One of the things I love to do is write tunes for Bible verses to help Khmer and Jarai children memorize Scripture. So far we’ve put together 14 new verse songs and written two original Jarai songs. Anything I’ve done with Khmer is easy, since I just use a Khmer Bible translation. Anything we do in Jarai we translate first – Josh works with the Jarai Bible translators to translate the verse.
Above is our Jarai Romans 5:8, song by a group of young people who came to our house to learn the song.
Since Isaiah turned six this month, we now have 2, 4, 6, 8 in our home! Life is full of excitement! For Isaiah’s birthday, we bought sports outfits and had them lettered for our little team.
We’re in the midst of rainy season – which means…lots of rain and mud. They other day, during a sunny spell, some kids filled a pit with water and turned it into a mud pool. Anna came in before I got out to take pictures. Clara just watched, but had mud splattered on her. Lots of fun! I’m very thankful we have a washing machine!!
Happy 6th Birthday to Isaiah! We started off his birthday week the Friday before with his birthday countdown calendar. One of the special activities on the calendar was making strawberry jello. After eating the jello, all our children declared it was yucky and that they didn’t like jello. I laughed.
This year Isaiah wanted a Land Cruiser cake modeled after our car. I’m not sure what happened, but with the heat and whatever I must have done with the frosting, it was hard to keep to frosting solid. This Mommy was very disappointed with how it turned out, however Isaiah thought it was great and I’m glad that’s what really matters.
As far as birthdays go, Isaiah is pretty easy to please. Josh and I decorated his door the night before his birthday. We took a break from school and did whatever fun activities Isaiah wanted to do. Josh took Isaiah out to breakfast. We did a special craft sent by a friend: masks for the girls and a pirate hate for Isaiah. Isaiah wanted tacos for supper with guacamole – a meal loved by all.
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aiah got a basketball hoop for his birthday (the kind that hangs over the door). We put it up that night and everybody enjoyed making baskets – crazy, exciting times!
Two things Isaiah loves doing are climbing trees and making fires. He’s gotten really good at climbing high (sometimes it’s better for us not to watch). We’re really proud at how brave Isaiah has become in the past year.
Building fires is always fun. Recently we bought Isaiah a long lighter so he can burn the trash by himself. He’s also good at using a normal lighter. We can now send Isaiah out to burn the trash. So fun!
Isaiah loves math and seems to have a knack for figuring in things out. He recently figured out how to do basic division. He’s progressing nicely with his reading in All About Reading Level 1.
We’re thankful for the son God has gifted our family with. He is loved by all and is a good brother and plays well with others. He’s really hoping for a baby brother, but we’ll see. He always prays for two baby brothers and one baby sister. Happy Birthday, Isaiah! We love you!
Last Sunday, our friends the Carsons joined us for lunch. The Carsons are SIL missionaries working on the Tampuan Bible Translation. They come out our way every Sunday to meet with a Tampuan church. Both Andrew and Tanuja have been an encouragement to Josh and me: Andrew to Josh with his years of experience in Bible translation, and Tanuja in the ways she’s always checks up on how I’m doing.
Our children especially enjoy playing with the three Carson girls, who have always been very kind to our kids. We all had an enjoyable time, so much so that by the time the Carsons left it was time for dinner. The Carsons leave in a few weeks for a year back in their home country. We’ll miss our interactions with them.
Last week Josh was away at the Pastor’s Bible School in Ban Lung for five and a half days, from Sunday afternoon until Friday evening. We’re thankful for the smooth week we had without him (minus the toilet getting backed up from an accidental discarded spoon going down it). Each of the three old children got to have a special sleep-over with me on the nights Josh was away (I took Monday and Thursday nights off).
Each child got to plan his/her special evening. Becca wanted to do mineral face masks and play Monopoly. Anna wanted to paint our toenails, eat popcorn, and read books. Isaiah wanted to make a number chart on the computer, drink decaf coffee (we added whipped cream and Hershey’s chocolate syrup0, and read books. Clara didn’t need a special sleep-over, as she got up every morning before 5:30 (sometimes before 5!) to spend extra time with me. It was a busy and full week!
