A Few Kid Pics

"I just wanna go back to America,"Juliana sometimes says, "because there's not so many mosquitoes there." Indeed there seem to be more mosquitoes in Cambodia than in our "neck of the woods"in PA. However, Juliana's statement is not so much an indicator of discontentment in living in Cambodia, but more an expression of frustration with the damage that mosquitoes here can do to our family. In all reality, both Juliana and Kai seem to enjoy life in Cambodia and we are so grateful for that. Following are a couple snapshots of them having fun...Sitting on the hammock together and the giggles that ensue

Juliana sports her homemade Superman cape which makes her run faster : )


With the hot season heating up, Juliana and Kai are getting good use out of our inflatable pool.
- Ryan

Retreat in Thailand (Back Issue #7)

From February 17-21, our family had the privilege of fellowshiping with members of our EMM "family" of workers in Asia at a retreat held in a beautiful setting about 3 hours west of Bangkok. We don't have lots of pictures to share from this wonderful and inspiring week for a couple reasons: a) at such events we tend to focus more on what's happening than remembering to record it pictorially, and b) many of our fellow participants serve in sensitive locations and we can't share their photos/names on the web. But we do have a few worth sharing, so here they are!

Kai actually fell asleep standing/leaning on Ryan's lap in the van on the way to the resort. : )

Juliana had a more comfortable-looking spot for her nap!

One of Juliana's buddies of the week, two-and-a-half year old Lia.

More friends enjoy the big swing outside the dining area. The resort had a pool, and was situated right near the River Quay, so was actually quite comfortable (compared to Cambodian heat this time of year!).

Our friend Julia, who serves the deaf community in Bible translation work in the Philippines (and is deaf herself).

When we left Thailand to return (very refreshed!) to Cambodia, Kai was fascinated with the windows of the airplane, but...

...not so happy when the flight attendants tried to enforce the rule about not shutting them during the flight. (Is that just an Asia thing? I don't remember not being allowed to shut the windows on flights over North America... but one is not allowed to close the "blinds" while flying here.) We had a great time in Thailand, but were glad to arrive back on Cambodian soil again!

- Bethany

Vacation in Thailand (Back Issue #6)

On February 12, our family and my visiting brother Barry, traveled to Thailand for a vacation at Dolphin Bay, near Hua Hin. We spent the first night in Bangkok at a mission guest house, then traveled by taxi to the beach. Here's a glimpse of our trip in photos...

Getting ready to fly from Phnom Penh to Bangkok

About to go through Passport Control in Suvarnabhumi Airport (I can't pronounce it either!)

Riding a water taxi to a Thai/European restaurant on a pier along the river

Ryan, Benji (stuffed animal), Juliana...
...Bethany, Kai, Loofy (stuffed animal) and Barry before eating one of our best Thai meals ever!

The view of Dolphin Bay (Gulf of Thailand) from the Juniper Tree Resort (we were just across a small street from the beach)
Playing in the warm water

One day we rented kayaks and sailed to an island about 1.4 km away. We were looking forward to a fun excursion and checking out the beach on Monkey Island - but got more than we bargained for! Juliana played it cool while I did all the paddling...

... but when we got there, one of the monkeys the island is named for came onto our kayak, attracted to the bags we'd put our things in to keep them dry. Before I really knew what was happening, he stole the ziploc bag I'd just taken the camera out of - making off with my cell phone and our room key! (Worst part: we didn't remember that the room key was in the bag until we'd rowed back across the bay!) While I comforted a scared Juliana and bewildered Kai, Ryan and Barry rose to the challenge of getting my cell phone back. The glass/plastic front was cracked and the keypad was missing - since the monkey cracked it against a rock to get to the soft, chewy center (or so I assume)!! Needless to say, we'd had enough of the naughty monkeys and turned right around to paddle back to shore. (Then discovered that Ryan and Barry needed to return and look for the room key, since it was the only one Juniper Tree had for our room! They both got sunburned in the process.) It makes a good story, but if we never get that close to monkeys again it will be too soon!

Returning from Monkey Island (in background) with Kai
Juliana and Ryan, with the beautiful shoreline as a destination

Kai really enjoyed the children's pool, separated from the deeper pools by a wall

Uncle Barry tows Juliana in the deep part of the big pool (Ryan and Kai in background)
Getting ready to leave Juniper Tree. We stayed in a suite on the ground floor of the building on the right, and really enjoyed our time. We returned to Bangkok with Barry on Feb. 16, since he was flying home early on the 17th, and we were traveling to an EMM Retreat on the same day. -Bethany

Bits & Pieces, "Uncle Barry!," etc. (Back Issue # 5)

More catching up - making our way through January and February! : )


Here's a birthday photo of Ryan with the really expensive cheesecake that his wife lovingly made him (my idea, not his). You're only 31 once, but this was almost ridiculous, considering that the spring form pan came from Bangkok (carried back from my medical trip), the cream cheese was imported from Australia or somewhere, and the graham crackers were imported from the USA (and imports of odd items that only expats know what to do with cost an arm and a leg here!). The things we do for love!

