A very happy 1st birthday to our sweet little man. We are truly blessed to have you as our boy.

The weekend after Josh’s graduation we spent two nights at a cabin in the hill country of Texas. Our friends Micah, Anna & Adam Martin invited us to spend some time with them at their uncle’s place. It was beautiful and very relaxing. A perfect way to rest after our very busy weekend before – weeks before – months before – years before. We enjoyed spending time with our good friends and having a day and a half with no schedule.

Since Dad and Mom J came down for Josh’s graduation, we decided it would be best to pack up our apartment, load a truck, and have them drive our belongings to SC. It made for a very busy weekend (guests & graduation plus moving). Thankfully, I had a lot of help packing things up the week before. One of my best friends, Rebekah Pringle, flew in for 5 days to help with the packing. I don’t think it would have gotten done without her help. Another friend, Jan, came on Wednesday to pack up Becca’s room. Another friend, Anna, took Becca out for a morning so Jan could pack her room. These friends were a great help to us.

Monday morning we had a very educated moving crew. Three people with doctorates, one working on his Ph.D., and another working on his masters’. Dad J oversaw the logistics of loading the truck. Mom J finished packing up the kitchen. A friend from church, Megan, watched Becca and Isaiah while we loaded the truck. We are very thankful for everyone who helped us in packing up and moving our belongings. [And I’m so thankful I didn’t have to drive a huge truck from TX to SC! Thanks, Mom and Dad! -Josh]

We are now living with the Woods while we wrap up our last weeks in TX. We’re getting a chance to say goodbye to some of the friends we’ve made. Graduation weekend, we had a picnic with Dad and Mom J. and were able to get together with one of Becca’s NICU nurses – Miss Kathy. We’re so thankful for everything Miss Kathy did for Becca during her preemie days.

We enjoyed visiting with the Johnson family. We’ve made many good friends in Texas and are thankful for them all.

Sunday we celebrated Josh’s Ph.D. graduation. We thank the Lord for His faithfulness to us these past 6 years. We have seen so many prayers answered concerning Josh’s Ph.D. requirements.

We are very thankful to all who had a part in Josh’s degree: family, professors, and friends.

I’m very proud of my man. He has worked hard and has accomplished his goal. He started as a single man and finished with a wife, daughter, and son. He has pressed on when things were discouraging and did not give up. He truly is my heroman. Now we’re a “paradox” (say it a few times and you’ll get it)!

Last weekend we had a great visit with the people of North Houston Baptist Church. Pastor John Bray and his wife Jen welcomed us all into their home for the weekend and we enjoyed our fellowship with them. Josh preached in the morning service and gave our missions presentation in the evening service.

Both kids did great on the drive and during our stay. Becca absolutely loved playing with 7-year-old Charis. We’ve never seen her enjoy another friend so much.

This week we’re packing up our apartment in preparation for our move. Sunday Josh graduates and Monday we load the truck. Busy times.

A big thank you to Grandpa Sutter for sending Flopsie some real bamboo! It’s been a part of almost every meal here.

As we prepare to leave Texas, we’ve been presenting our ministry to our friends. Last Saturday we had a missions presentation for a group of folks we know in the area. Our church let us use one of their buildings for the event. One of our dear friends at the church, an older woman, offered to coordinate the refreshments. I cannot tell you how much this encouraged and blessed me. We enjoyed seeing many of our friends from our former church.

If you haven’t seen our ministry website yet, here’s a link: jarai-in-cambodia.org  We’re praising the Lord for supplying 20% of our needed monthly support already.

We’ve also been having people over our home to say goodbye. We’re so blessed to have so many good friends in Texas.

Tuesday night Josh and I went to a Rangers game. I’ve always wanted to go a Rangers game. Actually, I’ve wanted to visit the stadium ever since my family drove by it when I was about 13. We enjoyed the game: Chicago White Sox Vs. Texas Rangers. We got to see 3 home runs and we’re glad that the Rangers won 10-6.

Our little man learned a lot this month. He is now officially crawling and is fast. He always makes a beeline for the front door if it’s left open and loves crawling outside. He’s pulling himself up on everything. His “new” trick is to pull himself up in his bed and throw his zebra out. Then he cries because he misses his zebra. This seems to be his new nap-time game.

