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!
Christmas morning we decided not to start out with quiche and cinnamon rolls, since usually the kids are hungry/grumpy by the time everything is ready. So this year we had Honey Cheerios, pumpkin bread, and scrambled eggs for breakfast and had the cinnamon rolls and quiche for lunch. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, my yeast was going bad, so the cinnamon rolls did not turn out as well as I had hoped.
After breakfast Isaiah and Anna performed separate Christmas plays. It’s Becca’s tradition to do a Christmas pageant every Christmas evening with Little People. She spends weeks preparing. The younger kids did not want to be left out, so we watched their programs in the morning.
Afterwards the kids passed out gifts. We put a big emphasis on the kids giving things to others for Christmas. They get really excited about buying and/or making gifts for everyone in the family. It’s so much fun to watch their delight in giving. As Becca says what makes Christmas really special is that we don’t just get gifts, but we get to give gifts too. Becca spent a lot of time making special gifts for each family members. One thing she did was to make paper frame backgrounds for each family member and had a picture of her and that family member printed to put on each one.
After lunch we had a rest time and then played games for the rest of the afternoon. Then we had a supper of Indian Buffalo roast. After supper we finished up the gifts. We gave the kids their gifts. The theme was art supplies and they were so excited. I love seeing them so excited about simple things…they each also got their own magnifying glass. Becca finished passing out her gifts to Josh and me. She spent hours writing and illustrating original stories for each of us.
Our last event was watching Becca performed her Christmas Pageant. She basically quotes the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew. It gets better and better every year. What a blessing to watch.
So that was our Christmas. Thankfully there were no funerals nearby like in past years and we enjoyed a semi quiet day. Thankful for the time we had together. Thankful for the traditions we can keep even though we live in Cambodia. Thankful for the birth of Christ!
Sunday, December 24th, was a very full day for our family. It was the day our Jarai church held their special Christmas service and the day we had a special Christmas Bible Club in the afternoon.
The day before we bought our kids Khmer school uniforms, which is what children usually wear to dress up for church. Our kids were so excited that morning to put on their new clothes. Some said they had never before been excited to go to church, but THIS Sunday they said they couldn’t wait to get to church. They were so cute and it made this mama’s heart so happy.
For a few weeks I’d been working with the children and junior high to prepare a Christmas program. Unfortunately the accident interfered with my rehearsals and it wasn’t all I had planned it to be – but it was fine. The children sang the gospel with tunes I`d composed for Bible verses (Genesis 1:1, Exodus 20:2, Romans 3:23, Romans 5:8, and another original song I wrote). Afterwards the junior high and some youth read and acted out the Christmas story. Several other groups sang for the service and Josh preached. After the service we had a meal together. Many unbelievers came from the village to the service.
We bought 10 pieces of candy for each kid at church. The kids helped me fill all the bags with the different kinds of candies. We did over 100 bags.
We got home and had a short while to prepare for Bible Club. First we played games outside, then we had the kids come in our house (we usually meet out on the porch) so they could see the Christmas tree. Josh finished telling the Christmas story (he’d told the first part two weeks before). Afterwards we had the kids decorate Christmas cookies.
After that we had supper and went to bed! It was a good way to celebrate Christmas with our Jarai brother and sisters and share the real meaning of Christmas to our neighbor kids.
We started our Christmas season by decorating our Christmas tree the first Saturday night of December. The kids were happy to get their Christmas pjs.
We also had our traditional Christmas countdown calendar going with special activities and gifts spread throughout the month.
This year we enjoyed listening to Piper’s Advent readings each night as we lit our Advent candles. Afterwards we sang Christmas carols. Every night each person got to pick a carol to sing (Clara and I picked together) – so we typically sang a total of 5 songs each night. Some favorites were Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella, The Holly and The Ivy, and Good King Wenceslas.
