The other day Becca caught a lizard. We have one brave little girl. It didn’t turn into a prince.

We’ve enjoyed seeing different things both inside and out. We have a nice spider living in our kitchen window. The kids enjoy watch her catch flies. I often think about cleaning all the spider webs out of our house, and then I’m reminded that they eat flies and mosquitoes, so I leave them up.

During Khmer Year New we went to a playground at a rather expensive international school. The school allows expats to come and use the playground for free. Becca mastered the monkey bars! Isaiah enjoyed playing in the sand. And Anna, who I thought would enjoy the swings, hated them. It was really refreshing to be at such a clean well-kept playground. We didn’t have to worry about trash or bad smells, etc. It reminded us of a summer morning in Texas.

Last week we celebrated Khmer New Year. Our neighbors across the street brought in a tradition dancing troupe to dance the របាំត្រុដិ in their courtyard/anteroom. This dance is supposed to remove and protect the home from evil spirits. We hung out with the troupe part of the time they were waiting around. Then like good Khmer, we stood in the road and watched through the big front (garage) door as they danced.

The dance troupe let our kids play with some of their gear. Becca ran inside and changed into a pretty dress and put on some chap-stick so she would fit in with the ladies. She really wanted to dance with them. Anna was not impressed.

After the dance was performed, our neighbor children came out and did some powdering in the street, another New Year tradition. Once they shared the powder our kids enjoyed participating too!

We were able to do some extra family things for Khmer New Years, since Josh had the week off from school. Three nights we had dinner guests, we went to a playground, went swimming, and I took the kids to a mall play area, where Josh joined us after his studying for some pizza. It was nice to have some extra family time without the pressures of school or regular tutoring. However we didn’t abandon language study. Josh studied with a tutor three days and continued with his self-study. I did several days of self-study during my normally scheduled tutor time.

I had all these plans for the Easter season. I’ve been wanting to do something similar to our Advent celebrations to help our family anticipate Resurrection Sunday  the four weeks leading up to Easter Sunday.  It didn’t happen. We got sick and I spent a good deal of those weeks fighting off our hot-season colds. Maybe next year…I guess I better start preparing now.

We enjoyed the special services our church had for Holy Week. And we spent a week in family Bible time on the death and Resurrection of Christ. We bought duck eggs (chicken eggs are brown) and colored them. The kids spent an hour and a half coloring 10 eggs (5 each). They loved dipping the eggs multiple times. (I learned this year that you don’t need special kits for coloring eggs, food coloring works just as well.)

Instead of hiding our colored eggs, I packed little gifts inside of toilet paper rolls and had the kids paint them. We hid those Sunday afternoon. What the kids especially enjoyed was hiding the “eggs” for Josh and me to find.

Being in Cambodia gives one a fresh look at Easter. In American almost everyone celebrates Easter. You don’t have to believe in the resurrection of our Lord to celebrate the holiday. In Cambodia this holiday is for Christians – it’s for those who believe that Jesus rose from the grave. There are no secularized events for those who don’t believe. It’s a Christian celebration…and for those who don’t believe it is not a special day of joy and hope for them. We pray that one day it will be.

Easter weekend we also celebrated Josh birthday.

Tomorrow (April 3rd) we’ll celebrate Josh’s 34th birthday. The biggest change this year has been moving to Cambodia and beginning to study Khmer. It’s been a joy to grow with Josh during our transition and now during our language learning months. Living overseas provides a wonderful opportunity for becoming deeper friends in marriage. I’ve enjoyed growing closer to Josh during this last year. I’ve enjoyed learning more about the wonderful man I’m married to. I love watching Josh study and use his linguistic background to learn Khmer. I’m very thankful that, while there’s always more studying to be done and that could be done, Josh makes time for our family and makes us a priority.

So, you maybe wondering: what’s a typical day look like for missionary Josh? Monday through Friday Josh leaves our home a little before 8 to go to school. Many mornings on his way out he races Becca to the gate of our neighborhood. Josh is at language school from 8:30 to 12. He then comes home, eats lunch, and supervises the children while I meet with my language tutor. Anna sleeps during my tutoring time and Isaiah sleeps during half of it. When Isaiah gets up Josh usually reads to Becca and Isaiah. Right now they are reading the second Dr. Dolittle book.

During the afternoon Josh is able to study while supervising the kids. After I’m done with my tutor, he continues studying. After supper Josh takes the kids outside and chats with our neighborhood guard and then he comes back and does the dishes while I get the kids ready for bed. Then it’s back to studying for him. Somewhere around 8:45 we have our nightly popcorn – Josh makes delicious popcorn – and we chat about our day before we head to bed.

In a nutshell – what does missionary Josh does: study, study, study Khmer and do all the other normal things that come with being a husband and daddy. Happy Birthday Josh! (In Jan. some friends delivered one of the birthday presents I bought Josh. There are still a few left. 🙂