We arrived in Phnom Penh Saturday afternoon, 14 hours later than we expected. Jeremy Farmer picked us up and took us to his home so we could spend Saturday through Tuesday morning with his family. We had dinner with the Farmer family and their other guests (Bonnie Ruth’s mother, sister, brother-in-law, and niece) as well as JD & Taylor Crowley, and Yo Shirato.

Sunday we attended a Khmer church. Jeremy Farmer’s Khmer teacher translated the service for us over wireless headphones. Sunday afternoon I accompanied Bonnie Ruth to Lucky’s – a grocery store very similar to what we have in the States, except the prices at Lucky’s are much higher!

Monday Josh and I accompanied the Farmers as their family got some vaccinations. After that we visited the Russian Market. The Russian Market is an indoor market – think: dark, hot, and smelly. (It’s not Russian, however.)

Monday after lunch Josh and I took an 45-minute tuktuk ride to The Cheoungek Genocidal Center. It was a sobering experience.

Our impressions of Phnom Penh: it’s very hot, lots of concrete, not a lot of green, smelly. . .not exactly our dream place to live, but we will make it our home and adjust to Cambodian city-life. We plan to live in Phnom Penh for our first year or two in Cambodia while we study the Khmer language and surround ourselves with Khmer speakers.

Monday night our time in Cambodia took a turn – Josh woke up sick. . . (more next week).

Josh and I just returned from our trip to Cambodia – we have much to share, but for today I’ll simply share our Shanghai pictures. On our way over to Cambodia we had a 25-hour layover in Shanghai. We were able to leave the airport and spend the day with some college friends (Desiree Talbert and Natalie Cary). Desiree and Natalie both teach at  Shanghai Institute of Health Sciences. Both friends went out of their way to make us very welcome in China. We stayed in the guest suit and got a good night of sleep before we spent the day touring the city with Natalie, Desiree, and Mrs. Tufts (another member of the team there).

We’re very grateful for the friendship and kindness Natalie and Desiree showed us during our time in Shanghai.

Unfortunately, our 8pm flight from Shanghai to Cambodia was canceled because of bad weather. It was a crazy situation. There were several delayed flights in our gate area. It was crowed and hot. Eventually several of the Chinese people started expressing their frustrations over canceled flights, poor communication, and poor customer service rather loudly. The police were called 3 different times. Finally around 2AM Josh was able to get confirmation that our flight was indeed canceled. We spent what was left of the night in the airport and around 7AM figured out how to get our rebook tickets to fly out of Shanghai at 10AM.

Happy Father’s Day to our wonderful Daddy! We miss you and can’t wait to see you this week. Thanks for loving us and doing so many fun things with us. We love you!

June 1st was Isaiah’s 1st birthday. He didn’t seem too excited about having a party until he stuck his face in the cake. He loved his ice cream cake.

One of our favorite parts about Isaiah’s birthday was watching Becca help him open presents. Becca wanted to give Isaiah a dog. (She also helped pick the dog out.) She was so excited about it. After Isaiah opened the dog and held it, Becca squealed and said, “He’s so excited!” Becca also was very sweet in creating tabs on Isaiah’s presents for him to have easy tearing spots.

Can’t believe our little boy is 1!

Our last Saturday in Texas (May 25th) we took a day trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. We love the Fort Worth Zoo and will miss being able to visit – it’s a fantastic zoo. Isaiah was excited to be able to see “Jeremiah” (a zebra) in real life.

One thing both kids enjoyed was the large glass areas where they could see the animals close up. The animal statues are always a highlight.

Sunday after church we started our trek east. Sunday we drove to Jackson, Mississippi. Monday we drove to Atlanta, Georgia, and spent all Tuesday with Grandma Martin. We also saw Josh’s Uncle Doug and two cousins, Autumn (and kids!) and Bethany. We were also able to see Trey & Angela’s family (they also have two kids) Monday evening for dinner (Trey is Josh’s cousin on the Jensen side).

Wednesday we drove to SC and spent Thursday with Josh’s family. We had an early birthday celebration for Isaiah with them (we had another on his birthday in PA). Friday we drove to PA.

On a side note – Josh and I left yesterday afternoon to fly to Cambodia. Becca and Isaiah are with my parents in PA. We’ll be in Cambodia for about 12 days. We appreciate your prayers during our trip.

A very happy 1st birthday to our sweet little man. We are truly blessed to have you as our boy.