If a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a 4000 word essay...

Our family of five at the ruins of a Buddhist temple...

All of us together on our tuk tuk...

Four people on a moto and Asia's driving...

The first Christmas for our sweet baby Simon...

The show must go on!!

Uncle Dave and Auntie's house-helper, Savann, had to leave unexpectedly today, and it took all five of us adults to accomplish what she would have done all by herself.  Tim washed out the clothes BY HAND.  I took the clean dry clothes off the line and replaced them with the newly washed clothes.  Uncle Dave swept the whole house.  Grandma washed the vegetables Savann had already bought at the market for the day.  Auntie supervised us all, helped Tim with the laundry, and got leftovers out for lunch (because none of us knew what to do with the vegetables and meat Savann had bought to make "Happy China rice and chicken", as Ezra refers to it).

Tonight we had a little Christmas Eve get-together with Auntie and Uncle Dave's team mates and now we adults are wondering how it is that we are now in charge of putting out all the presents.  Oh, for the days when we just went to sleep and woke up to Santa's delivery!!

Merry Christmas...and welcome to our world, sweet baby Jesus!!!

We're feeling more Asian by the minute...

Yesterday, we spent a day in the life of Auntie and Uncle Dave, complete with language lessons and hanging the laundry on the line.  I was amazed at how excited I got when I was squeezing the laundry out by hand and the water poured onto my feet to cool me off!!!

Today, we shopped a little bit and then went to the park this evening.  There were people doing aerobic-type exercises in the park which was really fun to watch.  There were also plenty of street vendors, so Asia and Ezra were quick to choose two Power Ranger balloons.  Some of the vendors were selling various cooked insects, but none of us were quick to choose those!

After some time at the park, we headed to Marianne's Pizza Garden for dinner.  I'm not really sure if the pizza is any good because all of us had rice and noodles.  One of the pizza choices was "hot dog pizza" which did not interest our boys at all, surprisingly.  Tim and I both finished our whole plate of noodles using only chopsticks.  Whooh! Hooh!  Aren't you proud, Chris??

The primary mode of transportation here is a "moto" (a scooter similar to the one driven by Mr. Wieck for you MHS folks).  Tim is getting quite good on one despite no stop signs, stop lights, traffic lanes, or required directions to go.  Tonight, on the way to the park, we were headed right into 3 or 4 other motos and narrowly missed them.  Our moto had me, Tim, Ezra, and Simon on it.  Tim asked, "were you scared?"  I said, "uh...yeah!!!"  However, with the wind blowing in my face and Simon holding onto me for dear life, I had a revelation.  As scared as I was, I would be even more scared to ever miss the things God is calling me and our family to because of my own fears.  So, I'll keep "riding the moto" in my own life, whatever that might mean for me, because He's my dad and I trust Him.

We're in Cambodia!!!

Exactly 48 hours after leaving home, we finally arrived at Uncle Dave, Auntie, Asia, and Austin's house in Battambang.  We are having an absolute blast!!  We are thrilled that the boys' world-views are being shaped in incredible ways.  Just knowing that there's a big world out there that's a lot different from home but still has real people who are not much different from us will change their lives.

This is our first Cambodian restaurant experience.  Ezra nearly went out of his mind when he found out that our meals here are all going to be like Happy China...he started squealing with delight.  One nice perk about the restaurants here is that the girls who work there come and take the babies while we eat and don't bring them back unless they cry...so, all that to say we're paying Simon not to cry while we eat!!!

Denny...this picture is for you.  I just want you to be aware that Tim's sleeping talents go cross-cultural!!!  (wait, he wants me to add here that he was up with the two younger boys from 4:30 to 8:

30 am while I slept in--Thank you, Tim!!!!)

More to come later.

We love you all.