Throughout July most of us contracted dengue fever. I ended up missing church for the whole month, being sick myself and then being home watching sick kids. One Sunday Becca and Anna took my place leading Jr. Church. Becca took my place running it, and Anna took Becca’s place, leading a small group. They both did a great job. It was Anna’s first time. After two Sundays of being sick, nine of my ladies came to see me. I was not feeling up to visitors and the hour they stayed felt like 10 hours – but it was really sweet of them to come. They told me to just lay down on the floor, but I told them that wasn’t my custom when having visitors. 🙂

In our backyard we had a very tall kapok tree that was rotting. It took a long time for our landlady to find someone to cut it down. When the three brave (or foolish) men came to cut the tree down, they didn’t believe Josh that it was rotting inside. They were quite surprised when they hit the rot about halfway through, and the tree came crashing down. Thankfully no one was hurt!

Recently the Young Ladies Literary Society of Oyadao had a tea party sponsored by Lady Anna Jensen at her lovely home. Refreshments included tea with honey and peanut butter cookies. All the ladies in attendance behaved perfectly.

The YLLSO holds meetings every Monday and Wednesday evenings. Their meetings included reading aloud through works of literature, crocheting an afghan, and reading the YLLSO Journal aloud.

Ezra wanted the Queys to come and celebrate his birthday, so he got an all-day celebration! He started his day with some breakfast cereal and birthday pictures before his guests arrived. His birthday cereal was part of his birthday countdown calendar, which included the normal: little gifts, Saturday morning bike ride, movie night (Monster’s INC.), and other small things. Ezra chose a rabbit cake this year, and we ate chili for lunch and spaghetti for supper.

When I asked Ezra if he wanted to have any special party activities when the Queys were here, he said no, “just play.” The boys ended up building towers with magnatiles and having a battle with rolling balls to see whose tower would remain standing the longest.

After the Queys left there was a little while to play outside before supper. Ezra had a rousing time with some neighbors on a tree-swing (two tires with a board in-between) singing songs at the top of their lungs. Then we had a nice dinner, gifts, more cake, and then Ezra’s birthday slideshow.

Ezra is a great young man. He loves to be outside and do things. He enjoys building, playing games, and reading in bed. He also is a buddy to Micah and Maria and to many of the younger kids outside. He’s a really kind older brother. We’re thankful for Ezra – 8 is great!

With Maria’s and my birthdays being so close, we decided to delay my birthday to the end of the week and celebrate her’s first. This made things much simpler with focusing on Maria. It also allowed me to celebrate my birthday without thinking about everything that needed to get done the next two days.

We had a nice meal of chicken parmesan, salad, and fruit salad. Clara made a yummy apple pie for dessert. The kids did gifts and cards before dessert, and then we had a slideshow. I was very thankful everyone was healthy enough last week to celebrate both birthdays.

Maria celebrated her 3rd birthday this week. She has been looking forward to her birthday for a long time. When asked what she wanted for her birthday, multiple times she said “cards!” This year Maria got her first birthday countdown calendar. She loved opening the doors for a week. One of her days said, “New bed.” We finally moved Maria out of the pack-n-play and into a bottom bunkbed!

Maria started her birthday morning early with excitement about the signs and balloons, including a special ladybug balloon, at her door. She played with Clara and Anna in their beds and running back and forth letting the balloons hit her head.

Maria was delighted to decorate her cake. The day before we baked the cake, and on her birthday morning Maria put the sprinkles on to decorate her princess’s dress. Maria ate many sprinkles saying, “I’m just testing them.” This is our first child I let help decorate his/her cake this young.

In the afternoon, the kids played with Maria, and Anna gave her an early birthday present – bubbles, so they played with that. Dinner was hotdogs, mac&cheese, beans, and veggies, with a special drink. After dinner we gave Maria her presents. She was very happy with all her cards and gifts from others. I gave her one of my childhood dolls that was still in good condition. Then we had cake! And we ended with Maria’s birthday slideshow. It was especially cute to watch her laugh watching videos of herself.

Maria is a sweet, spunky little girl who is loved by all. She’s very clever and has an advanced ability to listen and follow books above her age level. She loves to be read to and is currently enjoying our reading of the Little House on the Prairie series. Maria also has a good imagination and does well playing with Little People or Playmobil and having her own adventures with them. She also loves listening to kids songs and singing along while dancing.

We started the new school year on July 6th. It was a bit of a wobbly start, and we actually weren’t sure until breakfast that morning, if we’d be able to start. I came down with dengue Friday afternoon and was out of commission Saturday and Sunday. But on Monday, I was at least headache-free and decided we should at least do what we could, since it was likely others would get sick later in the week. So for most of the week, I pressed through teaching in the mornings and then slept a good part of the afternoons. We cancelled all our afternoon appointments with our Khmer/Jarai friends. What a way to start the school year!

