One day Josh found a frog on his university campus. He picked it up, checked it out, heard it ribbit, and watched it jump — but it wasn’t of much interest to him so he set it back down. Then one day he caught the same frog again, but this time he decided to kiss it…

Seven years later he still enjoys kissing me!

Our biggest change this year was moving to Cambodia. We changed continents, changed languages, changed . . . a lot. But we didn’t have to change spouses. So thankful that we get to be on this journey together.

Looking back over the last seven years of marriage I’m grateful for some simple decisions we made at the beginning. We chose to intentionally go to bed at the same time at night. (Of course there have been times one of us has had to stay up late to meet a deadline, but we typically always hit the sack at the same time.) We chose to read together. We’ve really enjoyed reading books together before bed. We now laugh over lots of literary allusions. We chose to live without a TV. We think our sleeping, reading, game playing, and time spent together have benefited from this. Thankful for those simple decisions and what they’ve added to our marriage.

Besides our anniversary this coming Sunday, last Sunday we celebrated Father’s Day. I remember during  conversation with Josh before we were dating, my heart dropped when he said he thought having two kids was a lot of work and that he didn’t know how people had more. This would have been a deal breaker for me. I was so glad when Josh went on to say that though he understood kids were a lot of work, he was open to having more than two children. I’m so thankful for the wonderful Daddy Josh is to our kids. We are blessed.

A big thank you to Miss Lauren for watching our kiddos so we could go on some dates. Our kids think she’s the best babysitter ever!

From egg-laying to finished silk products like scarves, we saw the entire process. On our second full day in Siem Reap we went to the Angkor Silk Farm. Our guide took us through the campus and showed us each step of the process.

Becca was a little disturbed to find out they have to kill the silk worm to make silk. Both Becca and Isaiah enjoyed playing with some of the natural dye elements. At one point their hands were completely red from playing in curry seeds.

Cambodian handwoven silk is very expensive, so we just enjoyed looking at the finished products and bits of history in the last exhibit. Anyone interested in buying a silk larva dress?

This week we celebrated Isaiah’s 3rd birthday. We started our celebrations 21 days before with Isaiah’s birthday countdown calendar. He had a lot of fun opening each door and getting a surprise for the day. He even made me a countdown calendar … funny, most of the days on mine are “Mommy and Daddy go out on a date and Becca and Isaiah watch a movie with Miss Lauren.”

Several family members sent gifts for Isaiah, which we spread out opening the week of Isaiah’s birthday. He had a blast playing with his gifts.

Isaiah requested spaghetti for dinner and a chocolate truck cake. This was my first time to make the cake and frosting from scratch. (Don’t think I’ll ever want to use a box cake again.) Frosting a cake in hot season is not an easy task. I had to put it in the fridge three times during the frosting process so the cake wouldn’t run away.

Our neighbor and favorite babysitting, Miss Lauren, came over for cake. Isaiah was so excited that Miss Lauren came to his birthday. After Miss Lauren arrived the grins could not have gotten bigger!

Becca wrote and Illustrated a book for Isaiah’s birthday. He was also excited to get a coupon book from us in his very own plastic tub. His big gift started with a scavenger hunt with the last clue being our cars keys under his pillow…

Isaiah’s had a good third year. He has a contagious laugh and an endearing smile. His biggest big boy change was being completely potty trained at two and a half. He weighs 30.8 lbs. and is 3ft. tall. He loves running around, playing with the neighborhood puppies, reading books, doing “school”, playing with his sisters, and cutting paper. He always wants to help: cooking, cleaning, hanging the laundry; you name it and he wants to help with it. He’s also becoming good at being quiet in our nightly hide-from-Daddy-before-bed time.

Isaiah loves talking and telling stories. He comes up with the most interesting stories, usually part truth and part made up. If we ask him what his favorite part of the day was, he usually tells about something that happened weeks ago. It’s really cute watching him play with Little People animals. He does really cute voices.

This year we’ve seen Isaiah grow in faith. He’s gone from saying he doesn’t believe in Jesus to saying he believes that Jesus died for his sin and that he wants to turn away from his sin. It’s been neat to see the Spirit gently changing Isaiah’s heart and turning him toward Christ. We continue to pray that God will grow Isaiah in trust and faith in Christ and that he will grow in his understanding of the Gospel.

Being mommy to a little boy is a wonderful thing. Sure there’s the crying, whining, etc. There’s moments of frustration and not knowing how to deal with a situation. There’s the worry about whether the world and all its desires will destroy my little man. There’s the grief at the futures battles his heart will have to fight. But being Isaiah’s mommy is a time to grow in faith and not fear. Faith that God will work in Isaiah’s heart and do His good will for him. Faith that it is God who changes hearts, not mommy. Thank you God for Isaiah: please work your perfect will for his life.