The Ackerman Family

Halloween!

2009-11-04T21:38:00.022+09:00

I love the fall. I think the changing colors of the leaves are beautiful, I love the crisp coolness in the air, I love pumpkins and apple cider and everything about fall in general. Its just a beautiful season! I also like to celebrate Halloween, but not in a scary way. I just love having a reason to dress up and hang out and have fun. And I love carving pumpkins! The fall in Japan comes a little later than the fall in Kansas. October's weather is definately cooler, but its still mostly sunny and on the warm side. It begins to get colder in November, which is also when the leaves really change and become beautiful. Something else that is different here is that Japanese people don't really celebrate Halloween. (At least not as big as Americans do). Some little children will dress up, and some high school/college age/young adults may go to some Halloween parties, but thats not the norm. Even though it is different, most of my team here in Japan also enjoys having an excuse to dress up and have a party, so thats what we did! We invited our Japanese friends to come dress up and party with us. About half of the people we invited could not come, but it still ended up being a very full party and we ran out of food! We made chilli and cornbread, cheese dip and a few desserts. It was so much fun! I put together a collage of pics of the party so that I could show more pictures all at once.

Sometimes when little children see Mike, they cling to their mothers and start crying. Mike is a big white guy and they are not used to seeing men like him. So this year, Mike chose to be a bunny, in hopes of not scaring any children at the party. It worked! No children cried, one even sat on his lap. I was a fairy, Cooper was a pumpkin, and Brayden was supposed to be a pumpkin but he never would wear his costume. But he sure did have a wild time playing with the other kids!

Another thing...You cannot find orange pumpkins in Japan. You can only find small green ones, used for cooking, at the grocery store. Well, a few days before Halloween, a friend at the park brought me an orange pumpkin. I couldn't believe she had one...I asked her how in the world did she get it? Her husband is from England, and he teaches at an international school here in Nagoya. They had ordered pumpkins ONLINE! (Isn't that funny? Maybe I will do that next year...) After the school was done using them, they were going to get rid of them, but somehow she ended up with one and brought it to me. I'm a little embarrassed to say that it totally made me giddy like a child. I even got Brayden all giddy'd up about it. He was so excited to carve it. He had said he wanted to put his hand inside and pull out all the slimy stuff, but once I cut it open and he looked inside he changed his mind. I also cooked the pumpkin seeds, too. They were yummy!

One last thing...totally unrelated to Halloween...we found a place to meet for our church! We weren't sure how difficult it would be to find a place, but I think God directed us and provided this place for us. We will be meeting in a sports bar called Strikers, where we will be able to use the second and third floor of the building. It is already equipped with lighting, sound, and projection equipment! Awesome! It has room for about 40 people. Our first service is going to be on Dec. 20th. There are enough musical people on our team to put together a little band for worship. We have already begun practicing our songs in Japanese...its so exciting! Mike is going to give a sermon (using a translator) about how God came to earth to rescue us. He will get to explain some of the gospel to first time hearers. Please pray for the people who will come to that service to have open, fertile hearts and ears to receive the gospel!

Lately...

2009-10-15T15:36:00.007+09:00

We've been having a beautiful fall so far. The weather is usually sunny and around 70-75 degrees. We try to get outside a little everyday to take advantage of the nice weather before it turns colder. Usually when we go to the park, Cooper sits in his stroller and watches Brayden play, but lately he has been wiggling and fussing to get out and join in. The other day I let him get out and sit in the sand with us. I wanted to see how he would react to it. Here is a picture of him playing:

He loved it! He also tried to eat it...I tried to stop him. Sometimes I was successful, sometimes I wasn't. :) The reason why I was curious to see what he would do is because of this picture of Brayden at the same age:

Brayden hated the sand for a while! Brayden has always been a cautious boy...he always observes new places and situations before jumping right in. But Cooper has so far proven to be opposite. He is so curious about his surrioundings and is already more feisty! Sometimes I'll hear a high pitch scream come out of him that makes me think he's been terribly hurt or something. Then I'll turn around and see that he just dropped his toy and can't reach it. He's also been pulling himself up a lot lately:

And here are the brothers...aren't they so cute?!

Random Ramblings...

2009-10-08T22:29:00.004+09:00

Well now that we have been back for a little over a month, life is looking a little more normal and is developing somewhat of a routine. If the weather is nice and not raining, we try to go to the park every afternoon, (sometimes twice a day!) to get out and let Brayden run around and play baseball a little. He has been very into baseball lately...he asks me to play every hour it seems! We have made a few friends at the park, so we have both liked seeing some familiar faces there. On Tuesdays and Fridays I have started studying Japanese again with the same tutor and friend that I had last year. But this time, she comes to my house...isn't that nice? We study for two hours while Cooper takes his morning nap and Brayden goes to a nearby daycare. So about the daycare...it is literally 2 minutes walking distance from my house. The main reason we have decided to take him is so that he can begin to learn some Japanese and interact with some other kids/make friends. He goes for about 3.5 hours two times a week. They daycare is very small, its just one large room, but I have learned that all the daycares here in the city are small like that. They do get to go on walks and go to the park occassionally, so thats good! The first few days he went were hard, he did not want to go. But just this week he did not cry when we walked in. Whenever I pick him up he is always so happy and says he had so much fun.
So I know he enjoys it and that it will take him some time to get used to it.

So about half-ish of our team has returned to Japan now. 3 other teammates (one couple and one guy) are settled into their apartments here in Nagoya, and one couple just arrived two days to Okazaki to begin language studying! We went to Okazaki on Tuesday night to get their apartment ready for their move here. It was so fun getting it set up for them to begin their journey here! It was a late night though...we didn't get home until almost 2am. But we were so glad to be able to see them right away. They are still trying to get over jet lag and settle in, AND they start school tomorrow! Wow, they are tough!

The day after we were out so late, we pretty much laid around the house all day. It was rainy ALL day so we couldn't go anywhere anyways, and it was just one of those lazy cozy days. The reason it was so rainy was because a typhoon was on its way. People kept saying it was going to be the worst typhoon Nagoya had had in 10 years. My neighbor even gave me her phone number in case we needed her in the night and drew a map for me explaining that if a window broke, to open an opposite one so that the air could move about without destroying things inside the house. It was supposed to hit at midnight. I was scared and excited! So about 11:30 we fell asleep...and the next thing I knew it was 7am and the rain had stopped. So my whole family and I slept right through it! In the end, the storm didn't turn out to be as bad as they had predicted.

