Kalia, Beautiful Kalia

3:09 am, January 6, 2011... woke to the sound of my husband crying on the phone. I already knew why. He was scheduled to fly to NH that afternoon to spend time with Kalia before the Good Lord called her home, but it was too late.

I spent the day crying... on the couch, in bed, on the phone, in the car.

I had just seen Kalia two months ago when she drove down to take part in the Jon Stewart Rally for Sanity. We all crammed into a booth at the Silver Diner in Arlington, VA; me, Mike, Lukas, Cody, Micah and Kalia... ate a huge breakfast and laughed at life's random humor.

She looked great, felt great and, if you didn't know any better (which was the case with most of her friends), you would never know she was sick. I could never imagine that would be our last day together. It was the start of a good day, and a good moment to have in rememberance of Kalia.

I came in to work to avoid lying in bed all day and thinking about the source and reason of this run of bad luck, only to avoid co-workers and their expressions that mirror my mindset. I don't have an answer... I don't know why... I only know that my stomach turns and my head throbs and my heart physically aches because a very bright and beautiful light in my life has gone out.

Unexpected Departure

Feels like we left Bangkok "in the middle of the night" at the end of this summer. We didn't know what to expect after Mike was medevaced back to the US, after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Two weeks later, we flew Lukas and Mary home to try and resettle our lives back in the US. Lukas went straight to Derry to live with his sister Kalia, and Mary stayed in NY for a few months until we could sort out some kind of permanent plan.

Now that the holidays have passed and Mike is well into his chemotherapy treatments, we took up permanent residence in Arlington, VA and brought Mary home. Micah will finish the year at Houghton Academy before joining us.

Time to rename this blog ...

Final Year

Less than 10 months left in our Bangkok Tour. We keep saying we need to make a list and prioritize what we want to see and do before we go. Since “making a list” is actually on Mike’s imaginary to-do list, I will go ahead and commit one to writing now…

1. Furniture shopping
2. Visit the elephant sanctuary
3. Flight of the gibbon

Other things that would be nice, but I won’t be heartbroken if we miss out…
4. Angora Wat
5. Luang Prabang
6. Vietnam tour: Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; Mekong Delta, Cu Chi tunnels