Because of all the Jarai church celebrations and our having a special Christmas Bible club for our neighbor children, we decided to postpone our Christmas celebrations until the day after Christmas. There was no way we could do all that Sunday Christmas Eve and be prepared for Christmas. This was especially true after the car accident. I was so worn out the day before we celebrated Christmas and that was only a few hours into the morning.
O
n December 25th we did all our normal Christmas Eve stuff. On of Becca’s goals this past year was to make a meal for the family. She decided she wanted to make tacos and since that’s usually what we have on Christmas Eve, she made the meal then. We also prepared 11 bags of fresh fruit to deliver to our neighbors as Christmas gifts. We started around 4 and didn’t finished up only after 6:30. The first few families just accepted the fruit and the last 4 invited us in to visit.
Becca’s dinner and dessert (brownies) were delicious. Afterwards we had homemade hot cocoa and watched The Muppets Christmas Carol.
December 15, 2017. It all started out as a normal Friday afternoon. I was headed out to meet with my Jarai ladies to study to book of John. Becca, Isaiah, and Anna decided to come along so they could play with their friends. Right after I got out of our little town I noticed a large semi-truck some distance behind me. We live on a highway that goes to Vietnam and there are often large vehicles (recklessly) zooming in both directions. I remember thinking what would we do if that truck doesn’t slow down and just plows into us. We neared the church and that’s about the last thing I remember.
That truck slammed into us. There is no evidence that I went unconscious. From the bruises on my head I must have hit the left front and back sides of my head. I had a gash in the top back of my head that required 3 stitches. I only have two memories from the next hour and a half after the accidnet. I remember being aware that it was quite sunny, I was outside, there were people around, and Pastor Chuol was somewhere around me. I couldn’t understand why Pastor Chuol, who is normally in bed when we visit him, was helping me. My next memory is of being in a car (a police car) with Clara on my lap. I knew one of my Jarai ladies was in the front seat. I can’t remember if I was aware my entire family was in the back with me.
Shortly after we got to the hospital about 15 minutes away from our house (think small clinic) my mind started retaining information and I knew I was on a bed and had a head injury. And then I stopped asking Josh the same questions over and over again. I’d been in an accident. The kids were fine. I needed stitches. And man did my head hurt!
Let me go back and try to piece together what happened. The semi assumed that I was slowing down to let him pass. So as I was turning into the church, he began to pass me (probably at a pretty good speed). The semi struck the back driver’s side of our vehicle causing our car to spin. We spun and then smacked into a small house owned by Pastor Chuol at the front of the road. Our car ended up facing the road and it looked as though I had simply backed into the house. (Pastor Chuol was using this house to occasionally sell a few items. Thankfully no one was in the house at the time.)
Thankfully our kids were fine. I think they were all crying. Becca stay one of the first things I said was “stop yelling at me.” Isaiah got my phone out of my backpack and Becca gave it to me to call Josh. She says I told her I wasn’t sure I knew how to use a phone. I called Josh and told him I had hit something but I didn’t know where I was or what had happened. By that time Pastor Chuol was at the car and I handed the phone to him. He was able to tell Josh that there had been an accident. He wasn’t very specific and said I’d hit my head. Josh immediately got on his moto with Clara and made the ride out to the church.
When the crash took place, a lady who lives next to the church and works with the children heard the it. Pastor Chuol told her to see what had happened (his wife wasn’t at home). She and another lady who lives near the church and who was getting ready to study with me, were the first people at the car. When they wanted to help me out of the car I asked them to wait a minute and get the children out first. They said I touched my head several times and said that it was bleeding. (I was thrilled to hear that even in my confused state, I was still speaking Khmer.)
