Today is our one year anniversary of moving to Japan. We are so thankful for all God has brought us through, and all he has added to our lives here in Japan including, but not limited to:
~the addition to our family of sweet Martha Evangeline
~so many new, wonderful friends
~a new appreciation for other cultures and people, even ones so different from our own
~new depth and growth in our marriage
~learning about new and wonderful and difficult ways to trust the Lord
~the great joy of seeing God build His church up close and on personal levels
He has been so good and we are so thankful that He has us right here, right now.
I have so much I want to write, but it is just too late and I am just too tired. I hope to post soon, though, about some fun things going on, including:
~ Noa, our little jabber-mouth. She is talking SO MUCH!
~Andrew, a new volunteer on the team is living with us for 2 weeks and we are really enjoying him. We’re excited that he and Eric will be working together a lot this coming year.
~The new school year starts on Tuesday! Eric is in the thick of preparation for his new class of TEN students in THREE different grades! It’s going to be a great year!
~Martha’s wedding in a few weeks!!!! the girls and I will leave in only ONE WEEK for the States with my mom and siblings. Eric and my dad will follow closer to the wedding. SO EXCITING!
~Cloth diapering, my new endeavor. I have prayed and researched this a lot and am getting very excited to get started once we pick up our supplies in America.
~Martha, very soon to be a WHOLE HALF YEAR old, is simply delightful.
and I know there’s lots more too. for now, I am off to bed and will just leave you with some photos of our crazy cuties…
We had a fabulous day at the beach yesterday with several friends who are students at Chiba University. Isaac and Eric had been planning to take several guys surfing, and it worked out well for the families to join them. While taking small children to the beach isn’t easy per se, it was fun and a great chance to be together.
Yuya’s surf school:
orange smiles:
taking a break from surfing and entertaining the little girls:
All the little girls enjoyed having all the big guys to take them in the water to brave the waves and fight the undertow. Noa with her daddy:
Annabella with Tsuguru:
We had a great spot with beautiful surroundings and good waves for beginner surfers. The weather was wonderful, with a lot of cloud cover and a nice breeze to cool us off. The biggest problem for me was that the sand was black and hot and really fine. I still haven’t gotten it all out of Noa’s swim suit. 
Everyone decided to dig a hole to bury someone. Eric lost in “jan-ken-poi” (rock, paper, scissors) so he had to be burried. 
Noa thought it was great!
a kiss for the buried man:
group picture, minus babies Calvin and Martha, Sarah and Sara-Beth, and the rest of Eric’s body
friends
Sweet Martha spent most of her day under the umbrella in her sand-free seat. She did better than I expected, sleeping well and entertaining herself with her toys and looking around. We did dip her feet in the water a bit and she managed to get a little wet and sandy while being held a few times. She did great, though, and was such a trooper.
surfer girl!
it was a long hike from where we had to park the car to where we set up. I was proud of Noa for walking the whole way back. She is really growing up!
You may notice in some of the pictures that one of the guys’ head is bandaged. Early in the day he had an accident with the surf board that led to he and Eric leaving for a few hours to find a clinic and get him checked out. Thankfully, he is fine and it wasn’t serious. Eric and he had a great time in those several hours one-on-one and were able to talk deeply about Jesus and the Gospel. We’re so thankful for God’s orchestration of the day. He protected us and allowed for us to enjoy Him in our fun and fellowship. I pray that the young men who joined us also saw Him, and are drawn into relationship with Him very soon. Would you pray with us for them?
We had an amazing long weekend, two weeks ago with my parents at Nojiri Lake. Nojiri is in Nagano prefecture and is a place that we have gone most summers since I grew up. It was so refreshing to escape the heat of Chiba and get to go to the mountains. The lake is nestled in the middle of several mountains and the views of God’s creation are always breathtaking. Here are some of the things we did:
The girls had a ton of time with their grandparents and loved it. Here is Noa with “Gii-Gii”
We loved it too, since we could put the girls down and go for walks or hikes or a swim. Thanks Mom and Dad! Here we are in front of the cabin before we left 
My parents’ cabin is at the top of one of the big hills, so to get to the water we really have to hike. Noa was usually able to make it down part of the way like this:
but usually, she traveled like this 
There are tons of activities up there, including swimming lessons, sports, dances, dramas, sailing, etc., all open to everyone who comes. Noa and I were able to go to an “Aqua-tots” swim class together one morning. It was great fun and we both learned a lot.
We had a lot of fun in the water almost every day. Even Martha got in a few times. It was great to have so many loving Aunties and Uncles to help with the girls. 
One day, we took a hike partially up a mountain to this waterfall, a favorite family picnic spot from when I was younger
The mountain water was FREEZING, I could barely stick my toes in. Eric, on the other hand, decided to go for a swim. BRRRRRRRR!
