Our Service Project in Jumpah

The 25th of June we went on a five day service project in Jumpah which is a small town out of Phnom Penh. It was a small group there were only 7 people who went (not including the leaders) it was Daniel Scott, Lukas Amstutz, Zac Wilson, Liz, Maly, Serah, and I. There were suppose to be other girls but they didn't show up.
We did gardening on the first day because we got there before lunch and after lunch we did the gardening and some of us played soccer which was fun. Later that night we played scrubs with 8 people it was interesting and fun at the same time.
On the Second day we started the real work. We were split into groups and i was in a group with Lukas and Maly with Mr. Jerry as our leader. We did like cleaning up and also help with doing a gradient thing with pipes and stuff, i don't know what it's called. We worked on that till like 9:30ish which was our break time, then we switched our jobs. So our group went onto hoeing and man it was hard because it hasn't rained and so it was like breaking up rock and concrete and we did that after lunch too.
Well on the third day we hoed in the morning and it was a bit easier because it rained, we were so glad it did. Later in the afternoon I was doing bricks and fixing them up it was fun but just very hot. So that was a bit better of a day. We played a volleyball game after work and it was fun.
The fourth day we were all just tired and sore but we were ok. We did hoe in the morning like we always do but then in the afternoon it was so easy not a lot to do. All we did was fill in holes with dirt.
The last day we went out for breakfast which was good and didn't start working till 8 so we had a late start. That was the hardest day to hoe because by then everything has dried up and was really hard. We did play volleyball which was fun.

So that was our service project a lot of work but overall a good trip at least something to do that is productive.

School is out

School is out no!!!!!!! This means that teachers and students who leave forever we won't be able to see them again it's so sad. I will especially miss Mr. Brown and Mrs. Laurel because they were awesome.

But I am glad we are done because it means for 9 weeks we don't have to do school work (maybe some though). Also it means that next school year I will be a freshmen which is scary for me, I get scared when I hear that I would be freshmen because just last year I was 6/7 grade (not including this school year). So it will be interesting and different for experience for me.

This year has gone by super fast. I can still remember like it was yesterday the first day of school

Going Back to America (unexpected)

In December of 2010 my mom was planning to go back to america to sell the house get everything organized and ready. She went with liz and she also went to get a check up with her doctor and he said that she had a problem with her spine where it was not straight so it was pushing on the nerves inside the spine. So he suggested her to have the back surgery for it. He told her what kind of surgery it was going to be and the process and we didn't know for sure if she was to get the surgery or not. So she went to a different doctor and he suggested she didn't get the surgery. So they went to 1 more and he said that she should and they ended up doing the surgery later on. Before the surgery my dad went back to be with her and we were watched by a philipino family who are on our team. It was weird because we are American so we had different perspectives about stuff. After the surgery I think about 2 days after the doctors over-dosed my mom on medicine so she died and my dad was there and he called all the nurses in and they resuscitated her. Now back to what we were doing during that. Well to start off with we had a pretty good time we played mostly like word games and puzzles etc…also in January I started Khmer (cambodian) lessons at this university called IFL (institute of foreign language) so I have been going there until we heard that we were going back to America which we were all really excited. So we went back February 16 I think and it was really good for us.
That is the reason we went back.

Catherine and the Green Pit Viper

Within the first year we were here in Cambodia, we (my mom, Serah, Maly, Me, Liz, and Monichea) went to Thailand for a mother daughter time with couple of other families. The night we came back we had some people over and we played outside. Catherine and Frances were chasing each other till catherine came crying saying she stepped on a big thorn and our mom said just wash it off and I will take it out. So about an hour after that Serah came in and said where's Catherine and they didn't know she was still in the bathroom and my dad called from outside and no reply. He was about to knock the door down but then catherine managed to get up and unlock, but after that she passed out. She was blue and cold looking so they headed up to Kampong Chnang until the U.S embassy called them and said the SOS hospital has some anti-venom but they had to know which snake it was so my mom and Michael (a friend) went back with her and he was looking around then he found a snake on the ground. They took the snake back to the Hospital and they matched it up and it all matched and luckily they had the anti-venom. So they care-flighted her to Thailand and she got treated and stuff there. Oh BTW (by the way) if you are wondering were the rest of us are during all this we were at the Roberts house and they watched us for eight days.
For more details or photos of it here is my family blog
http://rheacambodia.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/catherine-and-green-pit-viper/

Why are we in cambodia at all of all the places in the world we could be in?

People ask us why are we in Cambodia and we tell them this...

We are here because when my parents adopted Maly, Serah, and Monichea from Cambodia in 2001 three of my brothers went Kevin, Shaun, and Adrian. Adrian was touched a lot by how Cambodia looked and just everything about it. He wanted to go back to and sell his truck then build an orphanage here in Cambodia.
So years have past and we just didn't really think about much. Then May 31st 2008 Adrian got murdered by a homeless man he helped. Before I get to that 2 years before he got stabbed in his hand, and when he got the stitches to stitch it up it made a cross on his hand and he kept telling everyone about it. Another weird thing was that his hand therapist was Steve Adams who went to our church and stuff.

So after that he took in a homeless guy with him and he was drunk so he threaten the nieghbours and Adrian stepped in and David Ruiz (the murderer) went to the kitchen grabbed a knife then stabbed him 13 times and Adrian is standing like 5 or 6 inches taller than him. So he got away but dropped his duffle bag so the police had all the info about him.

So that is why we are in Cambodia to build an orphanage in his name or to do something for him.

These are the three brothers that went to Cambodia in 2001
L to R: Kevin, Adrian, Shaun

My crazy BIG family

My family is a huge family. We have 15 children in my family aging from 37 to 4. My parents adopted 9 children from many different places in the world, and the other 6 our my parents biological children. My mom has four boys and my dad had a son and a daughter.
     These are everyone in my family...
Josh Rhea: 37
Adrianne Rhea: 35
Robert Powers: 31
Arian Porier: 27
Shaun Porier: 26
Kevin Porier: 24
John Rhea: 19
Elizabeth Rhea: 16
Maly Rhea: 15
Maggie Rhea (Me): 14
Serah Rhea: 13
Catherine Rhea: 13
Monichea Rhea: 12
Frances Rhea: 11
Jada Rhea: 3
Only the last 8 are at home right now John just went off to college so yeah. The last 9 were adopted.
Adopted Children....
John, Liz, Catherine, Frances (half brother and sisters) adopted from San Antonio Texas
Maly, Serah, Monichea adopted from Cambodia
Maggie (me) adopted from China

This is some of my family member on Mother's day

Jada from Dallas texas. Everybody asks my parents how do they do it all with all of us and its God who gets through everything. That's my BIG crazy family