I also celebrated my birthday on Monday! We did some fun things as a family during the day (eating at a little bakery, shopping, starbucks) and then in the evening our teammates, Jay and Caitlin Geer and their cute 5 month old son, Rowen, came over for pizza and cake. I had made pumpkin bread and cider for dessert (because I LOVE fall!) but they ended up bringing a cake. I loved the cake...Jay designed it. It had an army tank with a pink dinosaur coming out of it. And the number 26 was written in a grenade. I have no idea why he drew that, it was just a part of Jay's imagination I guess...but needless to say, it was hillarious and I loved it!

So, I know this post is very random and rambling, but my point in all this was just to share with all you the kinds of things we have been doing here lately. :)

Please pray for our teammates who have just arrived and for God's Spirit to be active through us to bring people to him! We are on the hunt for a good location to begin holding church services...please pray for that as well. We are so excited to have a place to meet!

Back in Japan!

2009-09-11T15:35:00.004+09:00

Wowsers! Time to update my blog, wouldn't you say? I'm embarassed I've let it go for so long. Now that we are back in Japan I thought it would be a good time to get it going again. During the last 4 months that I have not written anything, we have been in America. We arrived in America in mid April and returned to Japan last week, on Sept. 1st. I counted the number of planes Cooper has been on since he was born 7 months ago and its 13! Crazy! We have been so many places. For 3 months we were stationed in Kansas City, where we rented a duplex and borrowed furniture from family and friends. Kansas City is where my family is from so thats why we were there for the majority of the time. We made some great memories with the fam while we were there. We also went to Oregon to see Mike's mom, and to attend his 10 year high school reunion. I had such a good time seeing where Mike spent a lot of years growing up and meeting many of his friends. And, Oregon is beautiful! We also went to Arizona and L.A. to visit with friends and supporters. It was quite a long trip back, but it was also fun to see so many people and have good visits with all of them. Now that we are back in Japan, we are staying in our teammates house in Nagoya while they are still doing work for MSGF back in America. It really feels good to be back! I'm going to start studying Japanese again soon, and I'm also looking for a little daycare where Brayden can go a couple days a week to work on his Japanese as well! I'm excited for this phase of our work here in Japan because now we are going to really focus on starting a church. Although we will be continuing to learn about the culture for quite a while, this transition back to Japan has been easier considering all the adjusting and learning we did last year. Here is a pic of us back in Nagoya after eating at a restaurant that is common in America, but never frequented by us: Outback Steakhouse. Its just a fun place for us to go here!

March

2009-03-29T23:08:00.005+09:00

The past two months have flown by, I can't believe it. I feel like I'm always saying that though. Cooper is going to be 9 weeks on Tuesday. So far, adjusting to being a mommy of two has been fun and difficult at the same time. There will be moments of the day when its really hard or crazy, and then there will be many other moments of the day when its very relaxed and quiet. One minute Cooper might be crying to be held or fed, and Brayden might also be crying about something and it will be loud and intense. Another minute they will both be sleeping and it will be so quiet! One thing that is different this time around is that I haven't been able to take as many naps as last time. Most of the time I don't get a nap in, but with Brayden I would usually nap at least once a day. Surprisingly I've been able to function ok without them. Somehow I just keep going on with the day and what I have to do and it works out. I've also been potty training Brayden the past few weeks. I took off his clothes and let him hang out around the house naked for a few days. He had a few accidents on the floor (as I expected-and had planned for), but I think that was a little eye-opening for him of how it felt to need to go. Now he will usually tell me when he needs to go, (or I just take him so he can try to go). I wish I could post a pic of him in his cute dinosaur underwear, but I thought that might be a little weird for anyone who's not us or his grandparents. But trust me, he is cute in them. He's also been loving Cooper and is really sweet to him. He calls him "Baby Super". Not on purpose, thats just how he says it. So cute. :) Here are some of my favorite pics of the past two months:

This is a pic I just had to throw in here although it seems a little out of place. Brayden's daycare had a little party for us and our teamates because we will be moving soon and won't see them anymore. They brought kimonos for us to try on and had a traditional Japanese tea ceremony for us. It was so sweet, and wearing the kimono was so fun!

Cooper William Ackerman

2009-02-02T14:50:00.012+09:00

I'm finally updating my blog! I thought I could get back on the bandwagon by introducing the newest member of our family, Cooper. Cooper surprised us and came 12 days early. I went to the Dr. for a regular checkup last week, (my 38 week checkup) and he told me I was already 5 centimeters dialated! The night before, I had had a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions that were happening every minute for about an hour. I wondered if it meant labor was going to be really soon, but I ended up falling asleep for the night, and when I woke up in the morning, everything seemed normal. I thought it was just a false alarm. So I went to my appointment, and the contractions started again while I was there. My Dr. suggested I either check into the hospital or stay close by (I live an hour away from the hosptial). I chose to check in, and it was a good thing I did because my labor really started to progress that afternoon. Cooper ended up being born that night, Jan. 27th at 7:08pm. He weighed 7lbs. 14oz and was 20.3 inches long. With this birth I did it naturally, which is something I never really thought I could do in this day and age with epidurals, but because they are very uncommonly used here I went without it. I'm so happy to be able to say that I did it, and I didn't die or completely go bizerk (only a little). I thought maybe I would do both! My whole experience of giving birth and recovering here in Japan was a great one. My Dr. and nurses were great, and the facility I stayed in was great. We have been home now for a few days, and Cooper is eating, sleeping and pooping well. :) Brayden is also adjusting well. He likes to hold the baby and is very sweet and gentle with him. He has been acting up a little bit, which I think is his way of dealing with the new addition, but for the most part everything is going great. We could not be happier! Here are some pics:
(Some of the pictures are out of order and turned sideways-I'm sorry, I don't know how to use blogger well enough to know how to fix it!)

This was one of the meals I ate while in the hospital. All of the food was different Japanese dishes and it was so fun to try all of them. I was surprised how delicious it was for being hospital food!

My tutor and her family were so sweet and came to visit.

Brayden Hanging Christmas Ornaments

2008-12-08T23:31:00.003+09:00

Christmas Time!

2008-12-08T23:10:00.005+09:00

We've got our little Christmas tree up. This is the first year we've put up a tree since Brayden was born, so he had fun helping put the ornaments on the tree. He put several ornaments in the same spot, since it was an easy place for him to reach. It was cute, but later on I moved them around.

