Happy Father’s Day to my beloved man. We scheduled our Daddy’s Day celebrating for the Monday after Father’s Day, since our Sunday was packed out with activities. While thinking over that busy day I was stuck with the thought that Josh spent Father’s Day doing a lot of father-like activities. Sunday morning, he preached in our Jarai church, Sunday afternoon he did our neighborhood Bible Club teaching the kids to play kickball and teaching them the Bible. Sunday evening, we had a small gathering of believers (our family, one Khmer family, and an Indian man) over for singing, prayer, and some Bible study. The funny thing about our evening meeting is that there was not one language we could all speak together. Josh had to teach in Khmer for our Khmer friends and English for the Indian man. It was a full day doing things that we should all do as part of the body of Christ.

The next Monday we celebrated “Daddy’s Day” with pulled pork sandwiches for lunch, cinnamon rolls for an afternoon snack, and a roast for supper (ok – the Khmer beef was very chewy). After supper we gave cards to Josh and the kids did a play for him. We’re reading through the Bible and we had just read Judges 3, so the kids did a play about Ehud and Eglon. They each took their parts very seriously. Isaiah was a wonderful jolly fat King Eglon, Anna played a mean guard – my favorite part was her mean face and the way she kept asking “is he going to the potty?” Becca was a wonderful Ehud – dagger and all. So ended our “Daddy’s Day” celebration.

I’m so thankful to be parenting our kids with Josh. So glad we’re on the same team as we raise these little ones together. Thankful that Josh loves us and serves us in so many ways. Thankful he’s not only the best Daddy our kids could have, but that he’s also my best friend. Thankful for God’s many good blessings to us in Josh.

The past three weekends we’ve had overnight trips to BanLung (the main town that’s a 45-minute drive from our home). We had not planned to have so many trips in a row, it’s just the way the everyone’s schedule worked out.

The first Sunday in June we gathered in the evening to celebrate the faithful service of the Olson family in Cambodia. After many years here, they are returning home for an indefinite period to help with Kevin’s parents. The missionary families up here met for a pot-luck meal and a time of sharing. Robin Olson is one of the most thoughtful people I know. She is always thinking about how she can help others. A few days after we moved to BanLung, she showed up at our door with a chocolate cake. She has helped me multiple times with various things (loaning me books, bringing things to the kids, visiting me, bringing food when we hosted missionary fellowship, etc). I want to follow her sweet example of constantly thinking of others.

(The pictures below are of our Clara and Elisha, one of our co-worker’s children. Clara is 6 months older than Elisha, but is much lighter than him.)

The second weekend in June, we gathered on Friday to have fellowship with the other EMU families in the area (Crowleys, Kanes, Famers, and Brooke). Both the men and women were able to have separate prayer times. I think it was the first time the five women have prayed together. It was a great blessing to me. Saturday morning about 14 ladies from different missionary organizations met together for breakfast. We enjoyed our time together.

The third weekend in June, the Olson family hosted the weekly missionary fellowship at their house. Usually, the missionaries meet on Saturday night, but the Olsons’ moved their week to Friday night so we could attend. That night we stayed at a hotel because our co-workers were leaving the country the next day and it didn’t work for us to spend the night with them. We went in a few hours early on Friday so the kids could enjoy the hotel pool.

And so ends our weekends of travel. We enjoyed the extra fellowship and encouraging conversations with our missionary co-workers. Thankful that they are only a drive away.

While the rains have continued (though not every day), the mud play has increased. Our kids have so much fun. The worse part for me is trying not to think about all the animal dung which they are playing in. The clean-up afterwards isn’t too awful. Even though I rise out the muddy clothes multiple times, they still seem full of mud. Our bathroom is also gets very dirty, but it’s pretty easy to clean out.

Thankfully Clara has stayed out of the mud! Anna plays in the mud too, but she never seems to get as bad as her older siblings and doesn’t stay as long.

Last week we celebrated Isaiah’s 5th birthday! We started out the celebration about three weeks ago with his birthday countdown calendar. Some of the special things he got to do included: new books, an audio recording of the original Peter Pan (I think they’ve listened to it 3 times already!), treats, a camp-out on the front porch with Josh, and making a cake.