So – this is the reason we only have pictures of some of the kids and their signs. The others were still working on their signs when they got sick. Turns out Maria was the next victim (though a very short case), then Clara on Friday, Isaiah Saturday, and our latest to fall is Ezra this past Monday. Actually Micah was the first one to be sick before me. The rash and itching has been bad for some. Maria was up crying two nights because of itching, and I didn’t sleep well two nights due to my own itching (especially the feet). Hopefully we can post them next week. We’re looking forward to everyone feeling better and recovering full strength from post-dengue fatigue.

Clara just finished her sign today and even could smile for a picture!

Last week we celebrated 12 years in Cambodia. We celebrated a day early, since the next evening was our Khmer service. I made chicken cordon bleu, and we had salad. Then in the evening we had popcorn and played a game together. It was a fun time. We are thankful for God’s care, direction, and love for us as we’ve lived and served in Cambodia these past 12 years. Our family has grown, and we’re all grown in maturity and in loving God and others.

Sadly, during the late afternoon, I started not feeling well. We suspect I either had dengue or chikungunya. I’m recovering, but it’s slow going!

Sunday we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. Sundays are usually very full days for us, but my reading ladies canceled, so we had some extra time together. We played two games (both I’d not had a chance to play yet and one Josh hadn’t played yet), and we made and wrote our anniversary cards to each other. We bought beef for dinner for everyone for a family supper.

Thankful for the marriage and friendship God has given us. Thankful that we have each other “till death.”

We celebrated Father’s Day last Friday night, since our Saturdays and Sundays are always too full to add any extra celebrations. Supper was pulled pork sandwiches with potato salad. Ezra made lemonade with the lemon Aunt Ayra had given him in PP. Clara made a yummy apple pie for dessert. After dessert, everyone gave Josh his cards and his Father’s Day Celebration calendar. They will spend the next 8 days giving Josh gifts to celebrate. We’re every thankful for Josh and all he means to our family.

Josh is a wonderful Daddy to our seven kids…and he’ll be a GREAT DADDY TO EIGHT!

Yesterday we had our dear friends, JD & Kim, over for a last lunch before they head back to the States to start their retirement. We had beef stew, and Isaiah made challah bread. We hope to have more times together, as they plan to return to Cambodia once or twice a year in the future.

Last Friday night the Ban Lung expat community met for a fellowship meal to say goodbye to the Crowleys – they have ministered in Cambodia over 32 years. After we ate there was a lovely time of testimonies, memories, and Scripture.
Becca painted a card for the Crowleys as they head back to the States.

We took our yearly trip to PP between last week and this. Our two main goals were dentist appointments and spending time with the Nhoemvan family. Two of the Nhoemvan girls had put their birthday celebrations on hold for a few weeks so they could celebrate with our family. Kolianne took the older 4 kids out to breakfast and then returned for cake at the guesthouse. Jodanai wanted everyone to go to the Phnom Penh Safari. The kids really enjoyed the animal shows and taking pictures with the animals afterwards.

Our kids spent quite a lot of time with the Nhoemvans practicing for the Sound of Music musical that they will perform together in the fall. We also enjoyed seeing the Queys during their time at the guesthouse. Always nice to see friends from our Ban Lung.

This week we celebrated Isaiah’s 14th birthday! We’ve been enjoying his countdown calendar with daily challenges from his siblings. Maria did a dice challenge and was very pleased to win. Clara also whooped him on her jumprope challenge. But at the end of the two weeks, Isaiah still came out on top and won the game of Risk.

Isaiah made his cake – he’s a minimalist when it comes to frosting. He chose a brownie cake with peppermint frosting. It was very tasty. On his birthday he made a Magnatile tower with the boys that reached the ceiling. He chose hamburgers for his meal. We had his meal, then gifts (he really wanted a black cape), cake, and then ended with his birthday slideshow.

Isaiah is a great young man, and we’re so proud to have him as our firstborn son. He’s a good rolemodel to his younger brothers and takes time to be with them, even has a Boys’ Meeting Club with them once a week. Isaiah is very creative and makes all sorts of things from bamboo. He also is an avid reader. He has a tender heart and meets weekly to have a Bible study with Josh. We’re thankful for our son!

Last Friday we had our end of the school year graduation program. We are proud of all our students. We had a spaghetti dinner and then our program. Each student gave a recitation during our program. Afterwards certificates, diplomas, and gifts were handed out and then we had dessert.

Rebecca Jensen – Tenth Grade: Poem – The Highwayman – Alfred Noyes
Isaiah Jensen – Eighth Grade: Poem – The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late – Bilbo Baggins
Anna Jensen – Sixth Grade: Recitation – John 14
Clara Jensen – Fourth Grade: Poem – Reedy River – by Henry Lawson
Ezra Jensen – First Grade: Recitation – Psalm 121
Micah Jensen – K-5: Recitation – Psalm 3
Maria Jensen : Poem – an original composition

Tuesday we started Isaiah’s countdown calendar. This year’s theme is the game RISK (one of Isaiah’s favorite games). It’s Isaiah (green/blue beads) against the WORLD i.e. the rest of his siblings (pink/purple beads). Each day there is a challenge and the team that wins the challenge gets to remove two of the opposing team’s solders (beads). At the end of the game, whoever has the most beads on the board is the winner. The challenge for the day is always age appropriate to whichever sibling is on to go against Isaiah.

