I need help. Pay attention folks…this is something I rarely admit. I don’t even like seeing it in print. I like to do things for myself, especially when it comes to taking care of my family and my home. But the truth is I can’t be a wife, mommy, cook, market shopper, house cleaner, nursing mommy, AND study Khmer.  Well maybe I could do it all, but it would require a lot of help from Josh. It would require Josh to give us his study time to watch the kids so I could clean floors (hard to do when kids are up), study, and live. He’s already giving up study time while I meet with my tutor.

Cooking in Cambodia hasn’t been so bad. Chop up some veggies and chicken, add some spices, and either put it in the crockpot or do it in a stir fry. Then cook some rice in the rice cooker, chop up some veggies or fruit and presto, dinner is served.  Enjoyable, but it takes time.

Market shopping: I have yet to shop for food in our market: there is no way for me to go with three kids and I haven’t learned to drive the moto yet (not sure where we would park our car if I took that). Josh has been going to the market to buy eggs, chicken, fruit, and veggies. We could buy all these things at our local supermarkets, but the prices are better in the market. Josh usually goes to the market twice a week and it’s great for language. (Admittedly, most men in Cambodia don’t do their family’s market-shopping. Last week one man yelled at him “where’s your wife to do the shopping.”)

Once Josh brings the food home from the market everything needs to be washed off.  Think about all the dirt that needs to be washed off when you pick veggies from a garden and then add washing off to be sure that drippings raw meat — which is being sold right next to the vegetable and fruit stands — and other animal byproducts are off your food. This takes a lot of time.

House cleaning: We can’t save all our laundry for laundry day because we hang it out to dry, so we do laundry every other day. Plus we’re using cloth diapers, and we usually wash those on the day we don’t wash clothes. So every day I’m doing laundry and hanging it. It takes time.

Let’s talk about floors (I’ll not even mention normal things like dishes, bathrooms, etc.). Phnom Penh is dusty and our concrete floors are almost always dusty. Add children’s dirty feet (they go in and out a lot), my hair, which always seems to be all over (drives me crazy — can’t believe I still have hair on my head!), and dead ants (we figure they must die looking for food…I’m always sweeping up little piles of tiny dead ants). The floors should be swept every day and it would be nice to have them mopped every other day (or every day). I can mop our first two floors in about an hour, so I’m guessing that it would take about two hours to sweep and mop all three floors. This takes LOTS of time! And when I’m done, my beautiful floors stay perfectly nice for ummmm…maybe 10 minutes. Then there’s the gecko gifts…hard to scrub off floors and walls.

Mommy and wife: Besides all that goes into feeding and cleaning I’m also a wife and mommy. Anna eats every three hours (she has started sleeping through the night most nights). Isaiah has recently decided he wants to use the potty. Becca and Isaiah both want to do school every morning, and there are lots of other fun things they want to do. Becca decided that she finally wants piano lessons. Showers are required every night (you should see the little pile of dirt that gathers near the drain after their shower!). Family life is one of my favorite things and I love it (well, not the messy diapers, crying, and discipline issues, but the rest) … And it takes time. Oh, and sorry, Josh…you want to spend some quality time with your wife and show me your sweet love… not the kind of time that means sitting next to each other on the couch while we study Khmer… YES! I love you … zzzzzzzzz. Sad to say it often happens that the most important human in my life — my husband — ends up getting my leftover energy.

AND then there’s learning Khmer. My tutor comes three days a week for two hours each day. Two weeks from now, when Josh’s schedule changes, she’ll start coming four times a week. So add hours of class plus study time (which I cram in after the kids go to bed and in little bits during the day)…it takes time, time, time, and needs to take more time.

That’s why I need help. I can’t do it all. I could try, but something or someone will suffer. We’ve been praying that the Lord would provide us a part-time helper: someone to do our market shopping, cleaning, and some cooking. Thank you to those who have been praying along with us. This week we met a lady who is going to start on Monday for a two-week trial period. She has been working in a factory and does not speak any English (which will be great for my language learning). Please pray with us that this lady would work for our family and that it would be something good for her as well.

Two side notes: Our bed was delivered Monday and it works! On Tuesday Josh drilled all the holes to hang the brackets to hold our curtain rods. The former occupants had never hung curtains so we had to buy and hang all the hardware. Drilling holes in concrete is extremely loud and can be frustrating. Thankful for all the hours Josh put into this project. Maybe we’ll have curtains by the end of the month!