The ladies got the kids out of the car and then helped me get out and walk to the back of the car. They got a mat and a pillow and helped me lay down. Some Khmer people went and bought alcohol and helped clean the back of my head. During this time I’m told that I asked the ladies and Becca the same questions over and over again: What happened? Who was in the car? Who was sitting in the front? Where’s Anna? (I guess I couldn’t see her since she was walking around with one of the ladies.) Where’s Daddy? Are you hurt? The best question I’ve heard so far was one I asked in Khmer: Do I have a husband? I think that must have been early on. Thankfully Becca very patiently answered my questions.
When Josh arrived he never saw the back of our car and didn’t realize how bad we’d been hit. I asked him the same sort of questions until a police car came to take us to the hospital (think clinic) about 20 minutes away from the church. I couldn’t even understand why I had been in the car in the first place. I was quite confused about the town we were going to – as though I’d never heard of it. Josh said I asked all the questions in a voice that sounded as though I was emotionally hurt.
It was finally at the hospital that I made my first connection. I asked Josh what day it was and when I found out it was Friday I asked if I had been going to teach the ladies. At that point Josh knew I was coming back and I slowly started to process things.
The clinic bed was outside in a pavilion-like area. The bed was an iron frame with metal slats across it and very uncomfortable. They put a mat on top of it. Josh had called JD and Brain (our co-workers) and they met us at the hospital and helped with the kids. The doctor asked me if my head hurt (haha) and the proceeded to give me three stitches. Thankfully he only had a shave a small area of my head which was hardly noticeable. And he stitched the gauze bandage right onto my head – clever!
It was decided that we would travel to Stung Treng (3 hours away) so I could get a CT scan to check my head. Josh and the kids went back to the house with Brian to pack some stuff and JD stayed with me in the hospital. Eventually we drove to Ban Lung, left the kids with the Crowleys, and Josh and I drove to Stung Treng for the scan. It was a new machine and a smooth process. I was given the clear and we headed to a hotel for the night.
The next day we headed home. We ended up stopping at several places and didn’t get to our house until around 3 in the afternoon. I was worn out. We made a quick stop at the police station to see our car. Josh was shocked to see the damage. Almost as soon as we got home we had several visitors from our neighborhood come to see how I was. They had all seen pictures of the accident on the news and were anxious to hear about it. Sunday after church Pastor Chuol’s wife came to visit and later the jr. high kids and teachers came to visit. (I did go to church that Sunday to run a rehearsal for the Christmas program, but went home before the preaching started.)
To wrap up: The semi that hit us was owned by our well-to-do neighbor’s sister’s mother. They were anxious to take care of things and talked to us Saturday night about what we would agree to do. They have agreed to pay for our medical expenses and pay to have our car fixed. If the car cannot be fixed, they will pay for the car. Our car is currently at the mechanic. It’s taken me awhile to recover from the concussion. I struggled with light and noise sensitivity and exhaustion. It made Christmas week with all it’s extra activity hard. Thankfully most of these issues have cleared up. I still notice a difference once the sun goes down.
We’re so thankful for God’s protection. Thankful that the accident took place right outside our church where people who knew us could help us. So thankful that the kids were with people they knew. Thankful that Pastor Chuol was able to be involved in helping our family. He was feeling well enough that day to crawl out to the car and assist our family. Thankful that Josh doesn’t have to deal with a wife who can’t remember anything! Thankful.
One other thing. We were overwhelmed at the generosity of our Jarai brothers and sisters. When Josh was at the accident a man from our church handed him $25. The lady who rode with us to the hospital slipped $5 into my hands. Later our church gave us over $50. One week later a group from another nearby Jarai church came by to pray over me and slipped over $20 into our hands. This is a lot of money for people who don’t have a lot. We were so blessed to see the love of Christ overflowing in the lives of our Jarai brothers and sisters.
It’s our tradition to make large gingerbread cookies and decorate them on Christmas Day. I wasn’t able to get them ready for Christmas Day, so we made them this week.
Each child made his own pattern (some with help). Clara enjoyed eating her cookie while decorating it. I can tell I’m a less controlling mama now…you want to eat your cookie and the toppings before we get a cute picture…have at it!