Putting the star on top

Brayden's decorating

Recent pregnant picture

So far it feels like Christmas in Japan. It is cold, and the malls and stores have Christmas music and Christmas decorations. Many people here also give gifts on Christmas and do Santa Clause. They don't know what the season is actually about though, so it will be fun to tell them about Christmas's meaning once we can speak better and have developed our relationships further. This friday, Mike's mom is coming to visit for 2 weeks! I am so glad she is coming to spend Christmas with us. I know we will have a great time. Brayden talks with her on Skype often, so he should remember who she is. Hope your enjoying the season as well!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-04T14:33:00.008+09:00

We had a quite a feast on Thanksgiving! We invited some Japanese friends that we wanted to express thanks to for helping us and being our friends over this past year (almost!) that we've been here. This made for 20 adults and 8 kids at our dinner. We ordered a Turkey, Ham, and a few other items we needed to make all the food from a company called Foreign Buyers Club of Japan. Then us girls divided up the menu items and cooked our little buns off the day before and of in order to make it happen. The dinner went so smoothly, and I think our Japanese friends really enjoyed it. Andy, our teammate, gave a speech he had pre-written in Japanese to explain to them what Thanksgiving was and that we had invited them because we were thankful for them.

Here's our big Turkey!

Some of the food.

The people.

Here is Andy giving his speech.

We had so much desert! 2 apple pies, a pecan pie, chocolate cream pie, 2 pumpkin pies and fudge. None of our friends had tried any of these pies before, so they were taking pictures of all the food.

After we had eaten, one of the guys got out his guitar and started singing songs by the Beatles and Elton John. He didn't know all of the words, and neither did we, but it was still fun and entertaining. The kids enjoyed it too.

We are all so glad the day went so well and that somehow we got all the food cooked, served and eaten without any major catastrophes. (Cooking all that food in little ovens and then transporting it all an hour away to Rachel's took quite a lot of planning!) But it went so well and we truly are thankful for our new friends, each other, God's grace and so much more! Hope yours was great too.

November is already gone?!

2008-12-03T23:56:00.009+09:00

I can't believe November is gone just like that. I think time has been flying by lately. It has been a month since I have posted anything, but November has been somewhat eventful. So I'm going to try and do a quick November catch-all without making this a huge long post! Ah, maybe someday I will get better at posting more regularly...we'll see about that. :) First, here are a few pictures of when we we went to the Okazaki Zoo one Saturday. The zoo is very small, and it only takes about 30 minutes to see all the animals, but because its small (and free!) it makes for a perfect and fun little outing. Especially for Brayden. He loves it.

And here are the Mickey Mouse pancakes he helped me make one morning. (He stirred the dry pancake mix and thought its was great).

Lately, he has loved helping me in the kitchen. Here we're making cookies.

Last week we went "Momiji Viewing." This is a custom many Japanese people do, in which they go to a pretty park and take in the beautiful fall leaves that have changed. ("Momiji" means "Maple leaf.") We drove to a special park that we heard was especially great for seeing these trees. It was so beautiful! We went at night, but they had all the trees lit up so they looked so pretty. It was like walking through a magical forest! It was a cool, crisp evening, so after we had walked around a bit we ate hot noodles at a little restaurant where we had a great view of the trees. It was so fun. Because it was dark, it was extremely hard to take pictures, so the few that I have do not do it justice. Next year, we'll try to go when there's still daylight to get some better pictures.

Now, I know that this November catch-all post would not be complete without writing about our Thanksgiving, but I realized its 12:40am, and I should really get to sleep. So, I will finish up November tomorrow with the delicious Thanksgiving dinner we had with our team and Japanese friends. I hope everyone/anyone out there who still reads this is enjoying the Christmas season!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-04T15:52:00.006+09:00

This year for Halloween we celebrated Rachel's son's birthday with a birthday/costume party. If Japanese people did trick or treating, we would have taken Brayden to do it for the first time, but since they don't, we all had a nice Halloween/birthday/fall party all mixed into one with our team. Most all of us got dressed up. It was a great party. We had chilli, hotdogs and an assortment of desserts! Here we are in our costumes:

Since I am pregnant and getting rounder, I thought it fitting to be a pumpkin. I found a cheap orange shirt and then sewed a pumpkin face on it. Mike has been growing out his beard for a while, so we decided he could be a lumberjack. (Yes, we decided that for him-it took much convincing to get him to put any kind of costume on). And Brayden went as a little Samurai. His outfit is not really what a Samurai would wear, but we made him look Japnaese-y, gave him a sword and called it "Samurai." He had a Japanese head band tied around his forehead earlier, which made the outfit better, but he wouldn't wear it for very long. :)

Here are all of us girls at the party-

Rachel, me, our tutor, Caitlin, Rachel's neighbor, and Kacie.

Here are the guys-

They all dressed up to some degree, except at this point Jay had taken off his "robot arm."

Here is my tutor and her kids-

This was Rachel's friend's daughter, Erena. She was so cute!

Here are the boys eating their pumpkin cupcakes-

Here are all the kiddos-

Birthday and Peace Signs

2008-10-07T22:05:00.010+09:00

My 25th birthday was a couple of days ago. It was a fun-packed day and I have some great memories from it. My tutor had invited us and a couple of other families on our team over to her house for the afternoon. 3 of us 4 girls on the team are studying with her, so we are all getting to know her and her family. All of our birthdays are in October, so she gave each of us a little gift. It was really sweet.

Here are the kids playing and getting all dirty for church!

Megumi and her students-who are all pregnant!

Settling in for a cartoon.

We had planned on going to an international church in Nagoya (where she lives) after spending the afternoon at her house, so we had invited her to come along. I was so glad that her whole family came. After church me and the girls on our team (minus one who was sick that day) found a little Mexican restaurant to eat at. I was so excited! It was a little expensive and had some weird options-like octopus mexican stew, etc. At first I was worried it wasn't going to be a good birthday dinner after all. But then we found the good stuff and it ended up being delicious. Here we are at the restaurant:

Then we went to Starbucks for dessert and hot chocolate. It was a great birthday and I had a great time!

As for the peace signs...its something new that Brayden has started! He wanted me to tie this ribbon on his head, so after I did, I went to take a picture of him. We told him to say "Cheese" and when he did he threw out the peace sign! He did it over and over again. If you did not know this already, this is a very Japanese thing to do. He must have learned it at his daycare or from one of the Japanese kids shows he watches. Most (younger) Japanese people do the peace sign in every picture. Check it out:

His peace sign might not be clearly recognizable because he's only 2 and doesn't quite have the manual dexterity yet, but, you get the idea he is aiming for!

It's a boy!

