the week my Crystal friend got married::

So I started an entry about going to Australia for my friend's wedding but got busy and totally forgot to post it....so here it is...

I really wanted to go to Crystal's wedding...but knew money would be an issue. I had just purchased my ticket to head back to the states for December and was broke. I remember being disappointed that I had to purchase my ticket then and wanted to use my money for other stuff.... but also knew if I left it too long it would be twice as expensive. Never the less...I knew it would take a miracle to get there.....but I prayed.....

One day I was chatting with a good friend from Coulee and Crystal's wedding had come up.....end of our conversation ended like this:: "just let me know if you can find some tickets and I'll see what I can do to get you and Ae there." So Ae and I searched for inexpensive tickets and after searching for the most inexpensive ones I contacted my friend and let her know that we found some. So she put money in my account so that we could purchase them. I still was in shock that I was going to get to go to the wedding as well as go with a buddy. Because I know that traveling and this kind of stuff doesn't always go the way we plan, I didn't let Crystal know as I didn't want to disappoint her if it all didn't work out. Ae and I applied for our visas and after we both got them we then purchased our tickets. The price went up a wee bit but that was ok. So we continued with our plannings on going behind Crystal's back. I contacted her sister and a good friend of hers to arrange pick up from the airport and arrange a place to stay. All went smoothly and after a 7-8 hour flight to the Gold Coast we were picked up by our good friend Bethany (Crystal's cousin who also had come to volunteer at BNJ in the past). She greeted us and we headed off to Brisbane all of us as excited as ever! 

We met Crystal, her mom, her sister Skye and Crystal's good friend Leisa. Before we entered the shop we called out her thai name "Gaow". And then Ae said "P'Kital" and she looked at us with the funniest look. It was like we were both so familiar and she wasn't surprised to see us but then it kicked in that it was US and then she stood up behind the table and shook her arms and said "I'm so happy, I'm so happy!!! You guys are here!!! I'm so happy!" We ran to her and hugged her and had a bit of a cry! It was so fun to surprise her like that. She was so happy to see us!! I was hoping she would be as I know how stressful weddings can be. I didn't want us being there to be a stress on her feeling like she would have to show us around and take care of us. 

Ae and I ended up staying at her friend Leisa's house with her little boy and husband. We had so much fun getting to know all of them and they really blessed us! The following week leading up to the wedding we helped decorate, ate lots of food, made Thai food, ate some more, relaxed, walked to the beach, went to the rehearsal, steamed the wedding dress, ate some more, laughed, went to the city, reunited with more friends from Thailand and went on some coffee dates with Crystal. It was so special to be able to share this time with her. What an honor.

So then we kicked off the last few days with going to celebrate the PNG independence day, going to the Koala sanctuary, seeing friends off at the airport and then ourselves heading back to warm and sunny Thailand. 

 

 

 

 

Here's some fun photos from our trip.... in chronological order. I hope you enjoy.... 

A special thank you to my good friend Hope that made this trip possible! Thank you sweet friend!