On February 8th, we left our home in Oyadao and started on our 6-month journey to the States and back. We spent the first night at the Crowleys so we could get an early start the next day. Friday morning we left at 6:30 and drove to Phnom Penh for 4 days of errands and packing up to fly.

The week before we left home, we were invited to two meals to say goodbye to our friends. Josh’s translators had a dinner for him at our pastor’s house on Saturday night. Monday night my ladies had a meal for us at one of their homes. We were touched by their kindness to us.

Monday morning (12th) we went swimming with our friends the Nhoemvans. Funny to think we would be swimming on Monday in Cambodia and freezing on Wednesday in Pennsylvania. We were able to visit with friends at the guesthouse and have our SK boys over for dinner.

We got to the airport Tuesday around 10pm. It took a little while to get to our gate – and our flight didn’t leave until 12:45am. Thankfully everyone stayed awake and happy. Everyone was excited to be on the plane, and the kids didn’t settle to sleep for a while. By the time we got to our gate in Korea, there wasn’t much wait time until we boarded our 14-hour flight. It was long, but everyone did pretty well.

When we arrived in the US (DC), we had a great passport control officer who was a Christian and very friendly. By the time we arrived at my parents (most of us slept during the drive), Micah was crying. Ezra was crying. Maria was crying. It was a rough “landing.”

There was snow on the ground, so once the boys recovered they went sledding. We all went to bed early and most of us slept until early morning. A week later, most everyone (except Maria) was used to our new time zone!

Isaiah has been enjoying hanging out with my dad.

We’ve been recovering from jet-lag while at my parents. Everyone except the two little boys have their own beds, and they have sleeping bags of their own. My mom has had many activities to keep everyone busy: sewing, yarn dolls, corn-shuck people, painting, making a corn hole – complete with the bags – and much more.

I made a separate visit to my grandma. Clara wanted to go along to see her again. I was blessed to see how considerate Clara was to her great grandma and the heart Clara had for her.

We finished out our time in PA with an evening with the Copelands – the couple who delivered Micah at the guest home in Cambodia. It was a delight to spend time with this couple. The Copelands served in Cambodia for many years before returning to the States about three years ago to take care of their aging parents.

Today is Maria’s 7-month birthday! She’s done a lot of traveling in the last month: traveling back to her birth-room (top picture), leaving her birth country, and flying to her passport country. Maria was a bit rough during the plane ride – she gave up sucking her thumb for some reason and ended up nursing a lot.

Maria loves people – she smiles lots. She’s started eating solids a bit, but prefers to feed herself, which is hard at this stage. After a week of being in the States, Maria is still not on the right time zone. She tends to want to play at 1am or 3am for quite a while. But she’s not sleeping much during the day either, so I’m kinda stumped on how to completely switch her over. Yesterday she didn’t want to play until 3am, so we’re making progress.

Maria is fast at army crawling and fast at grabbing things – watch out. Love this little girl of ours.

After months of praying for snow (and a rather gloomy forecast of no snow this year in PA), we arrived in the US the day after it snowed in PA, and there was still snow on the ground! We actually time our furlough and our starting location in hopes of giving the kids a chance to experience snow. The next Friday it snowed again. Our kids were delighted to be able to sled and play in the snow. The cold didn’t seem to phase the little boys. We’re thankful for this gift from God.

Last Friday we had our school graduation program.

Eighth Grade – Rebecca Grace Jensen

Sixth Grade – Isaiah Emil Jensen

Fourth Grade – Anna Grace Jensen

Second Grade – Clara Grace Jensen

Kindergarden – Ezra Emmett Jensen

Preschool – Micah Ebenezer Jensen

Our evening included a meal with hotdogs with mac& cheese. A program – with a piano recital and recitations by each of the kids. Everyone did so well. It was the first time Ezra had the courage to recite. Micah also did a great job. After the presentations we gave out certificates and diplomas, did sparklers outside, and ended with desserts while watching an end-of -the-year slideshow.

RECITATIONS

Micah – Poem – 1-2-3-4-5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive

Ezra – Poem – The Lizard – by John Gardner

Clara – Poem – Foreign Lands by Robert Lewis Stevenson

Anna – Poem – The Tyger by William Blake

Isaiah – Poem – The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron

Becca – Recitation – “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” by William Shakespeare

So proud of our students!

What a personality change we see in Maria compared to her first few months. We can now say very confidently that she is a very happy girl. She loves interacting with her siblings. Ezra has a special talent at making Maria laugh. She loves laughing at her two very silly big brothers! (Maria is pictured above with my dress.)

Maria is now army crawling and makes it quite far – I’ve given up trying to keep her on a large mat. She has also started eating oatmeal (I grind the raw oats up), and we give her large carrots to gnaw on. (My milk supply dipped really low last month – probably from all the things I can’t eat! – but since then we solved the problem by buying beef which I eat twice a day (like taking medicine :-). Thankful for our little girl and all the joy she brings our family!