6 Days and Counting

I've been counting down ever since I left Cambodia but we are officially at less than one week from when Gideon gets back to Colorado. We have been apart for 30 days and we have 6 more to go. Yes its been hard. A couple of days before I left Phnom Penh we questioned our decision to be apart this long and so close to Kai being born. We were nervous that Kai would come before Gideon got here. I guess that is still a possibility but I think he will hang on for a few more weeks. He doesn't seem to be in too much of a hurry.

Even though these last 4 weeks going on 5 have been hard I think both Gideon and I would agree that it has been good. Gideon said to me the other day in a skype conversation that God understood our needs and put us both in places that we could handle the hardships. Gideon is used to be alone and actually thrives sometimes in places where he gets lots of alone time. So him being in Cambodia with out me and family has actually been ok for him. He has had lots of time to spend with God. I on the other hand hate being alone so being able to be here surrounded by family and friends that I have not seen in a long time has been good for me. One of my strengths is being flexible and transitioning/adjusting well into new situations. Our hope is that I have done most of the transitioning that needs to be done before Gideon gets here, like setting up the house we will be living in.

So what exactly have we been up to the last 4 weeks while we have been apart. Here it goes:

Kristy:

1) Going to doctor's appointments

2) going on walks alone, with our dog filos, with friends, and my mom

3) making sure our insurance is all worked out with our doctor

4) opening gifts at baby showers for Kai and getting all the motherly advice I can get.

5) taking lots of naps because everybody says I should get all the rest now before Kai gets here

6) hanging out with my older brother Jake

7) cooking dinner for my parents (most of the time it has turned out good)

8) gaining weight from all the food I've missed, but I haven't gone to any of Gideon's favorite restaurants and I haven't opened the girl scout cookies yet either.

9) unloading all our kitchen supplies from storage in to the apartment we will stay at once Gideon gets here.

10) Making sure we have all the necessities needed once Kai is here.

11) Skyping with Gideon every day.

12) Using a humidifier because my body is not used to all this dryness.

13) Going to beauty school with my mom and getting all pampered. Hair dyed, nails done, facial, hair cut... the works.

14) Wearing jackets and sweaters in the morning because its a bit to0 chilly.

15) Watching basketball games with my dad.

I think that sums it up!!!

Gideon:

1) Missing me!! ;)

2) Enjoying every moment with his students.

3) Making plans to pack up and give away things he will not bring back with him.

4) Going out to dinner with friends, trying to make good goodbyes.

5) Sweating so much he soaked his i-pod and it doesn't work anymore. It is now hot season in Cambodia.

6) Finishing his practicum and class for his Master's program.

7) Working on lesson plans for his long-term sub, and working on unit plans for next years teacher.

8) Exercising and losing weight. Thank goodness his tennis shoes broke and hopefully he will gain some weight the last week he is there so I don't look like I've gained too much! :)

9) Playing games with 35 elementary students every Thursday after school.

10) Enjoying driving the moto without having to haul me around on the back.

11) Spending time with the guys getting fatherly advice.

I'm sure Gideon could add a lot more to his list. I think he has had the harder/busier 5 weeks.

Please pray for him as he travels to Grand Junction Wednesday April 11th.

We hope you all of a Happy Easter and a great time celebrating our Risen Savior!!!

School in School

School in School is a catch up program for local Khmer kids who attend government Khmer schools. Our teaching assistants at Logos International School with some other staff plan supplementary lessons to what the kids are learning at school during the day to help them with Math, Khmer, and English. Even after a regular school day many of our Khmer staff at Logos stay until 6:30 pm to help children that come to Logos for this extra help. They also get a chance to share about Jesus with them. My TA Sorphorn helps teach the grade 2 math class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

These kids do not have to pay anything to come to School in School, and after talking with Sorphorn about her classes I thought of some people back in the States that would love to send some school supplies to help make their class more hands on and encourage the kids to learn more. Thanks to one of our supporting churches, Grace Gathering, last week the math class got to use some of these new supplies. They are so grateful and it looks from the pictures and video they had a great time. Please Enjoy the pics!

Baby Shower #1

Leanne is getting so crafty. She made a sign with Kai's full name hanging behind us in the window.

Our good friend Leanne hosted a baby shower for Kai this last weekend. It was so much fun. Thanks Leanne! We played lots of games, snacked on some great food, and got to spend some time praying for Kai, Gideon and I. Gideon stayed home and worked on his Master's classes, but he did get to enjoy some of the yummy food when he picked me up.

We played a guess the baby food game. Check out some of our reactions to the DELICIOUS food. :)

Getting some advice about labor and the birth experience. I'll take all that I can get!