2008-09-22T22:33:00.001+09:00

We found out today that we are going to have another boy! The doctor said he was 90% sure it was a boy. During the ultrasound, we also were able to see what looked like a boy "part", so we're pretty sure thats what its going to be. They do an ultrasound every month here, and each ultrasound is recorded onto a video for you so that at the end, you have an ultrasound video from every month of your pregnancy! Its really cool! The Dr. said he would check the sex again next month, just to be sure. We are both really excited. I'm glad we'll be able to use all of Brayden's old clothes, and I'm also glad Brayden will have a brother to be buddies with. We also found out recently that another one of our teammates is pregnant. So, out of 4 girls on our team, 3 of us are pregnant. One is due in Jan., I'm due in Feb., and the third is due in May. Mike joked and said we could write our own book on church growth...haha. It will be fun to go through our pregnancies together, and to have babies so close in age!

Yogurt MESS!

2008-09-17T21:01:00.002+09:00

Here is Brayden after he ate some yogurt:

And here is Brayden after he found out he had to take a bath because of the yogurt mess:

August

2008-08-28T21:51:00.006+09:00

This last month has flown by! I know it was partly because I went home to Kansas for a couple of weeks, which made the time really fly. Now, a little over a week after returning to Japan, August is coming to an end already! I can't believe it. My trip home was really really good. It was great to see the family again, and most of all for them to see and interact with Brayden. He had changed a lot, and I'm so glad they got to see more of his personality. He also got to know them more, and I know he remembers them when we talk about them now. Now that I'm back, I feel rejuvinated. I feel like the trip home was refreshing, and it has helped me to feel ready to hunker down and get back into life here once again.

Brayden did a lot swinging...he would sing, or he would say "Bid, high," (Big, high), which translates, "Push me really high!"

Helping Grandma water the flowers.

My grandmother, Mudgie, sat Brayden next to her one day as she cooked. He was very fascinated and even got to help a little.

Brayden loves his Papa.

We also did a lot of walking the dog. Brayden says "wat, dod." (Walk dog). He could have done this 5 times a day he loved it so much.

This is Brayden and Micah, on Brayden's actual birthday. The day after we arrived in Kansas was Aug. 1st, and my sister Emeri made these little pastries for him. When it came time to blow out the candles, Brayden got shy again. However, this time he did manage a little puff that blew out the candles.

Emeri, Brayden and Micah. (My sister and brother). Snuggling before bedtime.

We also swam in the pool a lot. Brayden liked to use the hose to "get" people. He also at times would turn it into a guitar.

Helping Papa water the flowers.

Brayden's 2nd Birthday Party

2008-07-29T22:24:00.006+09:00

Tonight we had a party for Brayden's 2nd birthday. We had the party a few days early (his birthday isn't until Aug. 1st) because him and I are going to America on Thursday, the 31st! (I am so excited by the way). We wanted to celebrate with our friends for his birthday before we left. We went to the park and ate banana cupcakes. The boys played ball and the kids and girls hung out and we all had a really fun time. It was a great night out too, no rain or sweltering heat. But the mosquitos were relentless! Even with our bug spray, we all got a ton of bites! A new friend of ours, (Keiko and her son Kengo) came, and later my friend Akemi showed up, but unfortunately she missed the party. Her daughter was sick, so she came late, but I was surprised that she came at all. I think she wanted to show us that she cared, and wished she could have been there. It was good to see her, if only for a minute.
So, tomorrow I leave for America! I just decided to go a couple of weeks ago. It seemed like this was a good chance for me to go, because my family won't be able to come visit before we go visit them next year. This visit will give us an opportunity to see each other before Brayden is almost 3 years old! It will be just Brayden and I going this time. I keep telling Brayden he will see PaPa soon, and while he doesn't understand, he says "Papa" and thinks about it.

Oh by the way, I'm pregnant! Due Feb. 8th!

This was so funny-previously, I had shown Brayden a little video on Youtube of a little girl blowing out her birthday candles. I even let him practice a few times at home, and each time he loved blowing out the candle. But at the party, when everyone started singing to him, his lip started quivering and he reached for my hand. He was scared! And he didn't want to blow out his candle at all. He just kept saying "No" again and again. I was so surprised! The wind ended up blowing out his candle.

This is is Keiko and her son, Kengo. They were so much fun.

We got Brayden a little toy guitar since he loves to play air guitar. He just loved it! He calls it his "Tar."

Lucille and Random Pictures.

2008-07-23T23:02:00.013+09:00

I never ended up telling my "Lucille Ball" story. I will tel it quickly. I was paying for something at a store, and realized I left a mop that I had just bought at a different store in the back of the store I was currently in. So I tried telling the cashier that I needed to go run and get it, but she didn't understand when I was saying "Mop" in Japanese. I went ahead and grabbed it, and when I came back with it the cashier said "Oh, Mop!" in Japanese, exactly how I had been saying it!! Even when I'm saying the right word, my communication still doesn't always work! Anyways, as I was paying, she pointed at my skirt and said something I didn't understand. I looked down to see she was pointing at my zipper, which was wide open. As I went to close my zipper, I knocked over my wallet and all of the coins in my change purse went all over the floor, making lonts of noise. Cashier lady came out to help me and just as we had picked up all of the coins, Brayden decided to pour out his snack of crackers he was eating all over the floor-deliberately, not accidentally. So then we had another big mess to clean up and I was already thoroughly embarassed! I hurried up and paid and got out of there! That is embarassing in America, let alone in Japan when your not sure what people think of you. So, thus the Lucille Ball sighting, and although I have only written about two sightings so far, there have been many, many more. :)

The following pictures were taken while our friends Michael and Beth were here visiting. They were taking pictures right and left and got such good ones. I hardly ever take enough pictures (something I want to get better at) so I stole these from Beth's web album to post here on my blog. Some of her pictures also captured some of what Japan is like, so I included some of those as well.

This is at the train station, some kids are going or coming from school. Lots of kids ride the trains in groups like this, or even by themselves on a daily basis to go to school.

This is the busiest intersection in the world, in a part of Tokyo called Shibuya. Beth took this right before she left Japan. We were here in March, but I never got to a spot where I could capture a good picture like this one. This intersection is like this all day and all night long!

We had an American barbeque with some Japanese people that a teammate of ours had befriended. The girl on the left is our friend Beth who was here visiting, on the far right is Caitlin, our teammate.

This may be hard to read, but its an example of some of the wacky worded shirts we have seen here.

A picture of Brayden playing at a little play area at the mall. Its one of my favorites.

Here's a picture of Brayden and one of his teachers at the daycare where he goes a few times a week. He really likes it there, and I'm so glad he does.

This is the bike lot at the train station. I'm just amazed at how many bikes there are!

A picture from a random morning around the house.

These are my teammates and our friend Beth, when we went out for a girls lunch. It was so much fun. This restaurant is Italian, and its very yummy and plays good music. Its one of our favorites.