Isaiah loves “riding” Becca’s bike. The past two days we spent a lot of time riding on the grass. Isaiah also loves playing the piano. He seems to be inclined to music. He’s not saying any words. . .except maybe “no no”, which sounds like “whoa-whoa.”

Isaiah also loves to eat – even dirt! He was pretty upset when I tried to get the dirt out of his mouth.

Isaiah continues to be a happy cute little boy and we’re so thankful God gave him to us.

Several weeks ago we traded Becca’s nap time for “rest time.” Rest time lasts for one hour. Before rest time Becca chooses a huge pile of books and then reads them in bed while listening to a story. When the hour is over I come in with a snack and read a few of the books to Becca. About three weeks ago Becca began listening to Anne of Green Gables (Focus on the Family’s Radio Theatre). She loves the story. It’s so neat to share that love with my daughter. I told her that one day Mommy and Becca will have a special movie night and start watching the movie.

One day Becca started talking about the picnic we were going to have on Sunday. For a few days before Sunday she talked and talked about it. I realized that it was from Anne. So that Sunday after church, Becca and I got dressed up, did our hair in Anne braids, and had our first picnic of spring. This was the beginning of many picnics. Since the weather has been so nice lately, we’ve been able to go out for a picnic several times each week. Josh has been able to join us on the days we’ve had supper picnics.

One day our picnic activity included flying a kite. Becca did a great job keeping our kite in the air. She was loving it!

Another day we splashed in the puddle after our picnic. This was the same day we went to the fountains in the late afternoon and enjoyed running through them. Even Isaiah got in on the fun, though he wasn’t very happy when the fountains first turned on!

Lately our picnics have been near the creek, and Becca has found a “tree house” to play in (two trees growing close together). We enjoy spotting our turtle friends each time we’re out, and we got to chase some ducks the other day. We are blessed to live right next to campus and have access to all the paths, grass, and trees.

A few minutes ago I submitted the final draft of my dissertation to the division of Graduate Studies at UT Arlington. Apart from any formatting problems I’m asked to fix, I am officially done with the dissertation. I reproduce below what I regard as the most interesting (and perhaps important!) part of the dissertation, the acknowledgments. In particular, this is the part of the acknowledgments where I thank my family.

[…]

Thanks to my parents for life, for education, for faith. You sacrificed to pay for my excellent Christian schooling. You taught me to discern between things that matter less and things that matter more. You taught me to think critically without being doomed to a life of skepticism. You supported me throughout my BA and MA work. And you encouraged and helped me through these last six years of PhD work. To my sisters and their families, thank you for your love and words of encouragement, as well as the gift cards for Amazon and Papa Johns.

To my daughter Rebecca Grace (our cancer survivor!): you are a sweet and beautiful little girl. During the last three years, while I’ve tried to master a few small corners of Jarai grammar, you have acquired a remarkable mastery of English (in addition to memorizing long passages from the Gospel of Luke, lots of catechism questions and answers, just about every song you’ve heard, and all the things Mommy and Daddy think they said too quietly for you to hear). Thanks for keeping Mommy company and playing with Isaiah every day while I’m away “writing my dissertation.” And to Isaiah Emil, I’m so glad you’ll have no memories of Daddy’s dissertation era. Someday, you’ll wonder what that big black book is that we use as a doorstop: you’ll pick it up, perhaps, and read this paragraph. If you think language is cool, keep reading. If not, please put the book back down so the door doesn’t slam shut.

To my wife: thank you so much. When we moved to Texas, it was you who got a full-time job while I went to school. You’re the one who now stays home with our kids while I write and work. You’re the one who keeps us all fed and makes our home a wonderful place to be. You’re my hero. I am inspired by the persistence you showed in writing and defending your own dissertation in the midst of so many life changes: our marriage, a move to Texas, your work as a public school teacher, and the premature birth of Becca at 27 weeks—any one of these might have been justification for giving up. But you kept working, even through the emotional and physical drain of a miscarriage. Thank you for your faithful love and companionship. Being your husband is a high honor and great joy. I love you.

