I took this photo of Tokyo Tower as I stepped out of my doctor’s office a few weeks ago. I hope that one day we’ll make a family outing of a prenatal visit and see some of the touristy spots in the area.
Eric’s class and the Japanese-track class doing their stretches.
One thing that we enjoy doing as a family these days is going online and looking at pictures and videos of our friends and family. Noa in particular really enjoys these times and gets excited when she sees the computer come out. I just had to put this sweet picture up of her and Daddy listening to Baby Whited’s heartbeat on Brian’s blog. Such fun.
We’re trying to teach Noa to sit still even when she’s not “contained” (i.e. in her highchair). One way to do this is to give her her snack at this little Noa-size table and encourage her that she must stay there in order to enjoy her food and drink. She is doing pretty well getting the concept… now we just need to learn how to make it work in church…
One blessing of being here is time with my family. My brothers and sister will often stop by as our house in on their way home from school. And last week we had an unexpected treat of having family dinner at our house all together. Even though Uncle Micah and Uncle Mark were busy on their computers, Noa was thankful to have the attention of Uncle “peg-leg” Seth to play with her.
Last week our church had an overnight sunday school camp and had 69 kids come out! It was a huge success and answer to many prayers. This is a picture of the kids performaing the camp theme song at church this last Sunday.
Noa and a friend. She is always a big hit whenever we go over to see Daddy at school.
Continue reading about random pictures from our day-to-day life:
Last Saturday was CCSI’s annual Sports Day. In Japan there is a week in the fall and the spring where the whole week is devoted to practicing for Sports Day. It ends with a day long event in which families come out to watch their children compete. CCSI’s Sports Day was less intense (thankfully – because Aisan (Japanese track primary teacher) and I were in charge of putting this together along with the help of my brother-in-law Mark). We had a fun morning of three-legged races, waterballoon toss, and some fun Japanese games that I can’t spell. Both kids and adults participated and it was fun for all!
Getting excited for a big day!
Early morning stretches
Water balloon toss
Instead of potato bags, we had rice bag races
Wheel-barrow races
Friends and snacks
I will not even attempt to explain this one.
Praise God for fellowship, fun, great weather, no injuries, and many smiling faces!
Eric went on his first field trip last week. The first picture is a child holding a sweet potato he dug up, and the next is a picture of some of the kids in the field, followed by a Japanese farm that was next to the field where Eric and the kids worked.
Eric’s desk in the corner of his classroom.
CCSI – Covenant Community School International at the end of a day.
Learning Hiragana – part of the 1% of Japanese that Eric has learned.
I shared soon after Noa was born that I had really hoped that she was a boy, and had convinced myself that she was a boy, so I was shocked when they told me as I saw her for the first time that she was a girl. But I am just amazed at how God is truly the one who builds our families and it is he who knows exactly what we need and even what we want. He is so good to us. Obviously, knowing and loving my Noa, I can’t imagine our lives with any other person, boy or girl. But there are a few things about having a daughter that I love now and anticipate for the future:
~My absolute favorite is watching my husband with his little girl. There aren’t words to express the tenderness and sweetness that fills the room as they snuggle, wrestle, laugh, or anything else together. It is precious. My friend Margot told me that he would make a great “girl dad” a while before Noa was born, and I see everyday what she means.
~Along those lines, I love it when Eric calls the two of us “my girls.” I love the feeling of being in a little group with Noa of belonging and being treasured.
~I never thought I would say this, but I love girly things. Dressing Noa is always a fun part of my day because her clothes are SO CUTE and fun to pick out. Its also so fun to imagine what beautiful things we can do to decorate her room as she gets older.
~People tell me that having a girl as a firstborn will be a tremendous blessing if the Lord does in fact give us the slew of kids that we hope for. I hear that in general, training up a “little mommy” is quite a delight.
~Being a girl, there’s a good chance she’ll love babies, just like I love babies, so that will be fun.
~I’m looking forward to Noa growing some hair so that I can play with it. I LOVE braiding hair, so I am very excited to have a little girl running around with piggy-tails.
~I’m looking forward to playing dress-up and watching Noa become all kinds of people in her imagination.
