said to was "thank you for being nice to me" I thought it was just so sad that her life is so hard that the few times I saw her and talked to her she was grateful that I treated her like a human being.

"Lets go Mom! There's nothing left here!" (said by Ashlynn) I was doing the last walk through of the house before we took off to the airport and she was super excited. Hoss had already left early to check in the dog and we were meeting him there. When I heard it leave her mouth I just had to walk to the laundry room and collect myself. I wanted to run out there and explain that even though there was no physical things left in that house there was so many good memories that I was having a hard time walking away from them. Every room I was walking through haunted me with the sounds of the laughter and joy that had filled them. I have such positive memories and the girls have changed so much since we arrived I wanted to scoop up that house and just sit in the living room and remember every smile. It's so hard to grow up and more so to watch your children grow up.

"This way sweetheart", "Your doing good honey" "Great job girls" These were the words I heard when we were traversing LAX. Everyone was so pleasant and nice. It was such a happy change from the foreign words and expressions of the Hong Kongers. We landed and had to leave Hoss in LA to drive Max down because the flight to San Diego couldn't accommodate his size and the rental car couldn't accommodate him and us. So, going through TSA's fabulous checks and navigating the LAX airport with the girls and six carry ons was a bit overwhelming after the long flight, but everyone was so nice to me and the little ones. On a side note, when they offered us a $400 voucher and tickets on the flight 2 hours later to San Diego I would've LOVED to get those tickets, but alas the girls and I were just done at 3:00am our time:)

Alright, well we are happily in the pet-friendly Travelodge. Today Hoss is checking in with that horrible new regulation haircut he will now sport. (I was quite used to his incognito one he wore on the job overseas.) We are getting cell phones and I'm going to sign Ash up for school and me up for the GYM!!!!!! How funny people look at us when we tell them (like the rental car people) No, I don't have an address yet. Nope, no cell phone. We are wandering souls for one more day and tomorrow we will get our housing assignment!

Random Thoughts...

I guess my internet is just really screwed up. I couldn't access it for a while and then it was on again, but I still can't attach pictures. If the fabulous people who tap my phones and watch my computer are reading this then please make it back like it used to be...I leave in four days and then you can adjust and screw up everything for the next person then!

Another random thought...
I love my husband and have to brag...he ran 3 miles in 19min 32sec last week!

More...
No matter how hard you try you still can't catch everything. Ashlynn was doing some crazy blinking last week and we thought maybe it was allergies so we took her in. It was allergies, but they found out she has almost no vision in her right eye and because of this it has become lazy. Thankfully we have 2 years to try to correct it before she is stuck with the results, but poor kiddo!

More...
I'm going to miss this place! The ladies here had a going away for me Tuesday night. We had dinner and sang karaoke. It was great and then they gave me the most amazing charm bracelet with charms from around Hong Kong! I am so thankful for everyone here that has made it so enjoyable. I will miss everyone.

More...
Four days!!!!!! How crazy is that?????????????

Just for a laugh...

Ashlynn at the Canadian Pet Store

When Ashlynn was 3 ½ we left Tunisia, N. Africa for a much needed Summer break and headed to Canada to relax in Calgary with my mom and younger brother, Kelly. It was a fabulous summer and the girls learned how to start calming down around other people; as Tunis had them paranoid. They were paranoid from playing at the park and getting run over by rude Arab boys who had no concept of proper play with little white girls and so, they in turn had no idea how to make friends outside of the American Embassy compound. Not only that but for safety measures I never let go of their hand when we were in public. Anyhow, they were definitely shell-shocked in this Western culture and I suppose so was I.

I say this because as I was driving home from the grocery store with my mother one evening, around sunset, I observed a young teenager in a small pair of shorts and tank top walking along a stretch of road that ran aside the highway. I immediately panicked and took in a sharp breath, and then I started laughing. It had crossed my mind that she wasn’t wearing enough clothing and since it wasn’t a densely populated area she was going to get raped. But in reality, her outfit was more than reasonable for the circumstances of the era and people didn’t have to worry about dressing with everything covered there. Not only that but she wouldn’t be looked at in such a sexual way for her dress nor was it dangerous for her, by any means, to be walking in that place alone.

So here we are in Calgary and for an evening activity we go to the pet store. The girls had never been to a pet store as there weren’t many in Okinawa and it was very limited in Tunisia. As a matter of fact we saw more living (and dead ) species at the food market than the “pet” store across the street from it. As a side note it was a very amusing day the day they had a live squid for sale that crawled across the floor and then stuck to the butcher’s leg for entertainment. We had to go back to the stinky, fish part every time after that but there never was such a “lively” performance repeated. We had to make due with the guys who would smack them as we walked by to show them suddenly flail and gasp through their fins displaying how fresh they were as they called out in French the names and prices. So back to the original story, we walk into the pet store and the girls have ear to ear smiles as they are drawn to the kittens that they have caged at the entrance; and their excitement attracts the attention of the bored saleslady who comes over to engage them in conversation.

Now my girls were slow to start talking and a bit shy from being overseas but once they get started every embarrassing family secret and bodily function could come out in course of a conversation. Brielle is even prone to start improving and fooling random strangers into believing that she goes to a school with 130 teachers and 9 brothers…well, that’s about the time I think they figure it out, but the point is that the girls love to talk. So, here’s the conversation I overhear when the saleslady asks Ashlynn if she has a kitten or wants another one:

I want a kitten but I can’t have one because my brother, Max will eat it (Max is a 130 pound Mastiff, but the lady doesn’t know this). I’m waiting for him to die and then my mom said I can have one. (Keep in mind that the lady still doesn’t know that her brother is a dog.) He’s in Africa with my dad. I wanted to bring him but my dad wouldn’t let me because he’s too big and he’s black.

I was sitting in the background dying! The poor saleslady had no idea and Ashlynn didn’t realize that there was anything wrong with what she had just said. So I had to step in and save her. At this point it wasn’t worth the explanation of why Africa and who Max the dog was. So we just redirected her to the rabbits and away from the horrified lady who still might remember the child who was waiting for her “big, black, African brother to die so she could get a kitten he wouldn’t eat!”