My Husband Spoils Me- Valentine's Day

I thought we decided to not celebrate Valentine's Day after how extravagantly we celebrated last year, but Gideon said that all his girls (right now that just means me, but hopefully more in the future) need flowers and chocolate on Valentine's. So he woke me up with a chocolate donate for breakfast, put some flowers and chocolate on the bed for me when I got home from school, took me out for a head massage, and a nice dinner. :) Enjoy our pics.

Home made card that Gideon said took him all day. He is very creative!

Gideon got a head massage too, it just took them twice as long to blow dry mine.

Flowers, Chocolates and a Card. Dark Chocolate

Yummy dinner at Steve's Steak House, best hamburgers in Phnom Penh.

First Cambodian Wedding

Gideon and I got to attend our first Cambodian wedding. One of the TA's at Logos got married in February. Kosal helped me coach soccer and is now helping Gideon with Mixed Sports for our afterschool program. We didn't get to attend the ceremony part of the wedding just the reception/celebration part afterwards. As you come in to the reception you get seated at a table even if you do not know the people. Their goal is to fill up the tables because they only serve you once your whole table has been filled with people. That was a bummer for us, because we didn't get to sit with our friends. We tried some of the dishes but we were very cautious about what we ate. We didn't want to be sick the next day. One of our co-workers was asking me the next day if I tried any of the food. I told her which dish I tried and she told me that was the one dish she avoids at every wedding. She has lived here for around 8 years and that did not make me feel very comforted. I didn't get sick the following day though. Please enjoy some pictures.

Gideon and I with Kosal and his wife. Yes my dress that I wear to every wedding still fits even if it was a little tight and Gideon had to help me zip it up. Kosal and his wife changed outfits 4 times through out the reception.

My TA Sorphorn, me, and Linda. The girls get very dolled up at weddings.

Gideon's TA Sophorn was in charge of counting the money the couple got as gifts. It is customary to bring money for the couple and put it in the same envelope that you received the invitation in. This money helps them pay for the wedding expenses.

December Rumblings, Blessings, Vacation and New Year Anticipation

Hello Everyone!

First of all, Kristy and I apologize for not updating for awhile... December was INCREDIBLY BUSY! However, here we are in 2012!

December Rumblings:

From teaching to being a student to co-directing a Christmas concert, I was busy! I thank God that Kristy is so patient with me because I really did not spend much time with her at the beginning of December. And she had to put up with me working late into the night, which meant we did not get to go to bed together at the same time. (For some reason that is a major issue for Kristy. Robin... can you help her with that?) Praise God though, since that and a couple of colds were the only major problems Kristy and I faced!

However, we did find some time to have a little fun together! Here is Kristy showing off her baby belly! She is sooooo beautiful! This is her at 21 weeks!

And here is me trying to show off my sympathy belly! Talk about a beauty! Woohoo!

Unfortunately, I think I pulled a muscle in my back trying to do that pose. See how much Kristy has to put up with! Please pray for her!

December Blessings:

Now that the "rough" is out of the way, here is how God overwhelmingly blessed us:

- Christmas Concert: On December 20th, we hosted the Elementary Christmas Concert and it went incredibly well... In fact, it went better than I even thought it could have! We did a musical called Christmas Time in Bethlehem and the fifth graders did all the acting parts, while the other grades sang songs! Here are some pictures:

Some Pre-K3 students helping Mr. Ketchum (the music teacher) tell the story of Christmas through actions and songs! They were/are so precious!

The 5th graders did a great job acting!

Even the guards and maintenance guys who helped bring the stage down to the gym were excited to watch the program. They even had to watch through the fence and the bushes.

The last song at our Christmas program almost brought tears to my eyes. It was Joy to the World sung in the three most common languages spoken natively by the students at our school, English, Khmer, and Korean. I could not get a video to download. I will try to download it on facebook. If you are friends with us please check it out.

We had a great time celebrating Christmas on the last day of school with our classes by having parties. Gideon's class had a pool/ pizza party, had a gingerbread house making contest, and filled up each others stockings they had made with gifts and cards. In Pre-K3 we celebrated Jesus by having a birthday party for him. We made chocolate muffins my mom sent from the States, we made birthday hats, sang Happy Birthday and played games. My students all month long were a little confused with us learning about Baby Jesus and me being pregnant at the same time. I think they finally understood that the baby inside of me is not Baby Jesus. Our students and their parents blessed us with precious gifts. One of my students mothers bought me a cambodian pregnancy outfit. I will wear it and it will always remind me of Cambodia and the precious people I have met here.

Being away from family is hard during the Christmas season, so we felt so blessed that they thought of us and sent us their love through packages. Thank you to both of our parents and families for our Christmas gifts.