Eating at a ramen restaurant in Nagoya.

Michael and Beth eating ramen with us.

This is at the barbeque again. Brayden and Sterling got plenty of attention.

He's playing air guitar. He came up with this all by himself. It just cracks me up! He's so intense!

Fun in the water

2008-06-26T15:56:00.002+09:00

June

2008-06-25T22:25:00.004+09:00

The past month has been good, but a little hard, too. I feel as though the reality that we are living in a foreign country is setting in more and more. Just recently I've really begun to miss some ways of living/food, etc. from America. (Taco Bell sounds AMAZING right now). I knew that eventually these feelings would come. We talked about it in our missionary training we went to last summer. They talked to us about little dips and valleys we would experience about living here occuring around 3 months and 6 months. We've been here a little over 5 months now, and I'm beggining to feel some of these so called dips. We talked about how it is normal to feel this way, so that gives me some encouragement, but its still nonetheless challenging. I remind myself to focus on why we are doing this. Mike was telling me the other day that even if we were able to save 1,000,000 people here in Japan, that would still make less than 2% of the population Christian! Thats motivating but also depressing at the same time! But, now knowing that statistic, I realize how important it is for us to be here. WE are not important, but what we want to tell these people is SO important. So, thats where I'm at right now.
As for a little update on other things...I still continue to make a friendship with my friend Akemi. For her birthday, I ended up getting her a photo mug from Snapfish with pictures of our kids and us hanging out together. I think she really liked it. Also, during this past month, a couple of friends, Michael and Beth, came to visit us from California. Actually, they came to visit our whole team, because we all went to Ozark together. It was so great to have them here. We have also been chugging away at language school. I know our Japanese is improving-little by little I can make more conversation. But, starting tomorrow, we are going to enjoy a little break from school! Its only about a week and half, but we are all sooo happy for it--I'm growing weary of deciphering converstaion/worksheets. Well, I guess I can't really get away from deciphering conversations, but I can enjoy a little break from doing homework so often! I say "so often" instead of "not at all" because my teacher gave me more homework than usual, since my break was a whole 10 days. What could I say? I had to take it, but I wanted to tell her, "No, the point of the break is to not do ANY homework!" But, I dare not say such a thing to my nice Sensei. I would be a bad Japanese pupil. So, it will be a break mixed in with occasional, rather than usual doing of homework. Oh, and it just so happens that Lucille Ball was in Japan again a couple of weeks ago....yes, she came back for a little embarassing visit. :) I will tell about it in the next post, since this one is getting really long! Here are just a few pics of this month...I realized I hardly took any, so these were the best 3 I had.
Having fun at the park! Isn't he a cutie?

Playing in a little stream at the park. This has been a really fun thing we've liked doing since it has become so hot.

The other day, Brayden and Momiji kept kissing each other! I couldn't get a very good picture, but they were repeatedly planting smooches on each other's lips. I don't know why he started doing this, but it was pretty funny! Actually, what I think he was doing was he was trying to be nice to her. In the past he has been rough with her, so we've been working on being nice to the "baby." So, my explanation is that he was trying to be "nice" and "gentle" as I have tried to teach him. But, I didn't teach him to kiss her! He did that all on his own...flirting already?!

Recent Pictures

2008-05-31T00:11:00.003+09:00

These are some of my favorite pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Brayden got a KU shirt from my parents in the mail. He also got a KU sippy cup and I got a KU shirt as well. Since KU won the NCAA we like to represent them.

Brayden loved his lollipop. Isn't he looking at it adoringly?

We had Akemi over for dinner recently. It is common and traditional to bring a gift to someone's house when you visit them, but Akemi brought us much more than I had imagined! She knew our anniversary was coming up, so that is why she brought so much. This is a picture of what she brought-beautiful flowers, cake and "His and Hers" rice bowls.

This park we found has a little fountain and stream that we have gone to play in a couple of times already on very hot days. Lots of kids are usually there, running around in their diapers and getting soaked. We went with Akemi and Momiji and Brayden had a blast.

This Week

2008-05-09T10:18:00.005+09:00

We had a few days off of school this week because of a Japanese holiday called "Golden Week." It was a nice break, but we ended up staying at home the whole time because Brayden was sick. He had a fever for a couple of days but is back to being healthy now. During the break I saw a third centipede in our house. This one was in the kitchen crawling up the wall. It was a small one, thankfully. The carpenter is coming on Monday morning to fix up our cracks and possibly spray. I can't wait for Monday!!
Yesterday my friend Akemi and her daughter Momiji came over to play for a couple of hours. We had a lot of fun. Akemi brought me so much stuff! She brought me a framed picture of some needelework and a little bag that her mother in law had sewed. She also brought me a huge bag of little boy clothes that were from her sister, (whom I've never met). And she gave me a lot of decaff coffee packages, since its so hard to find decaff coffee here, and she knew I wanted some. Isn't she so sweet? I felt bad because I didn't have anything for her. Later that day at dinner, our doorbell rang. It was Akemi. She had brought another huge bag of more clothes for Brayden. She also brought the pictures she had taken earlier that day of our kids playing together. I have been thinking about what I can do for her, or give to her to show her that I am really thankful for her generosity and to let her know that I enjoy hanging out with her. I want to have her for dinner soon, but I'm trying to think of other things I can do as well. She also said she would cut my hair for me sometime next week. So I am just enjoying her friendship and am praying a lot for her. Other than that, we're still just doing life here. We're going to school and doing every-day kind of things. I have been enjoying my tutoring. I have SO much to learn but at least I'm making a little progress each day!

Brayden wearing his pajamas, in my heels. He was trotting around and loved to hear them "click click clicking" on the wood floor.

This is a view of our town, Okazaki, from a lookout at the children's art museam. We went there with my language teacher, Megumi, and her family, and our teamates, the Parson's family.

This is one of Brayden's new outfits. I just think he looks really cute.

This is Brayden, Momiji and Akemi. I wish I had a better picture of Akemi looking at the camera. I will try to get one for next time.

Brayden and Momiji. Isn't she too cute?! Brayden is wearing a "Shinkansen" kimono for boys. It's one of the outfits Akemi passed down to me. It's very Japanese, and I think its so cute.