I love being a mommy – each life we’ve been given is a gift and is full of blessings. Joy. Laughter. Love. There are only a few things I value more than the gift of motherhood. But I’ll be honest…it’s not all joy, love, and laughter. Being a mommy is one of the toughest jobs I have. Why? Because I’m just a sinner saved by Jesus trying to lead other little sinners to know and love Jesus.
Yeah. Motherhood would be easy, if I were sinless. If I consistently loved like Jesus. If I didn’t want my love-tank to be filled by my children saying what a wonderful mommy I am. If I always returned good for evil. If I didn’t struggle with anger, impatience, selfishness, and pride (to name a few of my sins). If I didn’t have thoughts like how can you treat me like this after all I’ve done for you ALL day?!? If I didn’t struggle with those I just want to have fun with you – not disciple you thoughts.
I tell our children all the time, Mommy is just a sinner like you, trying to learn to be like Jesus…I just know how to sin in culturally acceptable ways and don’t throw fits. I speaking these words is important. It’s important for our children to know that I – Mommy – know I’m a sinner and that I need Jesus’ help just like they do. One reason is because I desire someday as adults, our children feel comfortable joining me in that journey of fighting sin and becoming more like Jesus. So someday when our daughters struggle as adults with anger, impatience, selfishness, and pride they don’t feel like they have a mom who doesn’t get it. No – she’s been there all along – a sinner trying to be more like Jesus and failing plenty of times. I want them to know that we are all in this battle together and that we can be more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I need Jesus. Everyday I fail and sin. Living with children 24/7 prevents me from deceiving myself into thinking I’m ok. When I preach to my children – I’m preaching to myself (wow – I can give some pretty convicting sermons!). I’m a sinner, saved by Jesus, and I desperately need His help everyday to fight my flesh.
Motherhood is a wonderful gift. We all love and cherish our children. But maybe one of the most important gifts it gives us is another opportunity to see how sinful we are and how desperately we need Jesus to help us turn from our sin and cling to Him.
Last week Anna got a new big bike as a reward for quitting her night-time thumb sucking. We’re so proud of her! Anna was thrilled to ride her new bike and it’s so fun to watch her. The bike came with a cushioned seat in the back, a basket, and a bell – everything that Anna wanted.
Last week we also had a young sparrow visit us for several hours. His nest had fallen from a tree and some kids brought him to our house. He was quite friendly and loved sitting on Becca’s shoulder. After a night of rest, he flew out the window and we haven’t seen him since then.
This week we took a quick trip to Laos to change our Cambodian visa type. The Laos border is about 4 hours from our home and it was the easiest way to leave Cambodia and reenter to obtain new visas. This was our first time to Laos and since we had to buy Laos visas we decided to spend a full day in the country.
Both the first (Monday) and third (Wednesday) days of our three day trip were taken up with travel and crossing the border. On the way to Laos we ran several errands in Ban Lung and had lunch with our team members in Stung Treng. It took us over an hour to cross the border and then we had over a 2 hour drive to Pakse, Laos. We arrived after dark. Our hotel was right along the Mekong River.
Tuesday was our fun day without any border crossing. In the morning Josh and Clara walked around the hotel and had coffee, while everyone else slept in until 7. We had a great breakfast at our hotel and headed out to see some waterfalls in the area. The first was neat to see, but we couldn’t get very close.
The second waterfall was more kid-friendly and the kids enjoyed climbing behind the waterfall with Josh and riding a raft up to the falls. After a very late lunch, we enjoyed the hotel pool until we took baths ( the kids loved having a real bathtub!), ate supper in our room, and ended the evening with watching Toby Tyler (an old Disney movie I enjoyed as a kid).
On our way back to Cambodia, we were delayed over two hours at the border. Border crossings take time, especially with multiple kids. However on the Cambodian side of the border we ran into a snag when the officials didn’t want to issue us the new (NGO) type of visa, since our old visas don’t run out until August. The reason we were doing this early is because our other option for getting the new type of visa was to wait until we were in Thailand for the birth of our new baby. That would require us to wait for the baby’s passport number before we could start the initial paperwork and could possibly keep us in Thailand 5+ weeks after the baby is born. It took quite some time to explain that we needed to make the change now, but finally the officials agreed. Thanks be to God.
We arrived home Wednesday night after dark. We’re so thankful for the safety God gave us on our travels and for the success in getting our new visas. We’re thankful for the extra vacation day we could have as a family enjoying doing fun things without errands or other things to take care of. Thanks be to God.