It was a fun project and I’m glad we still got to do it, even though we were a week late.
Every birthday, I like to look back and refect on how our children have grown. I think of all the past years, this is the year we observed the most growth in Becca’s maturity.
Educationally, Becca went from reading out of duty to reading for delight. She completed the All About reading curriculum. She’s thriving with Khan Academy math and will be starting 3rd grade math next month. She continues to memorize large passages from the Bible from listening to it at night. She has an amazing memory and we’re always delighted with the connections she can make with her Bible knowledge.
Spiritually, Becca has come along way. Right around her last birthday she entered a period where she was very insecure about her sin and was quite concerned about the right way to ask forgiveneness. It ended up being very exhausting for me. Then she hit seven-and-a-half and everything cleared up. I was very thankful for the moms who encouraged me that this was just a period of growth. The difference in Becca is like night and day if you compare the first half of the year to the last.
One other growth I was refelcting on recently has to do with Becca’s bike. When we moved to Cambodia 3.5 years ago, we bought Becca a bike. She was very protective of it – willing to share, but very distressed if she saw her bike being treated badly. So now we live in O`Yadao and are surrounded with neighbor kids who typically don’t take care of things. Becca’s new bike (she got for her birthday) is always being abused and it doesn’t phase her. The other day Josh asked her if it bothers her to see her bike abused. She said she doesn’t like it, but that it was ok. What a blessing to see this growth in her.
So thankful for the work God has done in Becca this past year. Thankful for the gift she is to our family. Looking forward to seeing what God will do this next year.
Last month we celebrated Becca’s eighth birthday. The last official thing we did to celebrate was to have a mommy-daughter retreat. The Tuesday after Becca’s birthday’ Becca and I headed to a hotel to spend the night. Becca was so excited and filled her backpack full of activities for us to do together.
We arrived at our hotel around 1pm and had a full schedule until Josh and the kids joined us the next morning sometime after 10 to enjoy the pool for an hour.
Our first activity was swimming. I usually don’t get to swim with Becca, since I’m usually watching the younger kids. Becca was delighted to have a racing partner.
After swimming, we took advantage of the hot water and both took long hot showers. Then it was on to crafts. During our retreat we started making friendship bracelets and pom-pom animals, I taught Becca how to play Monopoly Deal and Phase 10, and we did face masks. We had dinner at the hotel – Khmer sweet and sour. This year we finished reading The National Velvet (340 pages) and so we watched the movie (starring Elizabeth Taylor when we was a kid). Becca was thrilled.
In the morning we woke up and had tea in bed while we read the Bible. Then Becca wanted to take another hot shower (ah, the small pleasures of life). We ate our breakfast by the pool. Then we played Phase 10 until the rest of the family arrived.
Every year Becca and I usually have a sleep-over for her birthday, but it has always been when Josh was away and was only during the hours the other kids were in bed. Becca was thrilled to have so much extra time to spend together. She was thrilled that when she woke up in the morning, I was still in bed and not off helping someone else. We had a wonderful time.
My hope is to continue doing this each year and to someday have a yearly Girls’ Retreat with all our girls. I told Becca someday when she’s 35 I hope to still be doing this with her. We’ll give the husbands some extra funds to watch the kids and me and the mamas will go off for a night. 🙂
The second full week in November we took a trip to Siem Reap. We had a few reasons for going, but one of the highlights of the trip was horse riding. Last year we gave Becca a one-hour horse ride for her birthday. Since then, she’s been saving her money to go again. We were really proud of Becca’s careful saving of her money for a year to go horse riding again.
We had a lovely morning at the horse farm. Becca had a half-an-hour lesson in the ring before she went out on her ride. The lesson was mainly for helping her get used to riding the horse and riding a gallop.
This year Isaiah decided to ride with me. It took some convincing, but he finally agreed to go. He was so thrilled to be up on the horse. For the first 10 minutes he waved at everyone who passed us.