Something Good, Something Scary

2008-04-22T20:58:00.002+09:00

I'm going to talk about the good thing first, before I get to the scary thing. Last week I was at the mall and I met a woman who had her one year old daughter with her. We started talking a little bit. I was talking in very broken Japanese, and she knew only a teensy bit of English. (When I speak Japanese I know I sound like a caveman because although I'm learning vocabulary, the Japanese grammar is really hard. So I am bad at constructing sentences, and I know I say things backwards all the time). But, nevertheless, we were able to hold a conversation (sort of) for about 20 minutes. She asked me if I had any Japanese friends...I said that although I know Japanese people at school, I don't have any "friends" yet. She also asked me where I lived and we discovered we lived near each other. So, I thought God might be nudging me to invite her to hang out. I asked her if she wanted to meet at one of the malls where there is a kids play area. Thankfully, she accepted. We met together this morning. Our kids played at the play area for a while, then we got a sandwhich at a coffee shop. It was very hard to communicate since we both know so little of the other's language. In fact, at times it was really discouraging. I kept wondering if she was having a good time or just being frusterated that we couldn't talk very well. She told me her husband drives a tractor somewhere other than our city, so he only comes home on Sundays. So she is at home by herself all week long, taking care of her little girl alone. She sees her family once a week, and her sister maybe twice a week. But, she seemed lonely to me. (Random fact-she is 32, and was a hairdresser for 10 years). I tried to tell her what we were doing here, but she didn't understand "church" but she did understand "Christian." I don't know what she knows about Christians or their faith. I didn't know how to ask her that. At the end of lunch she asked if I wanted to come to her house on Thursday to hang out again. So, I thought, maybe she was having a good time? I was so glad she invited me to do something. I said yes, of course. I am really looking forward to it. I am going to look in my dictionary to see how I can say church and explain some of what we are doing here and what a Christian is. I am praying that this can be a lasting friendship while we live here in Okazaki, and that I can share the gospel with her eventually, as I study Japanese more. You could pray for that also!
I also met a girl who is an employee at Starbucks, who I think I could befriend if I can keep going there on the days she works. Some of our teammates have already befriended someone there and have hung out with them more than once. The Starbucks employees are all very young, many speak some English fairly well and are very interested in hanging out with other young people, especially since we are foreigners. They are more interested in us than older people are. So, I'm also praying that that can turn into an opportunity and friendship. Third, I am in the process of getting a new tutor, and one of my favorite teachers at the school said she might be interested in being a language partner with me. She could help me, I could help her. I am hoping that could be another friendship/opportunity. Lots of exciting things, and I am just praying that God will lead me and direct me and make open doors in all of these situations.

Now that I have written so long...I need to get to the scary part. Here in Japan there are no poisenous spiders or bugs except for one...that is the centipede. Here its called a "Mukade." Well, most people don't see them, but we have seen two in our house already. It was totally disgusting and scary looking. They bite, and if you are bitten you need to take antiobiotics. Then, you will be ok. So, I know that is not the end of the world, but it has really freaked me out and I have been on edge living in my house. What makes me so nervous is that we live next door to an abandoned junk yard. Its gross. Japan is extremely strict on where and how you throw things away. We have to sort all of our trash and take it to specific locations. All of Japan is very clean. Our neighborhood is very clean and pretty, and in all of Okazaki, the one place that is probably most full of centipedes happens to be next door to us for some reason. There are cracks all along the baseboards of the wall that faces that junkyard. So, we are prime targets to be seeing more of these things all summer. These things cannot be smashed and killed because they have a hard shell. You have to cut them in two, but even after cutting them in half both sides of them will run away and can still bite. So you have to boil them or drown them in hot oil to kill them. Mike caught the first one in a bowl and cut off his head, then after the body ran away, Mike was able to still catch him and kill him in a boiling pot of water. We rent our house from our school, and they are sending some proffessionals to come look at our house this week to see how they can seal up all of the cracks and (I'm hoping) maybe do something outside of our house to help prevent them from coming in. So far this has been the one thing that has made me want to move away. (Well, at least from our house). But, I am really trying to be brave. I remind myself its just a bug, even if it bites any of us, we'll just take medicine and be ok. I have prayed for courage a lot about this issue! I feel like a wimp! Ok, now I have to stop writing and thinking about it..I could get myself all worked up again. :)

Tokyo

2008-04-13T15:44:00.011+09:00

Since my last post, we have taken our first trip to Tokyo. We went just for fun and to see the city. We are still planning on moving there sometime next year. I had never been, so it was a crazy experience for me. We did a lot of walking around and riding trains. I wore my heels the first day, and by the end of the day my feet hurt so bad, I thought they were going to fall off! The city was definately humongous and there were lots of people there. We went all over the place and saw several different famous parts of the city. When we live there, normal life won't consist of that much walking and sight seeing, but it will be a different pace of life for all of us. While there, I did get a feel for the enormous amount of people that live there, and how riding trains and subways is going to be our normal way of transportation. I realized how much Japanese I still need to learn...that was a little overwhelming to realize that I have such a long undertaking in front of me. I really need to hit the books! I also was able to see how so many people are very into materialism and themselves. I could see that they have an empty look in their eyes...like they are completely distracted by--life, I guess. Telling them about Jesus is another huge task before us. It really hit home on that trip how much we need to be praying and relying on God to work in their hearts and go before us to prepare these people to hear about Him. Its going to be a big undertaking, but I know that God loves them and wants them to love Him. All things are possible with God!
This is in Harajuku, Tokyo.

Another picture of Harajuku.

While we were waiting to get on the train back to Okazaki, this group of school girls kept trying to talk to Brayden, so we got a picture with them. They were on their way home from a dance competition.

By the time we got on the train, Brayden and monkey were totally wiped out from our long weekend to Tokyo!

Picture of Tokyo from the train as we were leaving.

Brayden is getting used to riding the trains...he likes to hold on!

He made a little friend at the park!

Mike and Brayden were throwing around the ball at this park near our house. Thats a "Sakura" (Cherry blossom) tree in the background. This is the season that they bloom. Its a big deal here-people go out and have picnics and parties under the trees. I love this park because its within walking distance from my house, and its beautiful.

We have gone to some of Mike's Rugby games. They are a lot of fun! Brayden was getting a little tired by the time this picture was taken. You can tell he doesn't want to be taking a picture at the moment.

The Last Few Weeks

2008-03-18T13:53:00.019+09:00

I haven't written an update for a while! A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Brayden has been well for a while now, although he is getting some more teeth so his attitude has not been the best lately. A couple of weeks ago was my last day of going to language school full time. I am now seeing a tutor with a friend on Mon, Wed, and Fri. from 10am-12pm. This new schedule has been working out so much better for me. I am much less stressed and have more time to spend with Brayden. On Mon. and Wed. he stays at the daycare until 3pm because I like that he gets the exposure to Japanese. He can say a couple of Japanese words now! He says "Ato" for "Arigato" (Thank You)," "I-Oh" for "Ohio" (Good Morning), and "Wa" for "Konichiwa" (Hello). The cutest part is that he does a little head bow when he says these words, because thats what accompanies them! Below are some pictures of the last couple of weeks.
Brayden having fun climbing on Daddy.

