Long Time-No Blog.

Hello! Long time-no blog. Much has happened in the last two months, and things seem to be settling down for the most part for me to find time to write. In the last two months, we have scouted a new city, found a house to rent, traveled back and forth to work on the house, packed up the apartment in Phnom Penh, and moved 9 hours north to Banlung city, the capital of Ratanakiri province, with all 9 of our parakeets in tow. What a whirlwind of a month!

Sterling, Deborah, Ro and I have transitioned up North and have made a home here. Our new house needed electrical work, plumbing, a fresh coat of paint, a lot of deep cleaning and now she is a beauty! With open windows and open concrete designs, our house has beautiful lighting, lovely morning breezes, and lots of lovely friends that have an open door to join our family. Lots of geckos, of all sizes, scurry above your head on the walls, some over a foot long. They eat bugs in the house, poop on the floors, and talk loudly. Big spiders hide behind dishes, rats scamper in our walls and fight at night, and many a variety of bugs join at night, especially in my kitchen. You can basically think of it as an endless outdoor camping trip. We have lots of fruit trees on our property: banana trees, jackfruit trees, mango trees, and one avocado tree. Sterling and the kids climb trees and scout for fruit most days. It is such a nice thing to have a yard to play in! Such a difference from living in the city.

We are settling into our new city, new home and new schedule. Deborah and Ro started at a new school and are making new friends. We have met many missionary families and have found new friends and community here. The missionary families here have been a huge blessing in helping us find things in town, taking me to my new market, having us over for dinner, and inviting us to weekly Saturday night fellowship. Sterling and I celebrated our birthdays together on May 15th and May 17th. We were both the same age for two days, and then Sterling jumped ahead of me again. I have been learning more words in Khmer, and beginning to talk more with the kids and with the Khmer people. Sterling has been teaching me how to drive a moto, and apparently I have, “natural throttle control.” So that’s good. We have two new happy puppy additions to the family, Boone and Beck, named after Daniel Boone and his wife Rebecca. They are so so cute.

Around our house, you might find Ro and Sterling climbing trees to pick our large jackfruit. You will probably find Deborah and I in the kitchen, cooking with our puppies sleeping close by. You might find us drawing water from our well. You might find cows in our backyard. You might find us cleaning our water tank for the second time because we found a dead gecko in the tank and then a dead rat in the tank. You might find us showering outside because we don’t have water due to the tank being drained of the dead-gecko/rat water. You might find us taking drives and exploring the beautiful, rural miles of rubber trees and cashew trees. You might find me coming back from the market with muddy feet and ankles from getting in and out of the car onto the muddy alley ways.

You might find Sterling and I drinking tea in the mornings on our top porch. You might find Ro killing flies by the tens in my kitchen. You might find me baking bread in the kitchen while listening to Irish music. You might find Deborah and Ro leaving on their bikes to go to school. You might find us hang-drying our laundry and walking buckets of water back and forth to fill up the washing machine. You might find us talking loudly and trying to hear each other as the rain pounds the metal kitchen roof. You will find Sterling leading our family bible study in the evenings. You will find us laughing and sweating and eating jackfruit. The Lord has provided us a home and we are grateful for it.

Thank you for reading my blog as I recount the bit of life in the month of May. I have put together a corresponding video capturing this last month as well to be watched alongside the blog.