We were given a ride to the airport by a very interesting young Mennonite from Paraguay. He was volunteering for a year with MCC’s meat canner and planned to enter seminary on his return home. Originally, he was drawn to working as a Missionary in Nepal but had since felt called to the Low German speaking Mennonites in Bolivia. We had a series of fun discussions on the ride and I told him, repeatedly, that he should come to Indonesia in 2021 for Mennonite World Conference. He was also very helpful with the mountain of luggage we brought!

We have made so many trips to the Philadelphia airport over the years to pick up and drop off travelers. It was a bit surreal to be heading there ourselves for the last time for awhile.

There was a massive line for security at the Philadelphia airport but, fortunately, it moved forward at a decent clip. Some of our carry on bags were flagged in security because I had technology in them – external hard drives need to taken out and placed in a separate container just like laptops.

The first flight went well. On boarding they did take several of our carry on bags and put them into the cargo hold. The assistant said they were checked through Hong Kong despite our repeated requests that they be checked through to Phnom Penh (this is important later). I think all of us got at least a bit of sleep on the first flight – Catherine passed out immediately after take off. My mom use to tell the story of how I passed out immediately after take off on my first flight so that made me smile. Then we had to hurry through LAX to our next flight and got there shortly before boarding. They wouldn’t let us board with the stroller – just like the last flight – but stowed it below and said it would be available for us on landing (this is also important later).

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The long flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong went better than I dared hope. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. The girls got way more screen time than they’re use to, played with travel toys, and slept. The food, for the most part, was good…but challenging for the kids to eat without making a mess. Catherine got tired of sitting a few times and wanted to climb all over, but switching activities worked to get her calm (e.g. giving her the easel, some stickers, the busy book, turning on a movie, etc).

Hong Kong was our shortest layover and we immediately noticed on arrival that there was no stroller. There was a Chinese America mother with daughter around Catherine’s age who was in the same situation. We asked the attendant who directed us to go through Customs and Immigration to the Baggage claim to pick up the stroller. We told them that we had a transfer to catch and might miss our flight. There are a prolonged back and forth, in which several other attendants gathered before two of them escorted us to the train between terminals and then to the customs line. They then again told us to go through Customs and Immigration. At this point we considered abandoning the stroller and heading to our flight because we were running out of time… But at Philadelphia they had said that they were checking our several of our carry on bags through to Hong Kong! Instead of trying to take all of our luggage and the children through immigration we decided to split up. I would take the girls and all of the luggage to the next flight, Crystal would go through immigration and customs to the baggage claim. We hoped that without luggage she would be able to get through security quickly…but she ended up going through seven security checkpoints! Because of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong the atmosphere was tense and security was extreme at the airport. A few days later the airport was closed due to the protest. We didn’t see any protesters but there were a lot of police and officials.

Charlotte really stepped up to help me as a I carried five bags and Catherine through the airport. Catherine lost it. She alternated between extreme playfulness (e.g. rolling around on the floor, pulling my hair, trying to do gymnastics, etc) and crying while asking where Mom was. I don’t know what I would have done if Charlotte hadn’t been able to stay calm. Navigating the Hong Kong airport was more of a challenge than I remembered from previous visits. But eventually we found our way to the bus that would take us to the external terminal where our flight was located. At this point Charlotte started to get nervous about Mom and wanted us to go look for her, but I told her that Mom would meet us at the flight… I started to think about what I’d say and do if Mom didn’t get there before boarding! Fortunately a few minutes later Mom boarded the bus with the stroller (incidentally, it was now broken) and we all made it our flight just in time! Despite what they said at Philadelphia none of our checked carry on bags had been at the Baggage claim in Hong Kong so we hoped that we’d see them again in Phnom Penh. We felt your prayers lifting us through Hong Kong… I don’t know if my writing conveys how stressful the transfer really was.

The flight from Hong Kong to Phnom Penh was a smooth one…except for some anxiety over the possibility that checked luggage might have been left behind in China! Arriving in Phnom Penh we spent the next 45 minutes in Immigration getting our Visas. I brought passport photos, four copies of our approval in color, four immigration forms, and four customs forms. They told me that they didn’t need the photos and only needed one approval, but better to have them on hand than to not!

After collecting our Visas from Immigration and making it through customs we got the baggage claim in Phnom Penh. Several of our tubs were worse for wear but everything had made it! Thank goodness!

We were greeted by Phillip, Belen, and Ollie on the other side of security at the airport. They gave us a warm welcome and then helped us load up for the ride to our new home.