Mike joined a Rugby team that plays on Sundays. He got a black eye this last time. It has yet to go away and this was 3 weeks ago!

A couple of weeks ago we went to the zoo with our whole team. Here are the boys looking at one of the animals. After we went to the zoo, our husbands took all the kids home and us girls took the train to Nagoya and had dinner and coffee. It was so much fun!

Here are all of us at the Zoo. It was cold that day!

I made chocolate chip cookes for Mike's birthday last week. Here are the kids eating their cookies. It was an accident, but they are lined up perfectly from oldest to youngest. Colette is 4, Owen is 2 and 1/2, Sterling turned 2 last month, and Brayden is 19 months.

Our teammate Caitlin, (here in Japan she is called Caito-San) had a St. Patricks Day party and made fried fish and chips. It was delicious, (Oishi!) and very fun. Here I am with some 3-leaf clover glasses. So about our names-My name here is Ereen-San, but the "r" sound is a mixture of an r and an l. Mike is "Mikeru-San." Brayden is hard for them to say, so they say "Buray" with the same funny "r" sound they use for my name. For children they add the suffix "khun" so he is "Buray-khun." Funny, huh?

The weather has been warming up and its been beautiful out. On Sunday we took Brayden to a park and went on a train ride around the pond. This was the first time Brayden looked at the camera on purpose so I could take his picture. He was giving me a silly smile.

Brayden recently started loving to "Wa," meaning "Draw." Here he is with his new found activity.

Lately...

2008-02-29T14:35:00.003+09:00

This week we experienced going to the Dr. and the hospital for the first time in Japan. Nothing serious happened, but Brayden had the typical fever and cold symptoms for the third time this month. So I finally took him to the Dr. to make sure it wasn't developing into anything worse. The teachers at the daycare told me where to go and called to make an appointment for me. An employee at our school who speaks fairly good English went to the appointment with me to help translate, although the Dr. spoke a little English himself. The Dr.'s office was just like any pediatrician's office you would find in America--lots of kids and a fun looking waiting room with toys. The Dr. prescribed him an antibiotic which I went ahead and took because I was tired of Brayden being sick so often. They make/have all their medicines on hand so I got those in about 5 minutes and didn't have to go to another location for them. And, the total cost was really cheap, considering I had no proof of insurance (yet) and went home with two medications. That is one thing that is cheap here--healthcare. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but you can buy into their national insurance, which I believe is based on your income. From there on they pay 70% of health related costs. Anyways, he had a fever the rest of that day, and most of the next day. He just laid in my arms and slept most of the day and was very inactive. By the time we put him to bed on Tuesday night he was breathing really fast and shallow. A few hours later I counted his breaths per minute and I counted 80! I counted it several times and got an average of about 75 breaths per minute. Thats why we decided to take him to the hospital. I could not go to sleep knowing he was breathing like that all night long. I was worried he was getting pneumonia or something. The Dr. at the hospital listened to his chest and said it sounded fine, and that his breathing was fast because he had a little bronchitis. He also said he had a little ear infection, but basially sent us home and said there wasn't much he could do. We just had to keep an eye on him, continue the meds he was already on and wait it out. So we did, and the next day his fever went away and he was up and playing much more! It always seems to happen like that--they get really sick and scare you right before they turn the corner and start to get better! He is back to normal now and is playing/eating/sleeping like he always does. I hope the sick stuff going around is done for now, and that with the Spring coming soon we can be healthy for a while!!

School

2008-02-17T08:56:00.005+09:00

I started language school a little over a week ago. So far it has been a mixture of really fun and really hard! We are learning so much at an accelerated pace so it is hard to remember everything we've been taught before we have to cram even more stuff into our brains. The course I am in is an 8 week crash course in Japanese, so that is why it is so fast paced. When I am done with this course I will meet with a tutor about twice a week, while Mike continues with full time language school. I am much happier with this plan because it means that Brayden does not have to go to daycare so much! He will only have to go for the couple of hours I am in tutoring. Its a much better fit for our family. This picture is a picture of my class. 6 of us are from our team (3 are in a different class), 2 people are from England, and one Canadian guy. There are so many different people at the school, it is definatly a multi cultural experience. I have met people from Germany, China, Taiwan and more. It's very interesting!

Our Home

2008-02-16T11:46:00.007+09:00

I have finally got our home feeling like home lately. Here are a few pics of our dining room, kitchen, entry way, living room, our room, and Brayden's room. Brayden's room has a big desk in it that we are going to give to our friend eventually. We also have a third room that is Mike's office but I'm not even putting that picture up here because it is a disaster. (He likes it like that.) All of the furniture was already here when we moved in. The only furniture we have bought has been our bed mattress. We also bought a small convection oven, a big kitchen rack for appliances and food storage, and some of the miscellaneous things to make our place more homey, like picture frames and rugs. It was nice to not have to buy the rest. The furniture cost is included with our rent and for now is a better way to go for us. Stuff is so expensive here! I was expecting to live in a tiny apartment, so this has been a nice surprise to have this house. We really like it. We will still live in a tiny apartment when we move to Tokyo so we are going to enjoy linving here for the next couple of years!

Snow!

2008-02-10T21:48:00.000+09:00

February is supposed to be the coldest month here in Okazaki. Yesterday, it began to snow at about 11:00am and kept going until the sun set that evening. The snowflakes were as big as half dollars. It was beautiful! It only snows every once in a while here, so it was a nice surprise. It melted away fastly today, but it was fun while it lasted. Here are a few pictures at the mall. One is from our car in the parking lot, the other one was taken from the parking area on the roof of the mall, looking out. And the third one is from our front window, looking into our front yard.

