Blogging at naptime.

A week and a half ago, Josh and I welcomed in what would be the first of our last five teams to host here in Cambodia. A few of the team members had been here a year ago and the leader of the team, an orthodontist from Iowa, (drcallan.com :) has been here several times to translate Khmer for us (he practices at home :) and to bless Josh and I as team leaders, along with being a blessing to countless numbers of kids who he lovingly serves through fund raising for practical needs (such as bicycles, uniforms, and solar panels), as well as being perhaps the first dentist these kids (and staff) have had the opportunity to encounter. Dr. Mike is a huge inspiration to both Josh and I on so many levels and he brought with him this time around a team of 7 wonderful people including his two daughters, Laura and Kate, who came last year as well. The team also met up with our new instant friend Allie, who is spending the month with us in Cambodia (which works well since we like her so much) and wi...

My husband just told one of our Cambodian co-workers that he is feeling a bit "ngo-nguy-geeng" today, which translates into English as "sleepy." The reason?? As we crawled under the bug net hanging over our bed, tucked it in at the sides, and attempted to fall into a lovely deep sleep last night at the end of a full day, we both began hearing sudden "clunk" and "thud" noises (for lack of a better description). There wasn't much mystery for us as to the cause of these bizarre noises. Yesterday, after returning from Siem Reap with the last team, we found strewn about our room in random places (including a drawer, pants, and shirt pile) half-eaten honey flavored Halls Cough Drops. We eventually found the bag on a shelf chewed completely through. The giver of these strategically placed gifts (which our local neighborhood ants took great delight in) are the same ones who gently knocked upon our door last night, requesting to come in, enjoy our ...

Yesterday was our office I.T. (and general know-how-to-fix-anything-you-could-possibly-imagine ) guy, Sophea's, birthday who turned what I have deemed the new 25 (which is of course "29"). And today, in typical Cambodia fashion, we held a party for him at our offices here, complete with fresh veggies (safe for even the fragile Western stomachs among us), fish (caught fresh today by our very own Dr. Lina), lemon pepper dipping sauce, rap music (this is a new addition...), brahok (fish paste), and lots of cooked beef (yes please). Oh, and two kinds of ice cream. One Coconut and one that was labeled "Vanilla" but was later revealed by the taste buds of my poor unsuspecting husband to be in fact "Durian." True story. Our soon-to-be-here Santa Rosa team can appreciate the irony of this after we once accidentally served a team member (Shannon!) a birthday cake made with Durian (her arch nemesis) for her birthday. Durian is an unfortunate discovery no matter ...

Our new staff member, Ryan, arrived on Thursday morning and we greeted him with a whirlwind of new culture, new people and no shortage of activity over the past 2 and a half days. He has been a great sport about it all, settling in well and sharing his passion for the Lord and for the nations with us. We are excited to see all that the Lord has for him here! And we are grateful to be able to pass the role into his very capable hands as we transition home in a few months. One of the greatest parts of him coming happened on the day of his arrival when he reached into his backpack and pulled out a Costco size bag of LIFE cereal. I thought I heard angels singing. I could be wrong but this is how I prefer to remember it. And with every bowl I have poured since Thursday (I believe the count is 4 thus far) I have felt all of Heaven, along with the Quaker Oats guy, smiling down upon me as I consume my favorite morning cereal square by square (to make it last longer...). To encapsulate the past...

Josh and I had the opportunity a week ago to attend our first Cambodian wedding. Our Office Manager, Naret, got married and we were excited to be able to celebrate with him, his new wife, and plenty of pink balloons, as well as seemingly endless plates of really good Khmer food. These are the three amazing and beautiful young girls who work in our office in Phnom Penh (Sarom, Pin, and Sophera). And yes, in retrospect, I should have put more sequins on my shirt to better blend in (not that I stick out much). On the left here is one of our doctor's, Dr. Chhaya (who would play a large part in my life as the week progressed....) and our Foursquare President in Cambodia, Pastor Peter. Now Josh and I knew very well going in that the main reason we got invited to this wedding was because of our phenomenal and unprecedented Cambodian dance moves. People try to hire us out all the time but we're quite busy and our agent really discourages too much publicity, so we've been saving our...

Josh and I have put together this latest video that gives a bit of a glimpse into some aspects of our life here in Phnom Penh, as well as some footage from a recent weekend outing we had with Rick Sawczuk and Scott Lang, from my home church in Washington, who were here to do a scouting trip for this year’s medical clinic. Enjoy :) (For a bit more screen clarity you can watch a larger version here) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlSvZUtdedY )

Josh and I are both fans of the Discovery Channel show "Man Vs. Wild" and have learned various helpful life skills from the education of Mr. Bear Grylls (obviously his real name) including: -How to cook a turtle. -How to sleep in the skin of a camel. -How to not fall helplessly into the nearest crevasse (pronounced of course "kra-vaws"). In light of this knowledge, we have talked for quite some time now about offering up our own informative version of this show, which we cleverly and uniquely decided to call "Man Vs. Cambodia" (we are creative if nothing else). We proudly present to you now the first of hopefully more installments of "Man Vs. Cambodia." This episode was filmed just today and we have entitled it, "Batman." Enjoy :)