And finally, to the one from whom all blessings flow, I offer these borrowed words of thanks:

Thee, God, I come from, to thee go,
All day long I like fountain flow
From thy hand out, swayed about
Mote-like in thy mighty glow.

What I know of thee I bless,
As acknowledging thy stress
On my being and as seeing
Something of thy holiness.

— Gerard Manley Hopkins

I’m several weeks behind in posting picture – we’ve been having lots of nice weather days hence many opportunities to take pictures. The following pictures were taken in March.

Have you ever gone to get a gift for a toddler and then realized you’ve forgotten what toddlers like? I have . . . Hmmmm, what does an 18-month-old like to play with? I don’t remember!  Because of this, I’ve determined to keep as list of the things my children enjoy at certain ages so I can use the list as a help when I’m trying to get gifts for children long after when I’m in the midst of certain age ranges. (Josh told me to share my random incomplete list, so here goes.)

These ideas are based on things/activities we’ve noticed that our kiddos enjoy.

Books! Books! Books! I cannot stress this enough. Books are a wonderful gift to any child. . .a gift that also gives to the parents and other siblings too. Becca loves books. She’s been given all sorts of gifts, including technology, but books are always the thing she goes back to. I’m finding Isaiah likes books too. He’ll sit and flip through our board books for quite a while. So when in doubt – buy books for the children in your lives.

The pictures I’m sharing are events related to books we’ve read. Becca loved making a gingerbread man after we read The Gingerbread Man (above to the left). One of the authors we enjoy is Jan Brett – great stories and beautiful art. Our library is stocked with Jan Brett books.  One of Becca’s favorite Brett books is Hedgie’s Surprise. It’s about a chicken named Henny trying to keep her eggs from the Tomten who eats them every morning. We got the books from the library and then Becca’s Grandma Jensen gave her the book. Last month we had our dinners for eight church meal at the Gamblins. Bob and Martha have chickens in their backyard. Becca absolutely loved chasing “Henny” all around the yard. And she was thrilled to be able to hold Henny.

Detour here: We’ve loved getting to know people from our church during our time with dinners for eight.  It’s been such a neat way to fellowship with people from church on a monthly basis. We’re really going to miss our church in Arlington.

Other gift ideas:

1) Craft items – play dough, paint, pom pom balls, eyes, glitter, craft sets, markers, crayons, stickers, etc. Most moms can’t just go out and stock a craft cabinet. Becca loves to make things – she loves to paint and get messy. And a great thing about craft gifts is that they can be used and then discarded!

2) Imagination gifts – blocks (got to have them, and lots!), plastic animals (Becca has several Little People animals and plays with them regularly), cars, puzzles, kitchen and play food, magnetic alphabet letters and number, Magna Doodle, wooden train, etc. These are gifts that help the children use their imaginations. With the exception of the puzzles, these don’t have to be used for one thing – they can help with all sorts of adventures throughout the day.  A word about stuffed animals – I know some parents are particular about having too many stuffed animals in their homes. Becca loves her animals and would have a room-full if she could. One helpful gift idea is to give a stuffed animal that goes with a book.

3) Outdoor Fun – chalk, bubbles, balls, kites, water balloons, and squirt guns.

A word about technology – currently Becca has 4 different types of alphabet related computer-like toys. Though they were interesting at first, she doesn’t really pay much attention to them now. Her Babar books are way more exciting. I’m finding at her age, things with batteries are cool for a short while and then they cease to be interesting. I’m guessing this is because they are limited in their function. And another word of advice: wrap the gifts, if only with tissue paper. If the gift has multiple parts, take them out of the packaging and wrap them all (well, maybe not a set of 100 crayons…): unwrapping the gift is one of the best parts for toddlers.

So – there’s my rather random list of gift ideas for toddlers. I guess I would include Isaiah (a 10-month-old) in this list – he also loves books, blocks, plastic animals, bubbles, play food, etc. I haven’t tried many craft items with him yet. . .I’m sure he’d love eating them!

There’s at least one other list I’d like to record for myself: gifts/helps for young mothers (and maybe another for families going through stressful times). But we’ll see if I ever get to that. We’ve been having a week full of picnicking and being outside. . . who wants to blog when you can spend time with the family!