Isaiah woke up before 5:30 the morning of his birthday and promptly woke up his siblings because he was so excited about the balloons that decorated his bunk-bed. We had Cheerios for breakfast, apple muffins for snacks, and he went on a errands run with Josh. At 3 we had a birthday party for Isaiah with all our neighborhood kids. First we played games, then continued with our Bible Club lesson, and then we had cake.

Supper included hot-dogs, mac & cheese, potato salad, and chips. After supper Isaiah got some gifts from our family (a favorite has been his real garden shovel – he goes all over the place digging with it). After gifts we finished the evening watching the 1960 Broadway version of Peter Pan starring Mary Martin. The kids loved it. They’ve spend hours acting like pirates.

This year Isaiah wanted a zebra cake. I was thankful to find an idea on the internet using cupcakes. The night I frosted the cake I had some trouble keeping bugs from flying onto the frosting and a mouse ran across my foot!

One of our goals for Isaiah this year was for him to ride a bike without training wheels. I was expecting to focus on that the second half of this year, but Isaiah was ready and started riding training-wheels-free a few months ago. (Which inspired Anna to actually start pedaling her tricycle). It was a community effort to teach him. Becca helped him a lot and a few of the neighbor children helped him out too. It is so fun to watch him ride. We love it.

Learning: Last month Isaiah finished the Pre-Level All About Reading. He’s been so excited to “do school.” Isaiah seems to have a good mind for math. He catches on to math concepts very quickly. He surprised me one day by counting to 100. On a recent sleep-over I had with him when Josh was away, Isaiah typed up a number chart from 1-100.

Books: This year Isaiah has enjoyed listening to audio versions of: the original Pinocchio, the original Peter Pan, The Princess and the Goblins, Briar Rabbit Stories, Kiplings’ Just So Stories, and several Focus on the Family Radio Theater productions. Currently Josh is reading through the Chronicles of Narnia to Isaiah for the first time. I’ve been reading several books by Eleanor Estes: Ginger Pye, The Moffats, and Rufus M.

Isaiah is a sweet, fun-loving boy who loves to help and is a good leader to his younger sisters (who love picking on him). We’re so thankful for the many ways we’ve seen Isaiah mature this year and learn to love more like Jesus. Happy Birthday to our little man. So thankful you’re our son.

Rainy season for our yard means lots of water flowing from downpours, draining from the street, and draining from off the roofs into our yard. The water flows from the front yard into the backyard. Depending on the strength and length of the downpour, our yard is a mess. Of course, this provides lots of opportunities for mud fights and mud play! I’m thankful we have rain barrels for the kids to rinse off from.

Last week some neighbor kids and Isaiah worked on a huge mud hole. Everyone enjoyed the project! Only half the mud ended up in our bathroom.

The Khmer kids continue to come up to our house everyday from 3-5. A few weeks ago the three brothers on the left started coming. Their family is up on Oyadao working in other people’s farms. I found out this week, after they hadn’t come around for two weeks, that our neighbors suspect the oldest boy of stealing money from several people and doing & selling drugs. We don’t know if these rumors are true, but it is a good reminder that we interact with several different class groups around our home. An opportunity to show the love of Christ to people of every race and class.

These pictures are of a 30 piece puzzle we did. The kids have been interested in puzzles lately and I pulled out this one (I’ve had to teach them how to do puzzles and they still don’t completely get it). After doing the boarder and a few other pieces of this terribly hard Where’s Waldo puzzle, the two boys gave up. I worked on it for several days until earlier this week when I finished enough for the boys to finish it up without frustration.

Please pray for me as I seek to manage both our own kids and the Khmer kids during the late afternoons. Though everyone gets along, the two groups only play together about 25% of the time. The other 75% I’m managing both groups. Many times our older kids are playing outside while I supervising the Khmer kids playing upstairs on our porch, and our younger girls are experiencing after-naptime blues. I need a lot of grace, energy, and patience. God is good!