Happy Thanksgiving from the Jensen 5. This year we’re very thankful for the new little girl we get to meet in April. Becca is especially thankful for the little sister God is giving her after her many months praying. She nows reminds us to thank God for her little sister each time we pray.

This year we have many other things to thank God for: (to name a few) Josh’s successful completion of his Ph.D., our survey trip to Cambodia, our smooth move to SC, the many churches that have been open to hearing our ministry plans, safety as we’ve traveled thousands of miles for partnership development, health, Becca’s good health report (no more MRI’s), and much more. I am especially thankful for the husband God has blessed me with, and Becca, and Isaiah. My family is a precious gift from God. Happy Thanksgiving – next year in Cambodia!!

We are delighted to celebrate Becca’s 4th birthday. We continue to thank God for bringing her through her early birth and allowing her to be cancer-free. We’ve seen so much growth in our dear daughter over the past year. (I hope to write more on Becca’s growth this past year, but presently my schedule is tight – maybe next week.)

With traveling, we had Becca’s birthday meal and celebration a few days before her actual birthday. Her yearly panda cake is really important to her. So important that when Grammy S had a little party for Becca last week, Becca started crying that it couldn’t be her party because it wasn’t her panda cake. I quickly assured her that she could have multiple parties. And she did have multiple celebrations. The Rodriguez family brought Becca a cake and Grandma J came for a birthday breakfast.

Becca asked for a family party with chicken, rice, carrot soup for dinner. What she was really excited about was finding out the gender of our new baby (see video). I think this was the highlight of her gifts. She was so excited to find out she’s getting a baby sister. Becca has faithfully – very faithfully – prayed for a little sister since July 2012. Almost every time we pray she adds on a request for a little sister. I cannot express how thrilled she was to open the envelope and see that the heart was pink.

Yesterday Amy had the sono that showed the gender (yes, we’re having a new baby, due April 13). We didn’t tell Becca right away. Instead, Amy told her we would write it on a piece of paper and let her open the paper at her birthday party tonight: blue for boy, pink for girl. Here’s the video:

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(Her birthday isn’t till Nov 26, but we celebrated tonight since we leave tomorrow morning for week-and-a-half-long trip.)

Early this month we visited with James and Deb Flowers and their two children Annabelle (3) and Nathaniel (3 months). Deb and I met my junior year at BJ and have been friends since. It was neat to meet both kids and see Deb in her role as mommy. Becca had a good time playing with Annabelle.

While in Charleston we went to see the Angel Oak Tree.Both kids enjoyed walking around the huge tree. I was wishing we could climb it.

The weekend we were in Wilimington, NC, for a missions conference, a family from the church took us to an aquarium. The highlight of the aquarium was divers in the huge tank. They played with Becca for a long time, and she loved it. Isaiah was a bit nervous about the divers, but he was willing to stand back a ways and play peek-a-boo with them.

So far our partnership development travels have gone well. We have been in a different church every Sunday since the middle of August and will continue to have a full schedule until we take two weekends off for Christmas. We start back the first Sunday of January with a full schedule until spring. We continue to thank the Lord for His faithfulness and protection as we’ve traveled. Currently we have 67% of our needed support. Please pray with us that the Lord will provide all our support by the spring so we can head to Cambodia in the summer (June, July, or August).

We took a “quick” detour to show Becca and Isaiah the ocean when we were in Charleston. It’s hard to keep little ones out of the water, so it wasn’t as quick as we expected.

Isaiah wasn’t sure about the waves but enjoyed playing in the sand while Becca and Josh braved the waves.

The kids finished our visit by rolling in the dry sand in their soaked clothes, while I sat pondering how we were going to transition to the car.