Friday evening we celebrated Josh’s 32nd birthday. We had a good time of fellowship with Stephen & Kristen Ryland.

Sunday Flopsie had surgery. Our dear pastor’s wife offered to re-stuff Flopsie for Becca. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile. Flopsie can now hold his head up again! A big thank you to Kathy for doing this for us!

Saturday we went to Arlington Library’s Teddy Bear Picnic & Parade (see comparison pictures from last year). The weather was perfect and we all enjoyed being outside.

We had a lovely Resurrection Weekend. Saturday night we made Easter Story cookies. Sunday after church we had dinner with the Walton and O’Neill families. We were honored that the Waltons included us in their Easter celebration (a very good reminder to look out for people who don’t have family in the area and invite them into your home for holiday meals). In the evening we decorated and hid Easter eggs. We ended the day by having egg salad sandwiches for dinner.

Easter Story Cookies:

Easter Gifts & Clothes: Becca wore my old dress. It has a bell in the petticoat. I remember being so excited when I got to wear it. I had a new dress too – first time in years (thanks Dad for the LE giftcard). (We didn’t make the boys endure a photo-shoot. We gave Isaiah raisins for Easter – in case you were worried about him being left out.)

Easter Eggs

Happy 32nd birthday to my dear sweet husband! Thank you for being my best friend – for pointing me to Christ – for serving and valuing our family – for marrying me before you finished your Ph.D. – for wanting to have kids before you finished your Ph.D – for always being on my team – for being a wonderful Daddy to our children – for wanting more children – for being fun – for washing the dishes – for making the bed every morning – for taking out the trash – for loving me – for laughing with me – for wanting to go to Cambodia – for making our lives so adventurous – for so much more. Happy birthday to the most wonderful man in the world. We love you!

A very happy 10-month birthday to our happy little man! Isaiah is now army-crawling all over the place. He knows how to get up on his knees but hasn’t figured out how to get those little knees moving yet. This past week Isaiah learned how to sit up all by himself. . .a technique he likes to employ when I put him down for a nap.

Isaiah loves to feed himself. He sometimes gets a little discontent when we try to fed him. He LOVES raisins! He also loves to feed himself tiny objects off the floor. This boy is an expert at finding tiny objects.

So proud of my man for passing his dissertation defense today! Thank you for praying. We thank the Lord for being with Josh throughout this process.

The Structure of Clauses and Noun Phrases in Jarai
Joshua Jensen
Friday March 29, 2013
10:00AM, Trimble Hall 200

Abstract:
In this dissertation I aim to provide a syntactic account for the three regions of the Jarai clause (the operator domain, the inflectional domain, and the theta domain) and for several elements in the noun phrase. Major topics in the discussion of the clause include wh-questions (which can take three forms: wh-in-situ, wh-fronting, and wh-pseudocleft), unaccusatives, and serial verbs. My investigation in the noun phrase includes coverage of classifiers, number marking, and quantifiers.

Please pray for Josh as he defends his dissertation Friday, March 29, at 10 AM Central Time.

Last week (March 17-20) we participated in a missions conference at Westside Baptist Church in Eugene, Oregon. We were invited by the church’s assistant pastor, Nathan Damm, a former classmate of Josh’s. Nathan invited us after reading our article in the EMU newsletter. Josh taught Sunday School, prayed in the second morning service, and gave our missions presentation Wednesday night. We also sang in both Sunday morning services and the Wednesday evening service, as well as led junior church Sunday night.

The church gave us a warm welcome. We enjoyed fellowshipping with the people in the church as well as the other missionaries invited to the conference. We enjoyed several meals with families in the church. It was a great way to kick start our deputation journey. We thank God for a good missions conference, safe travels, good health, new friends, and for helping both kids do great.

We stayed with family (pictured above) for a week while in Eugene. Josh’s grandmother’s cousin, we call her “Aunt” Jan, lives in Eugene, where her husband, “Uncle” Mike, pastors a church. Aunt Jan made us truly feel like her home was our home. It was an ideal situation. The Friday before the conference we went to Sweet Home, OR, to visit with the Andereggs (friends of the Jensen family; picture to the left). Saturday night Aunt Jan had a family get together where we met some other second and third cousins (picture to the right). Wednesday afternoon I taught a music class for the after-school program at Uncle Mike’s church.