Josh, Anna, and Clara rode in a horse cart. Clara insisted on wearing a helmet most of the trip.
Becca had a delightful time and was thrilled with her horse and the ride.
Some other fun things we did were swimming in the hotel pool (Clara was amazing with how much she loved jumping in the water), eating a Burger King, and shopping.
This month we celebrate Becca’s 8th birthday! It’s always an exciting time of year and every year seems to get more involved. For this post I’m just going to focus on Becca’s party and a few of the other things we did to make the month special. In following post I’ll do more about our trip to Siem Reap and a blog about Becca’s accomplishments for the year.
We started out the celebrating with Becca’s Birthday Countdown Calendar which included a variety of things: a day swimming at a special pool in Ban Lung that had water slides, a trip to Siem Reap to ride horses, (Becca saved money all year to be able to do this more in a following post), gifts, snacks, and a few other things.
Becca’s big gift this year was a new bike: with a basket, bell, and seat to give people ride in the back. She is delighted to have a bike that is more her size now.
For Becca’s birthday, she wanted Cheerios for breakfast, hotdogs for lunch, and spaghetti for dinner. We had to move the hotdogs to dinner the night before her birthday, since it was too much to do everything on a Sunday.
We were delighted to have the Carson family join us. They work with the Tampuan and drive out our way every week to go to church, so it wasn’t too much farther for them to come to our house. They had lunch with us and then helped get ready for the party. It was nice to have some extra hands and Becca was delighted that Kathleen and Hannah could come to her party.
The big event was Becca’s neighborhood party. We had a party last year and our neighbor kids have been waiting all year long to do it again. This year Becca planned a horse themed party. She wanted to have a horse cake and make a horse piñata.
The horse piñata was a challenge since we’ve never made anything besides a balloon shaped piñata. We were pleased with the results. (We did have trouble with the rats eating the piñata after we did the first layer!!) Becca spent weeks making all her own horse decorations for the party.
We had about 40 kids at the party, ranging from 1.5 years to 16 years old, plus we had 4 other adults besides ourselves. We’re never sure how people many will show up, since it’s an open invitation. About 11 of those kids were Jarai from our church. I made 48 cupcakes and a small extra cake, not knowing how many people would be there.
We started out with playing kickball. We’ve taught our neighbors to play at Bible Club and it’s a favorite game of Becca. Then we moved on to pin the tail on the horse. Becca designed the game herself. It was really fun to watch everyone play.
Next we did the piñata – which is what everyone was looking forward to. After everyone, including some adults, had a chance at it, I whacked it open. Then I decided it would be safer and happier for all if I stood on our ladder and threw the candy out. Exciting times!
Before cake, we sang the Khmer songs we’ve written for Genesis 1:1, Exoduc 20:3 Romans 3:23, and another Khmer song I’ve written. It was so neat to see our Khmer neighbors and our Jarai friends from church singing together (we’ve taught the songs at our Bible Club and at our church).
After singing we
had cake and that was the end of the official party! Kids stayed around playing until dark.
Then we had our spaghetti supper, did family gifts for Becca and put everyone to bed….except Becca! It’s a tradition in our family to let the birthday child stay up late on their birthday. Becca, Josh, and I played Monopoly until 10:30!
I will admit that Becca’s birthday often comes at a very busy time of year. We were in Ban Lung overnight Friday for the expat Thanksgiving get together. We also had overnight guests in our home that Wednesday. I think I was so tried from doing everything – cooking, cleaning, prepping – that by the weekend I didn’t have much heart for running a party or going to one. Thankfully, I asked several close friends to pray for me and I woke up Sunday feeling more motivated. I was very thankful. The party went well and we were all very pleased. The best part was the Becca completely enjoyed her day and went on and on about how wonderful it was – everything. That made my day! Happy Birthday Becca! We love you!