This June we will celebrate our 10th year wedding anniversary, what better way to celebrate than a two-day night getaway. (Thought we better before I have another nursing baby again.)
Josh and I left Thursday late morning and came home Saturday morning. We enjoyed lots of uninterrupted talking together. We also took a trip to a waterfall that our family enjoys. It was fun to be able to get into the water together, rather than playing tag-team while watching kids. Thankful for the time away we had together – thankful for the gift of marriage.
Last week we celebrated Anna’s 4th birthday. This year she was pretty excited about her birthday. We started off with a week countdown calendar including gifts, snacks, and a movie night. For movie night we watched Disney’s Snow White. Snow White is a favorite book in our house for the little girls and it was a blast sitting with Clara while we watched the movie, since she was very involved in the story, repeating phrases and saying “I found her!” whenever she saw Snow White.
Anna’s cake order was a bit complicated. She went between wanting a Mymy (her small stuffed panda) cake, a flower cake, and a butterfly cake. Then she settled on wanting a round cake with a picture of Anna, Mymy, and Mymy’s Little Sister in a stroller. Then it got more complicated and she also wanted Anna making a cake and Anna in a house included on the cake. I told her that I could only draw one Anna on the cake, and that was hard enough, since my smallest tip is still too big for tiny detail. The result was tasty, and Anna was pleased.
Taking Anna’s birthday picture this year was a breeze and she kept asking me if she could do different poses. That was quite a change from the years I begged her to look at the camera.
Anna had big plans for her birthday morning. She wanted to get up really early and put on a pretty dress. All the kids ended up getting up early and getting dressed up. They then played Legos together before breakfast. We had decorated Anna’s door the night before, so she got to see that first thing in the morning. For Anna’s birthday we went swimming in Ban Lung and had a pizza and French fries lunch at the pool we swam. Then for supper Anna ordered hotdogs and macaroni & cheese.
Gifts were pretty easy for Anna – she wanted a new mosquito net, a backpack, and some Little People princesses. Her siblings enjoyed buying/making gifts for her.
Four is a really fun age and Anna is one very bright and fun little girl. She can talk non-stop about the things her dolls are doing and she’s full of expression as she tells you every little detail about her dolls. I just love her hand gestures that go along with her stories. As our middle child, she did get lost in the cracks with her nighttime thumb sucking. A few weeks ago we started working on that and we’re so proud that she has, as far as I know, dropped sucking her thumb altogether. Anna also stopped taking a afternoon nap and has joined her older siblings during afternoon rest time, where they hang out on the porch and do projects and listen to books on the iPod. Our little girl is growing up.
Anna is pretty excited about having a new sibling and is praying for a baby sister. Before we told the kids we were expecting another baby, she told me we were going to get a baby on our trip (last March) to Phnom Penh.
We had a great time celebrating Anna’s birthday. She’s such a bright part of our family. We’re so thankful to have been gifted with her to our family.
The last picture makes me laugh. I told everyone to make grumpy faces and Anna who is usually my straight faced girl is pictures smiles while everyone else masters their grumpy look!
Last week we celebrated Josh’s 37th birthday. All the kids got dressed up for the celebration. Our day consisted of special food and extra time with the birthday man. Early in the morning, Becca and Isaiah secretly decorated Josh’s office while we were praying.
Becca made Josh oatmeal cookies. The most amazing thing was that Becca patiently allowed all her siblings to help with the mixing process (a hard thing for even an adult to do!).
For dinner we had grilled chicken and buffalo kabobs and had homemade mac&cheese, salt and garlic potatoes, and salad. For dessert we had strawberry cake with raspberry frosting To finished the evening we had a special show in honor of Daddy with original songs, performances, and a play done by family members. Happy Birthday Josh!
We enjoyed celebrating Holy Week this year. It was very similar to last’s years celebration, except I took less pictures. We really enjoyed reading though Piper’s Lenten Lights each night. You start out the day before Palm Sunday with seven candles and blow out a successive one each night until the last one is blown out on Good Friday. Then on Easter you relight all the candles. The visual element makes the readings more meaningful.
