“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:” Eph. 1:3

We are certainly blessed. Not just spiritually but physically, mentally, and emotionally. Even though what I may say might seem to show otherwise. Ha. But that is a part of life. While our bodies are not perfect (ask Brian!), we have a Perfect God who knows all about those things!

This post will be about us. Yikes!!! We prefer to use this blog page for updates on ministries but I’m sure there are some people out there who would like to know some of the things going on with us personally. Not personally like, “I haven’t had a shower in a week” or the popular facebook joke post, “I just went to the bathroom”. But the other type of “personally”. Our physical health. Mental, emotional. How teachings are going, etc.

It seems like the flu has been going around here and a friend church, about half of their members got it. Also, Hannah and I got it. Boy, that wasn’t fun. While Hannah had the flu, we also think that she was teething pretty hard at the same time. She ended up getting a low grade fever for just a little over a day. Maybe two days. I love that she gets clingy and wants to sleep on you during those times. Obviously, the side that I don’t like about those times is that she feels rotten. She has recovered quicker than I have. I’m now just starting to taste my food and drink again. Although, with my taste back now, still being a bit sick, I feel like I’m tasting boogers. Haven’t eaten those in years. But anyways, onto better details.

Brian has been doing well. He continues to have his “prophet” or “visionary” personality. You can read all about the 3 types of men and women from Debi Pearls “Personality Types”.http://nogreaterjoy.org/blogs/preparingtobeahelpmeet/about/personality-types/

While somedays, I think he really has some out the box ideas BUT as long as God is putting them there, I just love the fact that he will follow them. (I mean, WE’RE IN JAPAN!!!) 🙂 As far as his health… where to start? We’re pretty sure for his 30th birthday, he’ll be getting partials. He already has about 4 or 5 teeth missing. And right now, we’re just getting any cavities that we both have filled. (The dentists office in Japan seems to be better as far as the wait time is shorter and they do it in parts rather than all at once.) Another health problem is that he went in for surgery about 2 years ago to get a hernia fixed. We’re actually pretty sure that the doctor just gave him another hernia instead of fixing the original. The incision was actually at his belly button. His hernia was not close to the belly button. So it has never felt right since then. But now these hernias seems to be giving him problem; he is having more pains daily. He calls it his gremlins. They don’t like him sneezing or exercising. We still have yet to navigate the medical field, as in the hospital.

Something else health wise but not personally Brian’s health, is the health of his mother. It is a mess and it is a bigger story to explain everything but it is in the forefront of just daily life. While he is concerned about the outcome of this issue but he is also trying to neutrally help with some problems. Not an easy thing when you’re not there. Otherwise, prayer for much wisdom in all aspects of this would be much appreciated.

But on a better note, he loves teaching. He will tell you that teaching your own language makes you realize how much of your own language you don’t know because “it’s always been that way for us”. Also, he’s using the times that he can to tell his students about Christ when it’s the appropriate timing. American holidays seem to be the best.

Oh, lets see. For me, I’m still teaching a 3 year old. There are days where it can be very exciting because she seems to be understanding and paying attention. Then there are days where she just wants to look into spaces and jump around everywhere and you spend almost the entire class trying to get her attention. So the days that she focuses is extremely exciting (not kidding).

Homesickness has certainly been setting in.

Otherwise, the only other thing I can really say about myself is some emotional problems I have been having. I won’t go into the back story but the days that are hard are, well… hard. Actually, yesterday and the day before were some of those days. But what has lead to having these feelings was when Brian had to put a stop to something. So all of these feelings didn’t come till after we
moved here. One thing that has been consistent through our marriage though is that I see things more as black and white. Like that, in a situation, I feel there needs to be fault somewhere and I feel it’s usually in me. There is much more to it but I don’t care to spend much time on it.

So on to the cutest member of our family! Hannah! Oh my is she growing up fast! I feel so bad for everyone back home that can’t watch her grow up in person. But thank the Lord for technology! She gets many 可愛い (cute). She started walking just a bit before her 1st birthday. She can say some words like puppy, kitty and cheese (She says cheese when she wants the camera on my phone to take a picture). But she absolutely loves animals. Particularly dogs. If she sees one outside, she asks to stand at the windowsill to watch them. And if she gets the chance, she wants to pet them. Which all that makes it exciting that the process is starting for our doggy to come here. Truly, we are so appreciative of our friends Nate, Janae, and their children for taking care of her and for getting her ready to come here.

Hannah and I try to stay out of trouble (sometimes a success, sometimes not). She loves going for bike rides. She can point things out. And since we found a gem of a park named Green Park- we’ll certainly be taking many adventures there. The park itself is so big. Many fun things to do. But if I just want her to run around and get energy out, I can just let her run free (with supervision of course) and I know that she’ll be safe.

Also, she loves music. Almost guaranteed, if she hears music, she’s dancing. She might even sing. We are fully enjoying her. We continually thank God for such a precious gift. And we continue to pray that she will love God with all her heart. God has answered everything else with her so I can’t wait to see how He answers it for her in the future. 🙂

So overall, we’re doing well. One thing we always try to remember is that even when we are going through something hard or we had something taken away, that does NOT mean that God is any less good and we are so thankful for that. Circumstances will not always be perfect. But God will always be. And when we have days when we don’t know what to do next or we feel like we’re falling apart, we just need to keep in mind “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”Rom. 8:28 We’re in this life not to live for ourselves but to live for God. We owe all to him because “he first loved us”. 1 John 4:19