We have so much to be thankful for that I am overwhelmed with the thought of listing the many things we can thank God for. So for this week, I’ll just focus on one: our family. Look at them – I am so blessed by the life of each individual in our home.
My husband – who is a kind, patient, humble, loving leader-lover He’s my best friend – the person I’d like to spend all my free time with. He makes me laugh. He keeps me going. He’s proud of me and encourages me. He loves me – and that’s the most amazing thing of all.
Becca – our first born daughter who has taught me so much about being a mommy. I love her creativity and her imagination.
Isaiah – his laughter and desire to help. His hope to someday conquer his sisters with an army of brothers. His big grin.
Anna – her forlove life and her sense of humor. Her desire to have sleep–overs every night. Her craziness.
Clara – her adventurous spirit, her desire to do everything everyone else is doing. Her jokes. Her singing.
Those a just a small spattering of things I’m thankful for in the precious family the Lord has given me. Such joy flows in our home because of each one of them. Now – I will add that we are by no means perfect and we have our issues and frustrations (we’re a normal family!) – but that’s not the point of this post. I’m thankful for so much when it comes to the wonderful people who fill our home. Thanks be to God for the gift of each of them.
Josh was away in Ban Lung at the Pastor’s Bible School from Sunday afternoon (Oct 29) until Friday evening (Nov 3rd). It was the longest he’s been away from us since moving to Cambodia. I tried to make it a special time for the kids, so it wasn’t just life-as-normal minus Daddy.
Each child had his/her own special night to stay up with me for a sleepover. They each picked their own snack and activities for the evening. Anna’s night was Sunday. We popped popcorn (without the lid on for a little while to see the popcorn fly out) and read lots of books.
Isaiah’s party was Tuesday night. He wanted to make coffee (decaf) and eat cookies. He made the cookies Monday morning as part of our Cambodian Coronation day celebration. So we drank coffee with ice cream and whipped cream and ate cookies. Then we read books and chatted. Isaiah actually made our morning coffee for us all week long. He was glad to take Josh’s place drinking coffee and praying with me each morning.
Becca’s night was Thursday. We made baked apples and played Monopoly. It was Becca’s first time to play and the game lasted over two hours until I was completely bankrupt! On Wednesday we had a special party for Becca celebrating her completion of the All About Reading curriculum. We had special pedicures, played games, and had ice cream sundaes. The party lasted all day long.
As for Monday night – I was worn out and went to bed as soon as I was done talking to Josh on the phone. Wednesday night I did a few projects.
Two different days while Josh was gone two middle school age girls came over to learn how to make banana bread. I found a recipe using the stove-top, instead of an oven. It came out quite well, and I was excited that I could show the girls how to bake something they could actually reproduce in their own kitchens.
Friday night Josh came home and we were all happy to see him. The kids made him special banners. I was delighted to get my best friend back and have an adult around who could speak English. I probably talked Josh’s ear off for the next several days.
We are thankful that the Lord has led us to worship and fellowship at the church in Saom Kaning. The village of Saom Kaning is one of the largest Jarai villages in the area and has one of the larger churches, as well. However, because of Pastor Chuol’s sickness these past two years, the church leadership has been in something of a crisis. In the last few months the church leaders seem to have made marked progress in their exercise of positive leadership. We thank God for these men. Last week, seven men from our church attended the Ratanakiri Pastors’ Bible School for a week of classes on systematic theology, called Theology for Worship. Josh taught four lessons and stayed with the students during the evenings. It was a great opportunity for him to get to know the Jarai men better.
Please pray that the Lord would encourage the church leaders at Saom Kaning and give them wisdom to lead the church without an official pastor. Please pray that they would grow in their understanding of God’s Word — how to apply it in their families and in our church.
If you look closely enough you can find Clara (right)and Becca (left) in the back of the group church picture.
The pictures above are from Bible school. One is of a session, the other is of Josh’s sleeping spot for the week.