Palm Sunday we decorated our Resurrection Tree and reenacted the story of Palm Sunday. The tree is just a dead branch Becca chose from outside. The ornaments are all handmade.
Monday we reenacted the story of Jesus clearing the Temple. We also started our Resurrection Countdown Calendar, which had a extra treat for each day counting down to Easter.
Wednesday we had a family outing and went to Ban Lung and spent several hours and a pool that has watersides. It’s one of the nicest pools we’ve been to for little kids, since there are two large shallow areas for children and three different sets of slides varying in height.
Thursday we had a Maundy Thursday service, with feet washing and a reenactment of the Last Supper. Friday we had a Good Friday service with readings and singing.
Saturday was craft day and an Easter egg hunt. Clara was especially excited about finding eggs, it was adorable. I’m so thankful for the plastic eggs we got when in Bangkok when Clara was born.
Sunday afternoon we visited a young widow who recently lost her unsaved father. Nee is one of the people who is training to work on the Jarai Bible translation. After we returned, we had a dinner of buffalo roast, mashed potatoes, salad, and bread. Then we reenacted the Easter story and watched a few clips of the resurrection from different movie. Then we exchanged gifts. The kids are always so pleased with their gifts and with giving gifts. Afterwards we had apple pie and did our last Lenten Lights reading.
Thankful for the Holy Week we were able to have – thankful that our lives are changed because Jesus is Alive!
For history we’re using Susan Wise Bauer’s The Story of the World Vol 1. We recently ready about Hammurabi and the start Babylonian Empire. I combined our weekly art class with our history lesson and all created our own Law Codes.
I tried to provide an example modeled after Hammurabi’s Code….Isaiah used Bible verses.
We’re looking forward to adding Jensen child #5 to our family sometime around/after mid-August! So far the pregnancy has gone smoothly (besides the car accident which happened after I was expecting). We’re waiting until the birth to find out the gender and we have competing wishes for a brother or sister going on in our home.
Tuesday, March 13th, was Clara’s 2nd birthday. She was quite excited about eating hotdogs and having presents. A friend sent me some birthday decorations, so we had a butterfly theme for Clara’s birthday.
We spent the day giving Clara lots of extra attention: reading books, playing extra with her siblings, playing in a big tub of water on the porch, and eating a supper of hotdogs, mac& cheese, salad, and cake. We ended the day with gifts. It was fun to watch Clara have fun. She was so excited about her “presents.” All her siblings got her perfect things: markers, playdough, paintset, ball, bag, etc.
Clara continues to be a very bright, energetic, little girl. She loves to keep up with everyone. She talks up a storm and even tells stories. She keeps us laughing! She sings – mostly the Khmer Bible verses I’ve put to music. She loves to “help Mommy.” She loves to swing…high! She can count to 10 and knows some of her colors and loves to be read to. She picks up things from hearing her siblings in school. I had to laugh one time when she answered a number question faster than a sibling one day. She knew what came after 6.
One thing Clara loves to do is change clothes. She loves to wear dresses and after she gets though her chouce clothes, she tries on her sisters’ clothes. I’m always picking up clothes. She isn’t content in one outfit very long. And it’s often hard to keep her in clothes at all.
Around November, Clara started climbing up on the toilet to go potty. I was not prepared to start potty training her, but thought we could work on it during Christmas break. The accident threw a wrench in things, but Clara wanted to go potty. (So there I was recovering from the accident, potty training Clara, and trying to house-train a new kitten.) Clara is now officially potty trained – has been for weeks – and usually keeps dry at night. I’m still amazed. (I guess she’s advanced since she was born in the bathroom.) No more changing diapers for us! This is the first time in almost 6 years we don’t have a child in diapers. And it’s the first time since Becca that our youngest child is so “old” – 2.
Last week we moved Clara into the kids’ room. She now sleeps on the bottom bunk with Becca on the top bunk. She thinks it’s great. She also think it’s great that Mommy can sleep with her. So far we’ve only had three nights where she’s fallen asleep without me in the bed with her and thtee nights where I haven’t been up multiple times with her in the night. (When she does make it through the night she’s up before 5.) She wakes up crying and won’t go back to sleep until I get into bed with her. I’m hoping most of the waking up was because of a tooth that is coming through. We’re making progress and it’s so cute to see her in a big bed. (And after two years, it’s nice for Josh and I to go to bed without having to worry about talking too loud and waking Clara up.)
