Thanksgiving in Japan

There were never Pilgrims that sailed on the Mayflower nor the Native Americans who helped them adapt to a new land in Japan.  Thanksgiving is not a holiday here.  That doesn't mean that Americans living in Japan aren't going to eat turkey!  We did still manage to celebrate the day.  On the fourth Thursday in November we gathered in Tokyo with fellow American A/G missionaries for a Turkey dinner.  It was a great time to relax, hear what others are doing, and, of course, eat!  Getting together with fellow missionaries made being away from family during the holiday a little easier.

On the way home we stopped at Costco (yes there is a Costco in Japan!) and picked up 3 frozen turkeys and other supplies for our church's upcoming pot luck.  We got there 20 minutes before closing.  I raced around the huge warehouse like I was on one of those grocery store game shows, flinging food into the cart!  Thankfully, we managed to pick up all the necessary food before the store closed.

Today, the Sunday after thanksgiving, we had a Thanksgiving themed potluck at church.  We were excited to see many guests, including several students and faculty from the University, joined us to taste the special American food.  For some of these guest this was one of the only times they had ever stepped inside a church.  We took time to reflect on what we were thankful for and enjoyed a worship service.  After service a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings was served.  Some international additions to the traditional feast were included thanks to our multinational congregation.

In between these events we even did other typical American things.  I did some "black Friday" shopping on-line for Christmas gifts for family members in the USA.  I got the added bonus of early bird discounts without even having to get up early as our time is 14 hrs ahead of Eastern Standard time!
We also set up our Christmas tree that we brought with us when we moved to Japan as it is our tradition to put it up on the day after Thanksgiving.  Now that Thanksgiving is past, we are looking forward and planning for ways to reach out to the University students this Christmas.

More Medical Drama

I haven't blogged in awhile, because life has gotten a little bit crazy. It all started with a phone call that I got from a classmate of Chris'. They were in an ambulance with Chris that had just left language school and were on the way to the hospital. Chris had been feeling poorly ever since his routine colonoscopy a couple of weeks previously. Then on that particular morning he had suddenly felt very bad, had numbness in his hand and feet and had started to faint. His teacher and fellow student accompanied him to the hospital and waited for me and the kids to arrive. I was so impressed that they came! Not only that, but a fellow missionary friend rushed down from Tokyo to help interpret. What a blessing! They ran a lot of tests, but didn't really come to any conclusions. After a couple more doctor visits and a couple more tests over the next couple of weeks they decided that he had some bruising from his colonoscopy and had chronic gastritis. They still aren't sure why he has tingling in is face, hands and feet. So tomorrow he is having an MRI to check his brain and the disks in his spine.

Meanwhile Addie's arthritis has been acting up. I took her to the local doctor. He is the head of Pediatrics at a University Hospital, however he is not a specialist in arthritis. He didn't really seem to understand the subtleties of Adelaide's illness. He told me that she just might have to live in pain. I was not convinced and decided it was time for a second opinion. Last week I went to see a specialist in Tokyo. After 2 hours of train rides with 2 little children and a short walk we reached the hospital. The doctor was fantastic! He really took time to examine Addie. He understands that kids with arthritis can still be somewhat active, even when they are in pain. He found 5 swollen joints. He was concerned that if we don't get this taken care of she could have permanent joint damage. He then ordered x-rays and other tests. He gave her some new medicine to take temporarily in addition to what she was already on. Tomorrow we go back to see if she can start ultra low dose of chemotherapy. Of course with this type of medication there can be serious side effects, but for some kids with arthritis they can be pain free!

Even while all this is going on we are trying to keep as normal a life as possible. I'm still busy homeschooling the kids. The school year ends in Japan in March and then starts up again in April. So I've been getting ready for the next school year too. After a week of rest Chris went back to language school, even though he still isn't 100%. He is also still teaching Sunday School at our church. We know that we are right where God has called us to be and are happy to be here. Still, all of these medical issues are a bit of a distraction that we would rather do without! We would appreciate your prayers for full health for all of us!

Animals Outside My Door

I just heard a cat fight outside. Chris said, “maybe it's being attached by the tunuki.” This reminded me that Chris and Addie spotted this animal in the garden across the street from our house a couple of months ago. It also made me think that this is one animal I had never heard of before moving to Japan and I thought, perhaps, some of you would be interested in it as well. If you want to just what in the world a tanuki is try this link...
http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=888&catid=26&subcatid=164

A Typical Sunday

We start the day by dragging ourselves out of bed and into the cold air (we don't heat the house overnight and temps are usually in the upper 30's in the house when we wake up). Chris gets up first, turns on the heater in the kitchen and preps for teaching Bible study. Chris then drags me out of bed and gets in the shower, while I run around like a crazy person getting everyone ready for church. This is largely do to the fact that I am not a morning person and have a hard time getting out of bed. Lol!

We pile into the car, which anyone with young kids knows, is an accomplishment. Then we head to Tsukuba University where we pick up a student and bring him to church.
Chris teaches Hermeneutics (how to interpret scripture) as a a Sunday school class. Then we all attend the main service (the kids go to children's church after worship). After church there a light refreshments and fellowship. This week we said goodbye to one international student from Nigeria and hello to a new student from the Philippines. Our church has many international students that are frequently coming and going.

We get home around 1:30 or 2 and eat a late lunch. We watched My Dog Skip. I think this is the first movie that has ever made Addie cry. Still, it was a pretty good film. I brought down Stratego, a favorite board game, and played with Wesley. Hudson and Addie made a big bed on the living room floor with a bunch of pillows and blankest and pretended to be cats. Then they decided that they wanted to play Stratego. This didn't quite workout so well as Hudson (at age 4) doesn't like to play by the rules. LOL! Meanwhile, Chris went to the Joyful Honda (a home depo type of store) to pick up our next weeks worth of kerosene for our vented heater.

After he return we had the cock-a-leeky soup and salad I made for dinner along with some french bread. The kids played a little bit more and Chris and I discovered the fun in playing “scramble” together on our i-phones. Soon it was all hands on deck for a quick living room and kitchen tidy up. I vacuumed and Chris did the dishes. Once the kids were in the pajamas and had brushed their teeth, Chris read a portion of scripture to the family and prayed. Then he took the kids up to bed while I sat down to iron and fold a couple loads of laundry. Life without a dryer = lots of ironing. However, I have discovered that watching something on Hulu, makes ironing a less terrible chore to do. After some Hulu viewing with Chris we headed off to bed, and so ended a typical Sunday.

Wordless Wednesday: My Living Room Floor

Back to Blogging

Now that the holidays are over and we are finally feeling more settled, I am hoping to blog more often. Of course, no sooner to I decide this than my laptop dies. :( Now I've got to figure out how to use our new Mac. I'm a PC girl, but it is easier to write in Japanese on a Mac (once I actually know enough Japanese to type something). I also need to discover how to do things like upload photos and be able to find them again. In fact rather than face the Mac and the cold room that it is sitting in, I am borrowing Chris' netbook. Still, I am finally blogging again. In an endeavor to write more frequently, I'm not going to wait to figure out my computer woes! Hence, there may be some blogs post lacking pictures. I also might expand my topics to more than just typical missionary stuff. After all, the life of a missionary isn't really compartmentalized. I aim to serve the Lord in all I do. So stay tuned for more insights into my crazy life and you can find out just a little bit more about what it is like, from one family's perspective, to be a missionary in Japan.

Here is our 2011 Christmas card and Christmas Letter:

http://102136.agwebservices2.org/?TargetPage=26710D8E-0683-4FB0-9043-745571308063