Friday evening we drove to the coast. It was my first time to see the Pacific Ocean. I was really hoping to see a sunset, but the weather did not cooperate. Becca was excited about putting her feet into the water until the ice cold water touched her feet – then she cried and ran away. She refused to go back until she realized that her mommy didn’t want to put her feet in the cold water. After that Becca was thrilled to drag me down the beach! And she proceeded to ask over and over again to go in the water!

Two funny Becca stories: Right after Josh prayed in the Sunday morning service Becca said loudly, “but I want to pray for a little sister!” Anytime we pray she always asks to pray about a little sister. She just couldn’t understand why this couldn’t happen in the church service. I was able to convince Becca to pray quietly for a little sister. In the same service, Becca was sitting with the children to go out for Jr. church and got a hymnal to sing with the congregation.  She couldn’t understand why the children’s workers took it away from her (they don’t let the kids use hymnals since they usually drop them) – Becca burst into tears, loudly exclaiming that she needed a hymnal to sing! Fortunately I had positioned myself in the pew directly behind her and just lifted her over the pew and into my lap so she could sing with a hymnal.

Becca is going to be a wonderful mommy someday. She’s great at nursing her babies while reading. She knows how to do library story time. She also knows all about airplane safety. The other day I found her on the couch with Flopsie and Eva. All three had cups over their mouths. When I asked Becca what she was doing, she said that they were doing that because they couldn’t breathe on the airplane. (Guess she was paying good attention when we flew at Christmas.)

Recently I’ve been thinking about “future mommying.” The mommy I am today is setting the foundation for the mommy I’ll be for many years to come. The ways I talk with Becca and listen to her talk are laying a foundation for our life-long communication. I have to have a picture of what our parent/adult-child relationship should look like. . .  I can’t have the mindset of just getting through the “little years” and working on that relationship when they are older. I must intentionally work during these little years to lay a foundation for the future mommy I want to be.  Just some thoughts . . . come over for some coffee and we can chat some more.

Recently when Josh and I were walking, I made the comment “you reap what you sow.” Josh noticed Becca was listening and asked her if she knew what that meant. We then took a moment to talk about planting seeds and reaping a harvest: “when we plant a lettuce seed does a watermelon grow? Do apple seeds grow into grass?” etc. A little while later Becca asked for some apple seeds. We cut an apple open and Becca hurried off to plant the seeds in “her garden.” Then she asked if she could get an apple out of the fridge. A few minutes later I went into Becca’s “bear garden” to see the apple she was reaping from her sowing.

We are teaching Becca the books of the Old Testament using hand motions for each book. She is a fast learner, and it’s prompted a lot of good conversations about the OT. So far we’re up to Obadiah. These pictures are of Becca trying to teach Isaiah the OT books.

Last week Isaiah made his first venture out of the living room. I watched him go to the doorway and just stare into the unexplored territory. His first stop was the bathroom. Since then Isaiah has turned into a speedy little explorer. It’s so cute to see him move all about the house. Watch out world (and Becca)!

Monday’s high was 86 degrees. We took advantage of the lovely weather and spent most of our non-nap-time outside. In the morning we went to a park and in the late afternoon we walked over to see Josh at school. Isaiah loved riding the swing.

Please pray for Josh as he works on his dissertation. Josh’s defense is scheduled for March 29th. As you can see from the collage on the right, Becca is trying to help Josh with his defense facial expressions.

Last week we visited with Dad J during his layover in DFW. Lord willing the next time we see Dad will be for Josh’s graduation!

Happy 9-months to our precious little boy (19lbs & 10oz, 27.27in long). Sai Zai is a little jokester – he loves putting hair rubber bands in his mouth and then grinning up at me. He loves vigorously shaking his head back and forth. Isaiah now babbles: mamama, dadada, bababa, t-t-t-t, and he makes kissing noises. He is moving little by little across the floor. I’m expecting him to take off any day now.