Chapter 34

CANNON AFB, NM On the Ass End of Nowhere

They were still unpacking their hold baggage as they settled in base housing in the one place they didn’t want to be, but they needed to be stateside to finish up the adoption before they could travel again, maybe England or Italy next. Lanh had sent her new phone number to everyone she knew, and the first person to call was a complete shock.

“Doctor Lanh Huong Campbell! I can’t believe it!” gushed Sydney as she and Lanh talked in their first gab session in years.

“That’s me, doctor of speech pathology, now I know exactly why my English and my Vietnamese get mixed up!”

“Can you fix it?” asked Syd.

“Yeah, but what would be the fun in that? Don submitted his thesis months ago; we’re still waiting for words from on high.”

“How did you two fast track it so much?”

“It was the book!” exclaimed Lanh. “The university wants their doctoral candidates published, and when they found out we published our book right out of high school, and it is in use by the Air War College and was declared a ‘document of historical value’ it was massive brownie points for both of us.”

“What about the baby? Did your two years in Osan set you back that far?”

“Nah, we’re good, Huy acted as our legal representative, and everything kept moving along.” Then, in a conspiratorial tone, Lanh added, “I had Don assembling baby furniture before he shipped out.” Right now, Don was on Temporary Duty in Saudi Arabia with a detachment monitoring terrorist activity in the middle east. “You’re that close?” Sydney practically squealed.

“Maybe,” Lanh couldn’t hold back anymore, and she let the secret out, “a little Thai girl, nine months old, her name is Su Lin.”

“I’m so happy for you! So, what made you change your mind, what made you decide to take the follow-on to Osan?”

“When we got back to The Kun after looking at Osan,” said Lanh, using the popular nickname for Kunsan, “Don told me “Look, we’re spending money faster than we can make it on this adoption and there’s no guarantee. Let’s see what Huy can do for us,” so we emailed Huy, and he said he’d represent us in the adoption. Then we found out that we were going to Osan whether we wanted to or not so Huy took over and kept the ball rolling. We would have been waiting 2 years here or there, it didn’t matter, and in the end, Don serving in the Air Force was a plus.”