We’re so thankful for Clara and the joy she adds to our home. We pray that she will come to know and love Jesus. These last pictures are just minutes after she was born. So thankful!
Last week we took a trip to Phnom Penh. Our main purpose for going was to attend a one and half day prayer conference and after that we stayed in town to do some errands and eat at some favorite restaurants. It was nice to have hot showers, air conditioning (it’s warmer in PP), clean feet, someone to do the laundry for us, and be away from the constant dirt flying into our home.
We ended up taking a taxi van to and from PP, since our car was unable to be repaired for the trip. We left Monday morning at 5:30 and arrived in center of PP around 2:30. It was a very smooth trip and was nice to have two adults to help our kids instead of just one. We returned on a taxi van as well, and though the trip was longer, it was smooth, and everyone did well.
We enjoyed the prayer conference. The only kids in attendance were kids from our area, so our children knew everyone. I helped with the children’s program, which had a Amelia Bedelia theme. The kids got to do everything Amelia Bedelia did in the books that were read: cut towels, dust furniture, dress a chicken., trim meat, cut spots out of dresses, make a lemon meringue pie, etc. It was unforgettable, for sure. I even wrote a song for the kids about Amelia Bedelia and being a follower of the King. (Did you ever imagine you could tie Amelia Bedelia to the Christian life?)
For the rest of the week, we enjoyed riding around town in a tuk-tuk, visiting with a few friends, shopping for a few small items, and eating. We were happy to visit our favorite Khmer restaurant twice, eat a Brooklyn Pizza and Fat Boys’B Subs, and make a special stop at Swesen’s Ice Cream!
We had a good trip, and it was really nice to come home. Even though we had to leave all the luxuries of Phnom Penh life, there’s nothing as good as being back in one’s own home.
Saturday is usually Fine Arts day in school, so I teach music and art to our kids. Last Saturday I decided to be the one who did the art. Lots of fun and laughter.
Last weekend we celebrated Valentine’s Day with our traditional family party. We made heart-shaped pizzas, made and decorated heart-shaped cookies, played games, and exchanged cards and the kids each got a new book.
The kids worked very hard on making cards for everyone. It’s always a really fun time.
The next evening Josh and I had a special dinner after the kids went to bed. So glad God has given us all these Loves.
Last week we had a family day and spent a few hours at a waterfall. We’d visited this waterfall last July, but it was during rainy season and the water was brown from all the rain. This time it was quite clear and the water level was low enough to allow the kids to play.
First we went on a jungle hike following the source of the falls. Then we had a picnic lunch, complete with egg salad sandwiches, Pringle chips (we can buy these here), mango, double stuffed Oreos (bought in Siem Reap), and Sprite.
Afterwards the kids played in the water for a while before we headed off to PE. It was a fun day. Perfect weather. Perfect location. Lovely day.
(Between trying to manage our stuff, watch the kids, and stay dry – we forgot to take a picture of me. )
Last week for family night our kids decided to dress up. They were quite pleased with themselves and were very agreeable when I asked if I could snap a picture (getting all four to look and smile is often a challenge.)
Christmas is long over and we’re back into the swing of things. I had had big plans for the week after Christmas with lots of projects and time to prepare for the New Year, but with the accident everything was put on hold. So I started the year a week or more behind.
Thankfully I can now say, 8 weeks after the accident, that I think I am fully recovered. I was told it could take 6-8 weeks to recover from a concussion and it was true. Those weeks were hard. I didn’t feel well, had trouble with light and sound sensitivities, was tried, and had absolutely no motivation. I didn’t even want to read my messages from friends (which I was told by another concussion victim was a completely normal symptom). Probably the hardest thing was that right before the accident I was feeling really good. I had stopped nursing Clara and my energy level had returned and I probably felt the best I had felt for….years. I had all this motivation and energy to get extra things done. To go from feeling so good (much better than I had in years) to being down with a concussion was discouraging. But life had to go on. Meals still had to be made (there’s not many other food options out here and I am thankful for some meals that were sent out from Ban Lung). Kids still needed care. There really wasn’t any time for extra rest. But thanks be to God, I recovered. I feel so much better. Thanks for your prayers!