My older brother, Barry Freed, came for a two-week visit the beginning of February. We enjoyed showing him our lives here, spending time with Uncle Barry, and then going on vacation with him in Thailand. He did an excellent job of chronicling his trip with albums on Facebook - if you're his friend, check them out. : ) The photo above captures the doubly-sweet treat of greeting him at the airport and eating Dairy Queen ice cream together!

Pastor Dady and his wife SreyRoth welcomed their third child and second son, Benjamin, into their family a few days before Barry arrived. We got to visit them still in the hospital, since it's standard to stay in the hospital for 5 days after delivery (no matter how the child was born).

Since we were on that side of the city, we played at the playground again, this time trying out the jungle gym with Uncle Barry. : )

Some Christmas gifts and other goodies came along with Barry, and here Kai is thrilled with his new trucks, two of which make very realistic truck noises. He refers to the ambulance now as "Wheee-oooo, Wheee-oooo!" Thanks again, everyone who sent stuff!

We'd been wanting to go on a river cruise on the Tonle Sap river here in Phnom Penh sometime, and Barry's presence made the perfect excuse to finally do it. We took a picnic supper on this boat, and had the boat to ourselves (besides the female captain and her assistant).

Watching the sunset from the boat and viewing the riverfront action from the water was a neat experience.

Here we are enjoying breakfast together at home.

It just so happened that Barry's trip coincided with the first-ever PPMC "potluck" meal held at our house. Sopheaktra Hem (married to Mark Fender) initiated it, taking the idea from their time in California on home assignment. It was a great time of fellowship, even though something brought in that day made many of the attendees spend the next day in the bathroom, me included. : ) What's a little intestinal trouble among friends, anyway?

Praying before diving in to the food contributions. The Men's Dorm and Women's Dorm each brought a collectively-prepared dish, and Barry even made a chocolate wacky cake, which was devoured in about 4 minutes, no kidding! By our estimation, it was a success, and plans are to continue having such gatherings here about once a month. We're glad to use our large yard to foster fellowship like this!

- Bethany

Christmas Break/Vacation (Back Issue # 4)

Juliana had a three-and-a-half week break from preschool over Christmas/New Year's, and we took the opportunity to get out of town for some R & R. We decided to check out Kampot, a sleepy little town along a river that's become a tourist and vacation destination. We stayed at a place called "The Mango Trees" in French (I forget the translation, and we couldn't say it right, anyway!), which had neat bungalows right along the riverside, a lot of room to run and play, and good food. We enjoyed five refreshing days there - and coincidentally overlapped a few of those days with another missionary family who are good friends of ours from Phnom Penh!

We enjoyed time on the water in kayaks, and even took a night boat ride upriver to see some phosphorescent algae that glowed when disturbed in the water. There were also hundreds of fireflies in the trees nearby, so we had quite the show! It was so beautiful, but sadly we can't show you how cool it looked - so you'll just have to come see it yourself sometime. ; ) What an awesome display of the Maker's creativity!

Another fun treat was visiting the Baker-Evens family. They used to live in the house we live in now, but moved to Kampot in August 09 to work with victims of land eviction. Juliana especially enjoyed playing with her old preschool classmate and all the kiddos had fun climbing around on the trains at the station next door (a French NGO is repairing the track and refurbishing the railway).

Here are Chris and Sam(antha) Baker-Evens with sons Isaac and Patrick. (Patrick went to Hope before they moved.) Chris is Australian and Sam is from the US.

Ryan enjoyed playing some ping-pong at the resort with Kai and Juliana. No, Kai wasn't chewing on the paddle...

When we ate meals at the resort, we would eat on "piers" built over the water. Such beautiful scenery, and so fun to feed the fish while while eating breakfast!

This is Juliana doing Starfall (www.starfall.com; an educational, phonics website to which Nana Umble introduced us) at a yummy cafe in town. Juliana met her "twin" there (same birthday), and Bethany got to hear the owner's amazing testimony of God's faithfulness in rescuing her from trafficking, giving her loving foster parents, and a husband who became a Christian and now pastors a local fellowship!

Enjoying one of the swings at The Mango Trees resort. Juliana and Kai brought their own bikes and had fun riding around the grounds. It was a great vacation, although a bit too short!

After we returned to the city, we took another morning to go to a playground on the opposite side of town. Kai LOVED the rocking animals, and would probably have stayed all day if it were possible!

Here Juliana gets a great, big push on the swings by her Daddy, Swing Pusher Extraordinaire!

- Bethany