Lucille Ball in Japan

2008-02-07T20:04:00.000+09:00

Well that was me today. Today I was the most annoying and noticeable foreigner in Japan, I'm sure. I started school today, and you would think I would have embarassing moments in class, being clueless since I don't know any of the language and our teachers only teach in Japanese. But school went just fine. I went to a Wal-Mart kind of store today, and thats where my crazy day sort of began. I was bending over to look at something on the bottom shelf, and as I did, I heard a little breaking glass sound. I turned around and realized that my butt had just knocked over a ceramic figurine onto the floor and it had broken!! A Japanese woman was standing nearby and saw it happen. I looked at her to see her reaction, and she was telling me something, which I thought was "pick it up." But no, she was telling me to sweep it under the table. I pointed to the store clerk to gesture that I was going to go tell on myself but this woman said 'no no' and waved her hand for me to walk away and ignore it. Well, I hung around for a few seconds because I felt bad just walking away, and two other women came into the store and started pointing at it and saying what I assumed was "Oh no, look at that! Someone knocked over that figurine!!!" So I went ahead and turned myself in because I felt really bad. I didn't know how they were going to see the situation. Did I just have a little accident or did I do something horribly offensive or klutzy to them? (I mean, it was klutzy, but I don't know all the social rules yet). The store clerk was surprisingly and fortunately very gracious to me and said it was ok and that I did not have to buy it. I was SO relieved!!! So then I finished my shopping and went up to the counter with two baskets full of stuff, (which no one in Japan goes to the store and buys 2 baskets worth of stuff, they only buy about half a basket at a time, I've noticed). I realized that they did not take debit cards and I only had $10, but my things were probably going to be $50. In America, I paid with a debit card most of the time, so I'm not used to carrying cash with me or making sure I have some cash before I go to the store.) So I started trying to ask the cashier (through charades of course) if she could hold my things behind the counter until I could come back after school with money to get them. We went back and forth with gestures trying to communicate, then she said this Japanese word that all store clerks say which is very loud and nasally and sounds like "EEEEEEE," which means "I'm here to help you." Well when she said that, about 5 store clerks come from all corners of the store and they were saying it back to her. They came up and were trying to figure out what was going on with me. So we did more gesturing and I figured out that I THINK they are saying its ok for me to return later to pay and they were going to hold my things. I left and hoped that I understood them right. So I went back to the store after school, and while I was grabbing one more thing to add to my basket a Japanese guy (probably about 20 years old) came up and said to me "Excuse me, English?" And I said "Hi" which in Japanese is "Yes." Why in the world did I speak Japanese to him when he asked me "English" while I speak English to people who are speaking to me in Japanese? I confused him for a while but then he asked me if he could take his picture with me. So I said OK and he used his cell phone to take our picture. So weird! Some people here think we're amazing, others are scared of us and think we're weird. So anyways, I went to the front of the store and noticed that the clerk had in fact held my baskets for me so thankfully I was able to buy everything just fine. So then I drove home and was getting ready to turn left into my neighborhood. I was on the left side of the road, trying to turn left. (Because they drive on the left here.) A car was trying to come out of the street that I wanted to go in but she was waiting for me. She was sort of in the middle of the road, but sort of on her left side. Well I forgot to go on the left and so I drove around her to enter the road on my right, which is the wrong side. Because she was in the middle there was a little room for me to go to the right side, but it was still a very tight squeeze because like I said she was in the middle, but just enough to her side to make it difficult. So I was pulling around her trying to squeeze through thinking "Geez, could I have a little more room?" Then I realized she was looking at me like "What are you doing?!" Which is when I realized I was on the wrong side of the road and was looking like an idiot trying to squeeze past her. Thankfully there were no other cars around besides her so it wasn't dangerous and I didn't look like an idiot in front of a lot of people, just 1. That was the first time I've driven on the right side of the road (besides in my neighborhood). So, all of those things added up plus school made for a very eventful day for me. I hope these kinds of things will happen less and less as I live here longer!

Update on Jehova's Witnesses

2008-02-05T10:49:00.000+09:00

Last Friday the two Jehova's Witness women came back and this time Mike was home and was able to talk with them as well. We talked about a lot of different passages in the Bible, and a little bit about the differences in our faiths. They seemed to say they believed that Jesus was the Messiah and their savior, which I had read they do not believe. So we are not sure what all they believe because it was still very hard to communicate, even with an English speaker. (She spoke little, broken English.). At the end of our conversation, they said they wanted to be our friends and would like to invite us to their house sometime. They were also surprised at how much Mike knew about the Bible and said they could tell he has studied a lot. He told them that we were here because he wanted to teach the Bible to Japanese people and they seemed so excited about that. Although we did not set up another time to talk, I hope that we will see them again. They seemed to want to see us again. We are praying for them and for us to meet with them again and have more converations. I have to go for now but as soon as I have another opportunity I am going to write an update about our family. Bye!

Visitors...

2008-01-30T15:29:00.000+09:00

The other day two women came to my door. At first, I stood there looking at them very confused! Then I heard the word "Bible." They proceeded to hand me a booklet, turned to the page written in English, and come to find out, they were Jehova's Witnesses coming to convert me! We tried to communicate but it was mostly futile. I told them I was a Christian and that I already had a Bible. I understood that they were saying they wanted to come back on Saturday with an English speaker. When Saturday came around, I completely forgot that they were coming. I was in my pj's (at 10am), my hair disheveled, unbrushed teeth, Brayden's running around in a diaper, and Mike is in the shower. I didn't know what to do, but I knew I couldn't answer the door like that so I just didn't! I felt so bad, but they eventually walked away. 3 days later my doorbell rang again, and they were back with the English speaker again. This time I answered the door, and they came in for a while to talk. I tried asking them what they believe, but the English speaker said she could not translate well enough. I told them what I believe to see if she would agree, but I'm not sure if she understood. So, she said she is going home to look in her dictionary, and wants to come back on Friday to talk more about it. I'm not sure what the purpose of all of this is, but I think God may be up to something. Maybe they need to hear the truth about Jesus. Or maybe this is a lesson for me somehow, to begin sharing truth, make friends and gain confidence. I don't know yet, but I will update as this story unfolds....

We have arrived!

2008-01-30T15:15:00.000+09:00

Brayden and I arrived in Japan on Jan. 19th. Although the trip over here was long and a bit rough (we were both sick), I am so glad to have finally made it here!! We had some jet lag for a few days, and I felt as though I was in a cloud the first three days. Now that we have gotten adjusted we are trying to get settled into our new home and surroundings. Mike has started language school and says that it is SO hard! I start on Feb. 7th and I'm really excited about it! Since we've been here we have been trying to set up home, learning how to drive on the other side of the road, and learning our way around the town and stores. These are a few pictures I have taken so far. In the first one he is helping me vacuum. We've never had a vacuum like that before, and he thinks it is SO fun. The second is of our sunken bathtub. I guess that is completely normal here, it is just funny looking at first. In the third picture he is watching a Japanese kids show, and if you can't tell, he loves their little shows. And this last one is of Brayden experiencing some jet lag himself. He took a later afternoon nap and after two hours did NOT want to get up. He thought it was time to go to bed for the night. But we woke him up at 5pm so that he would go to bed that night and sleep all night. More to come!