It was a great hike and a fabulous time to be together.
Me with Amby, my sweet friend and practically my sister (visiting from Australia with Esther and Joel). 
At the beginning and end of our hike, we went through this beautiful field with so many butterflies.
It was amazing to see so many. They were each so unique and beautiful!
Of course, I had to get the signature family photos out on the dock.
Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our time. It truly was a blessing and refreshment for us. It was also so special for me to share with Eric and the girls a place that is so close to my heart and holds so many wonderful memories. It’s great to have some memories in Nojiri with them now, and I pray we will have many more in the years to come. 
One of my favorite things about being a missionary kid was all the other missionary kids who felt like my family. Our team is still blessed with many MKs and I am so thankful for each one of them. Right now, there are 9 pre-school-age kids here on the team! The Pfeils have three of those kids, and we are super thankful for them. We have really enjoyed serving with them, doing college ministry together, adjusting to new little babies together, and just being friends. We also trade baby sitting with them often, so that we can have date nights. As you can imagine, those are always fun nights, knowing what it would be like if we have 5 kids, all 15-17 months apart and twins at the end We actually really enjoy it and are so thankful for the sweet friendships between the kids, and our growing friendship with Jon and Sarah. God is so good.
Calvin and Martha are only 10 days apart in age and it’s great to watch them grow together. The other day Sarah and I did a little photo shoot of them, since professional baby pictures are so expensive here in Japan. We got some cute ones of them together too:
kisses for a friend!
During a date night/play date. Don’t they look like they’ve been caught in mischief?
holding hands
Olivia and Annabella (Noa calls her “Abba”) are like big sisters and the sweetest playmates for Noa. She learns so much from them and they are so patient and kind to her.
They taught Noa her original funny face and the three of them continue to create all sorts of silliness
The other day, the three of them had a blast playing dress-up with my head scarves.
group hug!
We are so thankful for these special friends!
To give you an idea of our excitement for getting to play with these friends, here’s a conversation Noa and I had the other day:
Me: Noa, do you want to go to Abba and Olivia’s house?
Noa (squealing and clapping her hands): Yea! (She runs to put on her shoes).
As I am getting Martha strapped into her seat, Noa comes over to her and grabs her hand, gets her face real close, and in her best mama-talking-to-a-baby-in-a-really-high-voice impersonation says,”Baffa, pay Alvin’s house? Yea?” (Martha, play Calvin’s house?, yea?). Hilarious little interaction that showed me two things:
1:Everyone should be as excited as Noa is to go to her friends’ house. She couldn’t help but share that joy with her sister and make sure she was just as excited to play with her little friend.
2:My daughter is learning more from me than just words. I am always amazed at how she mimics my tone and pitch in many things, especially when interacting with Martha. Makes me want to be so careful about how I speak to people, especially their father, as little ears hear and copy so much of what I say and how I say it.
Our sweet Martha is already 5 months old! We can’t believe it. She is just growing so fast! Martha is sweet as ever and on the move now! No, she’s not crawling yet, but we call her Rollie Pollie Nollie. She rolls both ways and scoots her little body all over the place. I can’t leave her long on the floor by herself because she gets herself stuck. I don’t think it will be long till she’s crawling and zipping around.
Martha is super in love with her toys. She loves anything that she can shake to make noise and usually holds on to them for awhile. She has quite the grip and has even been known to make her sister cry from grabbing her hair when she gets too close. She’s quite the sucker too… she still loves her paci, but any ol’ hand or shirt or toy will do just fine too.
She has gotten really ticklish and giggly and it’s really easy to make her laugh. Her laugh is so sweet and totally worth any effort to get it out, and it doesn’t take much.
Martha continues to grow so fast. I don’t know what she weighs right now, but the rolls aren’t going away She is doing pretty well with sleeping. She falls asleep by herself in her bed now, which is a big blessing these days. It is too hot to be rocking one little girl while my other one gets into all kinds of trouble. She and Noa sleep at night together, but she still takes naps in the pack ‘n play in our room, since nap times are just too valuable for my sanity and I don’t want one of them to wake the other. She sleeps great, but since she was sick has been waking up as early as 5AM and sometimes is up for a while and chatty at that time. Hopefully she’ll grow out of it soon. She’s nursing 5 times a day, but we’re going to try to go down to 4 this week. I haven’t started her on solids and I don’t think I will for awhile yet. She’s certainly not starving.
Martha followed in her grandmother’s, aunt’s, and big sister’s footsteps and donned this sweet little dress for photos the other day. Since I will not pay the crazy-high prices for professional photographs in this country, my friend Sarah and I set up a little photo shoot for our babies and took them on our own. I don’t know much about taking pictures but it was fun to get her dressed up and continue a little family tradition. Here are a few of our pictures:
