So proud of my man for passing his dissertation defense today! Thank you for praying. We thank the Lord for being with Josh throughout this process.

The Structure of Clauses and Noun Phrases in Jarai
Joshua Jensen
Friday March 29, 2013
10:00AM, Trimble Hall 200

Abstract:
In this dissertation I aim to provide a syntactic account for the three regions of the Jarai clause (the operator domain, the inflectional domain, and the theta domain) and for several elements in the noun phrase. Major topics in the discussion of the clause include wh-questions (which can take three forms: wh-in-situ, wh-fronting, and wh-pseudocleft), unaccusatives, and serial verbs. My investigation in the noun phrase includes coverage of classifiers, number marking, and quantifiers.

Please pray for Josh as he defends his dissertation Friday, March 29, at 10 AM Central Time.

Last week (March 17-20) we participated in a missions conference at Westside Baptist Church in Eugene, Oregon. We were invited by the church’s assistant pastor, Nathan Damm, a former classmate of Josh’s. Nathan invited us after reading our article in the EMU newsletter. Josh taught Sunday School, prayed in the second morning service, and gave our missions presentation Wednesday night. We also sang in both Sunday morning services and the Wednesday evening service, as well as led junior church Sunday night.

The church gave us a warm welcome. We enjoyed fellowshipping with the people in the church as well as the other missionaries invited to the conference. We enjoyed several meals with families in the church. It was a great way to kick start our deputation journey. We thank God for a good missions conference, safe travels, good health, new friends, and for helping both kids do great.

We stayed with family (pictured above) for a week while in Eugene. Josh’s grandmother’s cousin, we call her “Aunt” Jan, lives in Eugene, where her husband, “Uncle” Mike, pastors a church. Aunt Jan made us truly feel like her home was our home. It was an ideal situation. The Friday before the conference we went to Sweet Home, OR, to visit with the Andereggs (friends of the Jensen family; picture to the left). Saturday night Aunt Jan had a family get together where we met some other second and third cousins (picture to the right). Wednesday afternoon I taught a music class for the after-school program at Uncle Mike’s church.

Friday evening we drove to the coast. It was my first time to see the Pacific Ocean. I was really hoping to see a sunset, but the weather did not cooperate. Becca was excited about putting her feet into the water until the ice cold water touched her feet – then she cried and ran away. She refused to go back until she realized that her mommy didn’t want to put her feet in the cold water. After that Becca was thrilled to drag me down the beach! And she proceeded to ask over and over again to go in the water!

Two funny Becca stories: Right after Josh prayed in the Sunday morning service Becca said loudly, “but I want to pray for a little sister!” Anytime we pray she always asks to pray about a little sister. She just couldn’t understand why this couldn’t happen in the church service. I was able to convince Becca to pray quietly for a little sister. In the same service, Becca was sitting with the children to go out for Jr. church and got a hymnal to sing with the congregation.  She couldn’t understand why the children’s workers took it away from her (they don’t let the kids use hymnals since they usually drop them) – Becca burst into tears, loudly exclaiming that she needed a hymnal to sing! Fortunately I had positioned myself in the pew directly behind her and just lifted her over the pew and into my lap so she could sing with a hymnal.

Becca is going to be a wonderful mommy someday. She’s great at nursing her babies while reading. She knows how to do library story time. She also knows all about airplane safety. The other day I found her on the couch with Flopsie and Eva. All three had cups over their mouths. When I asked Becca what she was doing, she said that they were doing that because they couldn’t breathe on the airplane. (Guess she was paying good attention when we flew at Christmas.)

Recently I’ve been thinking about “future mommying.” The mommy I am today is setting the foundation for the mommy I’ll be for many years to come. The ways I talk with Becca and listen to her talk are laying a foundation for our life-long communication. I have to have a picture of what our parent/adult-child relationship should look like. . .  I can’t have the mindset of just getting through the “little years” and working on that relationship when they are older. I must intentionally work during these little years to lay a foundation for the future mommy I want to be.  Just some thoughts . . . come over for some coffee and we can chat some more.

Recently when Josh and I were walking, I made the comment “you reap what you sow.” Josh noticed Becca was listening and asked her if she knew what that meant. We then took a moment to talk about planting seeds and reaping a harvest: “when we plant a lettuce seed does a watermelon grow? Do apple seeds grow into grass?” etc. A little while later Becca asked for some apple seeds. We cut an apple open and Becca hurried off to plant the seeds in “her garden.” Then she asked if she could get an apple out of the fridge. A few minutes later I went into Becca’s “bear garden” to see the apple she was reaping from her sowing.

We are teaching Becca the books of the Old Testament using hand motions for each book. She is a fast learner, and it’s prompted a lot of good conversations about the OT. So far we’re up to Obadiah. These pictures are of Becca trying to teach Isaiah the OT books.

Last week Isaiah made his first venture out of the living room. I watched him go to the doorway and just stare into the unexplored territory. His first stop was the bathroom. Since then Isaiah has turned into a speedy little explorer. It’s so cute to see him move all about the house. Watch out world (and Becca)!

Monday’s high was 86 degrees. We took advantage of the lovely weather and spent most of our non-nap-time outside. In the morning we went to a park and in the late afternoon we walked over to see Josh at school. Isaiah loved riding the swing.

Please pray for Josh as he works on his dissertation. Josh’s defense is scheduled for March 29th. As you can see from the collage on the right, Becca is trying to help Josh with his defense facial expressions.

Last week we visited with Dad J during his layover in DFW. Lord willing the next time we see Dad will be for Josh’s graduation!

Happy 9-months to our precious little boy (19lbs & 10oz, 27.27in long). Sai Zai is a little jokester – he loves putting hair rubber bands in his mouth and then grinning up at me. He loves vigorously shaking his head back and forth. Isaiah now babbles: mamama, dadada, bababa, t-t-t-t, and he makes kissing noises. He is moving little by little across the floor. I’m expecting him to take off any day now.