Last Saturday I spoke at a church ladies leaders’ event. There were about 42 ladies there from about 17 different churches, covering three different tribal groups. My theme statement was “Every work God has given you to do, you can do, because the Holy Spirit dwells with you. He will help you.” Anna helped me with two skits to illustrate different points in my talk. The entire thing was done in Jarai, as almost everyone understood Jarai.

A Jensen tradition in our home is that our kids make a countdown calendar for Mother’s Day. It always starts with “New Book.” The new book is always an original story, written page by page by all the kids (minus Maria). The story always has twists and turns in it, and we laugh a lot. Other days on the countdown calendar were separate gifts from each of the kids, plus a play based on the book, The Seven Silly Eaters.

Mother’s Day evening the kids and Josh made dinner (twice baked potatoes, apple pie, special drink) and bought steak strips to go with it. It was a very lovely meal. Afterwards they gave me cards. Thankful for all our seven kids who have made me a mother and are fun to be with and grow with.

April 30th Micah lost his first tooth! It popped out pretty easily.

Yesterday we had our Elementary Music & Art classes, with lunch and a moms’ prayer time after lunch. Becca’s art lesson was a watercolor rabbit that the kids drew first. Music covered more rhythm and Summer from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. We were delighted to have Aunt Kim attend this month.

If we look back over our last 11 years, this month has been our fullest party month ever. Besides two family birthdays, Passion Week, Easter, and Khmer New Year, we had four weddings, a birthday party, and two goodbye parties. Most of these include morning services and a lunch. We had two weddings for youth from our church. Weddings – ceremony and meal – are usually done at the bride’s home. The family rents a tent and sets it up right outside their house. Josh preached at both weddings. Also the brother of one of our translators got married – we just sent the boys, since we girls were tried of parties and the weddings was not in our village.

At the wedding meal, you have to wait until the table fills up with 10 people before they start serving the food. This is a problem for our family, since we already take up 9 seats, and it’s hard to find a single person who wants to join our group. Thankfully at most of the meals they took pity on our children and let us be a 9-person table. Our kids usually enjoy the food, though if you look closely enough you can see Micah suspiciously eyeing the fish. What our kids really love is getting their own can of soda and then being handed multiple cans of soda as we leave!

We had two goodbye meals; one for Plin (which was just a lunch) and one for the Crowleys. The Jarai churches gathered together to have a Thank You Celebration for the Crowleys. It was a nice time – JD gave a challenge and then church leaders gave testimonies.

We also attended the Quey boys’ joint birthday party. The kids had a great time playing water games, and Maria was very tired when we got home.

And let us not forget our 3-day Khmer New Year celebrations. This year the kids decided to decorate the front of the house. Clara made a great drawing of the Cambodian flag and then made copies of it for everyone to color. Later Ezra decided to make one too and spent a long time drawing his flag, using Clara’s as an example. We enjoyed our Cambodian Cola as we celebrated Khmer New Year (Josh was gone for the week at Bible School).

This month we celebrated Anna’s 12th birthday! We started out the celebrating with her countdown calendar (which overlapped with Passion Week and Josh’s birthday). Anna chose to delay her birthday movie (Caddie Woodlawn) until the week after her birthday, since things were so full, and that worked well with Josh being away at Bible school too.

We celebrated Anna’s birthday a day early, since we have a ministry commitment Saturday nights. Then on Anna’s birthday she went to an all-day KEC regional youth event, so that was special for her. Anna chose to have a different cake this year than her normal panda. She made a beautiful hibiscus flower (peppermint frosting with homemade dark chocolate accents). She did a great job decorating it. Anna’s three siblings made her birthday chalkboards (Becca, Micah, and Maria).

Anna’s birthday meal was tacos. It’s avocado season, so we could have fresh guacamole! We also had a bag for corn tortilla chips from our time in Siem Reap. Everyone ate so much at dinner that people only had a little bit of room for the cake, and we ended up only eating 1/4 of the cake (which is unusual for 9 people!).

Anna is a very sweet girl. She is helpful, and I often find her with one of her younger siblings doing an activity or something else they needed assistance with. She’s creative with crafts and art projects. She’s a diligent piano and flute student. She is also very diligent in accomplishing her daily school tasks. Anna is our “sleep-in girl.” We found out that if Anna sleeps past 8, she avoids getting daily headaches. Anna is doing really well with her Jarai language learning and is bold to speak to others and practice her language skills. WE love our girl and the gift she is to our family.