Just one short year ago:
I can’t believe Noa is already ONE YEAR OLD! The time really flies! I haven’t really given an update recently on what she’s up to so now seems appropriate:
Noa sleeps like a champ. She usually gets up around 6:30 or 7 to nurse but then goes straight back to sleep til 8 or 8:30. She takes one morning and one afternoon nap, each averaging about an hour and a half. Then, she goes to bed anywhere between 7:30 and 8:30. She rarely wakes up in the night and usually puts herself back to sleep. If only this next one will do the same!
Noa is also a great eater. Since coming here where there aren’t many options for baby food, she has done great eating almost everything we eat. Her favorite foods right now are yogurt, toast with strawberry jam, any kind of fruit, Mabu-dofu (a tofu/rice dish), inari-zushi (another tofu/rice meal), any snack foods like goldfish or rice crackers, and (now) cheesecake. Our times at the table are some of our favorite times together as a family. Its also been great time for Noa to learn how to communicate. Noa can now say “please” and “all done” in sign language. She understands “more”, “eat”, “drink”, and “get down”. Other non-table words that Noa understands are “passy”, “NO!”, “Daddy” and “Mama”, “books”, “toys”, and “dog”.
Some of her “tricks” include talking on the phone (holding her hand to her ear and tilting her head), saying Hallelujah (raising both hands in the air), waving hello and bye-bye, pointing, giving kisses and blowing them, clapping whenever we say “yay” or “clap” or sing in church, laughing at jokes, and fake coughing (we call it “the black lung”).
Noa is very verbal and talks all the time, we just don’t know what she’s saying. She loves to read her books out loud to herself and she yells when she wants something she can’t explain (we’re trying to break that habit).
She is still slow on her gross motor skills. She crawls everywhere and has gotten pretty fast, but only just a few days ago pulled up onto the sofa for the first time. I am just praying that she’ll walk before this new baby comes… I don’t want to have to carry two babies!
Noa is full of energy and charm. I know I am biased but I really don’t think I have ever seen a kid who smiles as often or as readily as she does. She just melts the hearts of those around her and is a little picture of God’s glory and goodness to us and to others. Most days its easy to remember that as she is a very easy child. But some days, when it feels like I am telling her “No” all the time and keeping her out of trouble, its good for me to remember that its not just me teacher her but her teaching me too!
And here she is, ONE YEAR OLD! beautiful and precious and such a joy! (she is saying “please”)
Continue reading about ONE YEAR OLD… and GROWING GROWING GROWING
Noa turned one yesterday and we had a wonderful day celebrating her life and enjoying our precious little girl. She is such a blessing to us! I just cried last night after putting her to bed and talking to Eric about how much she has changed our lives and drawn us closer to each other and to the Lord.
We are going to have a picnic on Sunday with my family and some families from church, but for last night we had a mini party with our friends Chizuka and Ai.
Noa had her first sweets as birthday cake. I bought some amazingly yummy mini cheesecakes and chocolate cakes at a local bakery to use for birthday cake (Noa only had the cheesecake). This is my favorite photo of Noa’s initial reaction to her candle and happy birthday song.
She really loved the attention, though, so she got over her fear.
She has recently learned how to blow kisses so we thought it would be no big deal for her to blow out one candle. Not so much. All she wanted to do was touch that candle and see what it was made of. Eventually, we all blew it out together, and then about 2 minutes later she started blowing (delayed reaction I guess).
Ai is the Japanese track teacher at CCSI, the school where Eric teaches. She teaches 4 grades of Japanese children (6 kids) AND writes her curriculum as she goes. She is an amazing woman of faith, to be doing this job not knowing even if the Japanese part of the school will be around from year to year. But its very clear that not only has the Lord called her to this, but he has gifted her for it as well. We have really appreciated getting to know her and Eric is blessed to get to work across the hall from her.
Chizuka is my dear friend from years ago and now roommates with Ai. She is also a beautiful woman of faith and has remained a sweet friend over the years. It is so great to be able to see her regularly again and catch up on her life. She and I are going to try to pray together regularly for the purpose of fellowship and growth, but also to help my Japanese 
I am really excited that Eric and Noa get to know her too.
Noa received several packages in the mail this last week or two and got to open them yesterday. Grammy and Grandpa sent her a Stone Harbor sweatshirt that will be great this fall. THANK YOU, wonderful GRANDS! We wish you were here to celebrate with us! She sure loved unwrapping it!
She also really loved reading her cards (what a good girl). Even this morning, she has just sat on the floor looking at all her birthday cards and reading them like they are books.