People had been asking me if I could feel Kai moving ever since I turned 16 weeks, but it wasn't until week 21 that I could actually tell it was him. Gideon even got to put his hand on my stomach and feel him moving. We could even just stare at my stomach and every once in a while see my stomach pulsate in one section. It is so fun and reassuring to be able to feel him move around in there. Gideon continually says about himself, "I would not know what to do if I had a living human being inside of me. It would be so weird." For me it has gotten to the point where it is normal to feel him moving and I think it will be so weird for the first couple of days that he is no longer inside of me.

With all the busyness of life, school, masters classes, christmas programs Gideon has been blessed by being able to relax while watching the Broncos games live through the internet. He has finally figured out a way. Even if it is at odd hours of the day the Broncos games help him unwind and feel normal.

If you get our email updates you know that we have decided to make this our last year at Logos International School in Cambodia. In November, we had a skype interview with Children with Hope and are excited as we prepare to join them in their ministry to orphans in Eldoret, Kenya hopefully in January of 2013. We will be helping them start a school. We will keep you updated on what our new adventure will look like as we learn more.

December Vacation:

We traveled to Xi'an and Beijing, China this Christmas break on a 12 day vacation with Gideon's sister Anne, her husband Keegan, and our precious nephew and niece, Asher and Hannah. We spent the majority of the time bundled up in as many layers as we could wear as we walked through ancient Chinese buildings, walls and soldiers including: The Terra Cotta Warriors, The Summer Palace, The Temple of Heaven, The Forbidden City, The Great Wall, and the Beijing Zoo (ok its not ancient, but we saw cool panda bears for the first time ever and the most beautiful tigers and lions we have ever seen in person.)

Some of our other highlights included: drinking lots of bubble milk tea and starbucks (for Kristy), running and not sweating (for Gideon), staying in a real house that had a dish washer and an oven, baking chocolate peanut butter cookies, making home made dinners, watching the acrobat show (AMAZING), bargaining at the pearl, market, practicing to be parents on our niece and nephew, cuddling on a leather couch under a fleece blanket and being just the right temperature, watching home alone, eating lots of yummy food (I hope my doctor doesn't yell at me for gaining too much weight), and playing games late into the night.

The Great Wall! We rode up the Gondola walked along for 2 hours and went down the slide. Don't worry I went very slow, but Gideon zoomed down as fast as he could.
The whole group. Asher had so much fun counting all of the steps.
Gideon and Keegan at the top of the temple at The Summer Palace. The emperor made The Summer Palace as a gift for his mother-in-law. It was such a cold day that day we were there, yet it was still busy. Can't imagine how busy it is on a nice summer day.
"TEBOW" Opening Christmas gifts on Christmas morning. Asher helped open most of ours. Thanks for all the help Asher.

Practicing to be parents.

Happy 2012!

Gideon was the only one to stay up till midnight on New Year's Eve. We didn't make New Years resolutions, but I know it is always our goal to be more like Christ in the coming year than we were this last. And I always say I'm going to be better at flossing every day :) We look forward to see how God works his plans for our lives out this year. We have many exciting things to anticipate. Finishing our school year strong and finishing up our time in Cambodia, God bringing Kai into this world, spending quality time with family, and preparing to go to Kenya. We pray that God has given you exciting things to anticipate this coming year. We love each one of you and greatly appreciate your prayers, care, concern and love.

The Holiday Season!!

We had a great Thanksgiving Dinner with 50 Logos staff and families. We got to eat lots of American food, Gideon played some touch football, and they even watched the NFL network. Some of our Khmer staff even ventured to come try some of our food. My TA Sorphorn, next to me in the picture below, when asked what food she liked said, "Well the chicken, but no rice, and the corn on the cob, but I don't know what this is (pointing to the yolk part of the deviled egg)." She ate all of the Khmer salad she had brought and had a lot of leftovers on her plate, but at least she tried lots of new things. We had ordered 15 pre-baked chickens that got delivered whole. Lorissa, the gal helping me plan, nor I had any idea how to cut the chickens, but we were going to try our best. Thank goodness one other Khmer staff, new how to use the big butcher knife. She chopped up those chickens in about 10 minutes. Enjoy some pics!

This last weekend Gideon and I decorated our Christmas tree that the Weiss family gave to us at the end of last year as they were packing up and getting ready to go back to Canada. We did not have a Christmas tree last year, and it makes our apartment so homey this holiday season. Thank You Weiss Family. We put our tree in our bedroom because that is the place where we spend most of our time while we are home. Our couches in our living room do not have any cushions and they are not quite so comfortable to sit on. We've been falling to sleep with the beautiful glow of Christmas tree lights! AHHHH

Merry Christmas from Kai at 18 weeks in the tummy

The beautiful glow of the tree!