~I’m really looking forward to tea parties
~I’m looking forward to hosting girly sleepovers
~I’m so excited about time in the kitchen. Growing up, my mom and my sisters and I spent hours in the kitchen together, eating, baking, drinking tea/coffee, cooking, cleaning up, eating some more and always having some of the best and sweetest times of fellwoship and communication. How I hope my kitchen is a wonderful haven for the ladies in the house as my mother’s was/is.
~I’m excited, and nervous, to go through what my mom went through with me as I navigated the years of adolesence. I know it will be hard and tough, but also such a joy and an awesome opportunity to see really what my love for my daughter is made of (and who knows, maybe she won’t be like either her father or I when it comes to middle school and high school drama… PLEASE, LORD!)
~I’m excited to watch my daughter go through all stages of life and to share in her experiences because, as women, we will understand each other in a special way. I pray that she and I will enjoy the closeness and openness that my own mom and I share. I long to share in her joys and struggles and fears and prayers and triumphs and heartbreaks and be a steady and strong friend to her as she goes through it all, as my mother was (and still is) for me.
~The Lord has blessed our family with a great heritage of Godly women, and I am thrilled for Noa to be a part of that heritage and to pass that on to her daughters and their daughters, that the Lord would be glorified in families who know and serve him for generations and generations.
~I love that Noa and I have a lot in common as girls but that in many ways, there is so much of Eric in her. Already, she has made me come to understand and love Eric in so many new ways. I know I will love watching her be her “father’s daughter”.
Right now I am also very excited about having a daughter because I just found out yesterday that we actually have TWO DAUGHTERS! So, all the great things I listed above, I get TIMES TWO! We are overwhelmed at God’s goodness to us in this. We were very excited about both prospects of having a boy or another girl, but in general we had hoped that Noa would have a little sister very close in age to her to be her best friend. Eric and I each have two sisters who we think the world of and know that a sister will be such a blessing to each of our daughters.
I will try to scan and post some photos of our littlest girl as soon as I can and also share her name with you once we decide for certain (we’re about 99% sure right now).
Thanks for reading the ramblings of a very excited and a little emotional mom. Please rejoice with us in the Lord’s blessing of two precious daughters.
On Sunday evening we had Noa’s actual birthday party. My parents were gracious to host it at their house and let us invite three families and Noa’s Aunt Judith. The Dedachi, Inose, and Hirose families have 5, 2, and 1 children in them and were a wonderful addition to this celebration of Noa’s life. Really, it was just a great reason to spend time with these old and new friends and let Noa get to play with the 3 little girls in each family that are close to her age. We had a great time of playing together, eating good food (thanks, Mama Iverson!) and celebrating Noa with some birthday cake and a few gifts. What fun!
Uncle Seth made a special birthday crown for Noa. 
I thought it would be crazy getting food for everyone, especially all the small children, but it went off without a hitch.
This is Noa’s new friend, Yua-chan. She is three months older than Noa and CUTE as can be.
Noa actually blew out her candle this time! Way to go, Noa!!
She loved opening her gifts and has enjoyed the many new things that she has to play with now. 
I love this photo of some of the children playing together. Can you pick out Noa? 
This photo is just too cute! Noa loved showing off her photo album of her first year (well actually, first 4 months) of life to everyone.
Before the evening ended, we were able to have a quick family worship, complete with some praise songs in both English and Japanese, along with a prayer of thanks for Noa’s life. What a joy to share this special time with these friends and family!
In true noll-blog form, I need to officially welcome Noa’s newest friend into the world: Jude David Lookabill. He was born on September 26th, just 12 hours short of being exactly one year younger than Noa. He is a precious little boy who we can’t wait to meet when he and his parents join us in Japan. I don’t have any of my own pictures since I haven’t seen him in person 
but you can see lots of cute ones of him on his family blog: deartab.blogspot.com. We praise the Lord for his precious life and for the gift that he is to his parents. We are praying that He will be used greatly by God in his life to share the Gospel and bring glory to his Father. Congratulations, Josh and Tabitha! We are thrilled for all three of you!