Her friend Lucy sent her a bag of lots of goodies. She got some American snacks, crayons, books, learning games, a beautiful shirt, and some piggy slippers. Lucy will be one soon too, so Noa needs to find some fun Japanese birthday gifts for her. THANK YOU, LUCY and SEAN and LINDSEY!!! We love and miss you guys!
Aunt Laura and Clayt sent Noa a package too. Her favorite gift from them is the special Noa-proof photo album with pictures of the people at home in America that Noa misses SO MUCH. They also sent some special American snacks along with some warm clothes for the cold weather and some great (and very stylish) winter boots. THANK YOU! What thoughtful and precious gifts!
I really like this picture with Noa’s new “piggy feet”. How cute are those slippers? 
Eric and I got Noa a shopping cart with play groceries (you can see them in some of the photos). It turns out to be a great gift, as she can’t stop playing with her play foods. I’ve already found one of her eggs in a kitchen cupboard! I’m also hoping that the shopping cart will be a good help as Noa learns how to walk.
Thank you to all of you who sent Noa birthday wishes and love. She didn’t really understand what all the fuss is about but Eric and I are so blessed by people showering our daughter with love and also for the prayers that surround her life. God has already been so good to her, in just one year! We thank and praise Him above all.
Thank you to all of you who have prayed for our Sether. He was released from the hospital on Friday and has been doing great at home. They released him earlier than planned because he wasn’t eating the hospital food and not gaining strength (he’s a ninth child and so has gotten away with being a picky eater). Since being home, he has put back on his weight and gotten better and better at using his crutches. He loves to be able to play with Noa on the floor, as well as just be around his siblings. I’m so thankful they let him our earlier than planned, it seems he is getting well so much faster now. Also, it turned out that his hand was just sprained and not broken and it completely better now (he informed me that I didn’t need to pray for it anymore after I did at dinner the other night…). He is still not back at school and probably won’t go until his check up next week. He still has to be really careful not to jostle his leg at all.
God has been so good to our family, and I just praise him for protecting Seth and healing him thus far. Thank you for your prayers.
Well, a few people have asked if this little person has started to pop out yet. I guess that wearing maternity clothes means that yes, this kid is definitely changing my shape back out again. Here I am at 17 weeks and a few days. This little one moves around a lot and I love to feel him or her poke me. The original morning sickness that I was feeling has gone away since we’ve been in Japan. I have said its the great Japanese food that cured me but it could also be that we moved around the end of my first trimester We are thrilled about this little life and can’t wait to meet this precious one.
We would like to ask you to pray that the Lord would provide an obstetrician for me here in Japan. There is a shortage of them these days here and it has been hard to find one with availabilities for a February due date in our area. Please pray that the Lord would lead and direct us as to where he wants this little one to be born and by who. We would really appreciate your prayers.
Dr. D.A. Carson, theologian and professor at Trinity Theological Seminary, came to Japan last week to teach a week-long course at our mission’s reformed seminary in Nagoya. On Saturday he taught a seminar in Tokyo about the relevance of the Gospel in Japan. Eric was able to attend that and said it was really great, very helpful and encouraging. On Sunday he came and preached at our church, Oyumino Christ’s Church with my dad translating. He preached about Psalm 40, and the ways that God is our help. Eric and I had the priviledge to ride along to drop him off at the airport that afternoon. We had a whole hour of our own private Q&A time with him It was really great. Dave Bryan and Megan Tongen, if you’re reading this, he had great things to say about both of you as students and sent his regards to each of you.
Eric and I were particularly excited to meet him because we have both been blessed by and so enjoyed his books, For the Love of God (volumes 1 and 2). They are devotional companions that give short commentary on the M’Cheyne Bible reading program. These books have been a great help to us in our quiet times and we would reccomend them to anyone to pick up and enjoy. You can also subscribe to the daily readings at christwaymedia.com.
During one of the seminars at the retreat, after a brief overview of what is going on in all the mission fields in the Asia-Pacific region, one of the missionaries from Taiwan played this song and shared some thoughts that really encouraged me. “This is My Father’s World” is a hymn that sometimes seems very sweet and gentle, like a lullaby. Judy was sharing though, that sometimes the world seems so dark, and the devil’s power so strong, that we need to just belt it out from the rooftops, to remind ourselves and others that this truly is our Father’s world and He has dominion. He has won the battle for it through Christ’s blood and we can live without fear. I have since thought of this song almost every day and found encouragement in the tuths that are in the lyrics, especially the third verse:
1. This is my Father’s world,
and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings
the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
his hand the wonders wrought.
2. This is my Father’s world,
the birds their carols raise,
the morning light, the lily white,
declare their maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world:
he shines in all that’s fair;
in the rustling grass I hear him pass;
he speaks to me everywhere.
3. This is my Father’s world.
O let me ne’er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!
