Maria wins the medal. Last night she slept 7 hours! Sunday night – 5 hours Monday night – 5 hours Tuesday night – 6 hours I know this could stop, but I’m hopeful that she’s on a new, early sleeping trend. Maria’s up a lot during the day and doesn’t like to nap in her bed (I hold her a lot during the day) and often eats every two hours. So she keeps us all busy – thankfully, Maria has several older siblings who can hold her when I need both hands free. BUT if Maria is going to sleep most the night, I’ll take it!
Tuesday we celebrated Maria’s one month birthday. We’re so glad to have her in our family. The other night, as I was putting Ezra to bed, he said: “Maria is so cute. I’m glad Maria is a girl because I wanted Maria to be a girl. Because she’s so cute!” (This is bogus – before Maria was born, Ezra insisted that the baby must be a boy so he could help be one of Ezra’s workers. He would not accept the possibility that he might have a sister! But I’m glad Ezra has repaired his memory! 🙂
Last week we celebrated Ezra’s 5th birthday in Phnom Penh. We started with his countdown calendar, had his party on the 9th, and had little treats until the 13th (including root beer floats). One nice thing about being in Phnom Penh was easy access to a large variety of gifts. The real hard hat was given to Ezra by Isaiah.
We had our friends the Nhoemvans and Kim over for Ezra’s party. Dinner was hotdogs with Mac & Cheese. Ezra wanted his cake to look like a favorite stuffed animal dog named Boy. Part of Ezra’s party was playing Tiger, Tiger, Hunter.
One of Ezra’s favorite things is building roads outside – using trucks, dirt, and sand. He loves being a worker and having workers help him. He was hoping his new sibling would add to his force of workers – he associated worker with brother. But he’s been pretty happy to have Maria and always talks about her being cute.
Another thing Ezra loves to do is cook. Usually at home he’s helping our helper cut vegetables. Some of his gifts included a cutting board, measuring cups, and a pot (all real – not toys). Ezra is full of life and loves talking to people. He loves his friend Map here at home. And he loves playing with Micah – they are a bunch of fun and full of energy!
We’re thankful for our Ezra! Happy Birthday to our newest 5 year old!
Monday night our children along with the Nhoemvan girls performed the Mary Poppins Broadway musical. They have been rehearsing together, twice a week, every week since we’ve been here.
We had a dinner, then watched the play, and ended with dessert. Becca starred as Mary Poppins, Isaiah was Mr. Banks, Anna was Mrs. Banks, and Clara was Miss Corey, the maid, and a few other roles. Kolianne was the Director of the musical and played the role of Jane, Jodanai was Michael, and Mileah was Burt and a few other roles. Everyone did an excellent job and they all had fun performing. It was a great success!
July 20 I celebrated my 41st birthday. We were wondering if Maria would arrive on my birthday, but she decided to wait, which was my preference. (I do so much for my kids’ birthdays – I was not sure I wanted to be exhausted on my birthday every year! 🙂
Josh and the kids had a lovely breakfast ready for me in the morning, complete with a watermelon fruit basket, bacon, eggs, and croissants. Afterwards we went to a pool and spent most of the day swimming and eating lunch. It was a very relaxing way to spend the day with our family. And I did a lot of swimming, which felt good.
We came home later afternoon and the kids made a pound cake. We had subs for supper, pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. Then we did gifts and a slide show of my life. 🙂 It was a lovely day and my family made me feel very special. And all that swimming did not coax Maria to arrive, even the next day.
Last week and this week, Josh has been assisting an SIL Grammar Workshop, right where we’re staying. This workshop has been scheduled for 3 years, and it ends up the timing worked perfectly with Maria’s birth. The workshop is for SIL Bible translators who are working on a grammar for the language they are currently or going to translate. There are nine translators from four different countries here for the workshop. Josh is a mentor to two of the participants. Every morning there are intense lectures by Dr. Paul Kroeger (from Texas) and every afternoon Josh works with his two mentees (both missionaries in Cambodia). It’s a 10-day workshop with a weekend break in-between. They finish this Friday and in the evening we’ll all go out on a dinner boat ride on the river.
Dr. Kroeger was one of Josh’s linguistics professors at UTA and was on his dissertation committee. When SIL was setting up the workshop, Paul especially requested that Josh be involved. It’s been a thrill for us to spend extra time with Dr. Kroeger and for Josh to be able to work with him.
Our kids have enjoyed baking snacks for the grammar participants and eating lunch with them and hearing different stories from their home and host countries. We’re the only family/kids here, since that was part of Josh’s conditions in agreeing to participate in the workshop. He didn’t want to leave us for over two weeks. It’s been a great experience for our kids.
