At family devotions one night:
Eric: Noa, would you like to hear a story about Jesus or Paul tonight?
Noa: (in her “I have a brilliant idea” voice) How about you tell me the story when you and Mommy got married?!
We are having Prayer for the Nations this Thursday night, November 5th. You are invited to Eric & Sara-Beth Noll’s house to pray, eat, and fellowship from 5:30 – 8:00 PM. We will be praying for Japan as well as eating authentic Japanese food (prepared by our wonderful Japanese friend and homestay student, Sachiko). If you can come, please RSVP via email at nollmtw@gmail.com and we can send you directions to our place.
If you want an idea of what we will be praying about you can check out this website http://www.mtwtokyo.com as well as this video that we made when we were in Japan http://vimeo.com/6524087 (password: japan).
We do this every first Thursday of the month. Our next meeting will be in February and we will be praying for India and praying for the ministry of RTS alum and family, Jonathan & Maggie Iverson as well as the ministry of a current RTS student and family, Tom & Jennifer Frakes.
Below are some pictures from Japan.
… in my car today:
Noa: (upon spotting a red convertible) “Mommy, that car’s broken!”
She also sang “Tomorrow” (from Annie) to a crying Gloria almost the whole car ride home from Jonathan and Maggie’s. It was precious!
“When I’m stuck with a day that’s grway and lonely, I just stick up my chin and grin and sin and grin and just stick up my chin and grin and …” on and on and on.
Here we are, our little family of five, on the night we brought Baby Glo home from the hospital. I know you thought we disappeared with the birth of our third daughter, but we have actually just been really busy. And having lots of fun. 
Glori is such a joy! At 7 lbs 7 oz. she is the tiniest Noll baby by about a pound and a half, and it has taken me a while to get used to! But she is putting on some chub nicely and I am excited for her 2 wk. appointment on Tuesday to see how she has gained. She sleeps like crazy, and prefers to sleep cuddled close. At night she is going about 4 or 5 hour stretches between feedings, and about 3 hours during the days. She has been more and more alert each day this last few which has been fun to watch. And, of course, it was my mom who got the first real smile out of her today. She always does! We are all pretty taken with her, especially her big sisters. Well, especially Noa. Martha usually has a moment to say hi and smile at Glo, but that’s about it. Noa just loves touching her, holding her, and staring at her. But anyone who knows Noa could have predicted that.
So anyway, here are few photos from our last week and a half with our newest little girl. Eric has been busy with work and school, but having Mom here has been an amazing blessing. My sister, Martha flew in Thursday night for a long weekend, so that has been super fun as well. Having a new baby makes life so exciting on so many levels!
Three Sisters
Silly Miss Martha
All the Noll Girls:
Noa’s new favorite activity
All of us seem to be missing our times of just the three of us, so we are making up for it with lots of extra cuddles and snuggles, and hugs and kisses throughout the day. For the most part, both big sisters seem to be adjusting to sharing their parents with the new baby, but they are a little bit clingy-er at times than normal. I don’t mind, though.
sleeping sweetness
Having “Baba” here is just the greatest!
The first car ride with all three girls in the car. The station wagon will definitely feel fuller with Gloria’s tiny body and big ‘ol car seat in there now!
Noa adores time with Aunt Martha. We’re so glad she’s here!
Wow! The Lord has really humbled me and shown me his love in countless ways over the last 24 hours. I know the LOW lows and the high highs can be attributed to hormones, but I just wanted to take a moment to share some blessings that have been poured out into my life since my last post. God is so good to give these blessing and to give me the eyes to see them.
~ A surprise call from a far away friend yesterday afternoon in the hospital. We hadn’t talked in a while, but having a friend to talk to, about what was going on and just the joys of life with little ones was a treat. Thanks Michelle!
~ Countless e-mails, comments, and notes of encouraging words, empathy, and promises of prayer. I love that we are not alone at all, but the Lord has placed us in a loving community that spans the globe. It’s amazing, really.
~ Delicious dinners for my family the last three nights, provided by new friends, some of whom we barely know.
~ Sachiko being here and such an incredible help in this time. I don’t know what we would have done without her.
~ Getting to come home last night with a healthy baby girl, and arriving to two mostly healthy girls, who couldn’t sleep and were wired to meet their sister.
~ “We can be a family”, said by Noa as she put an arm each around Eric and I, who were holding Martha and Gloria, as we sat on the bed last night.
~Everything Noa has said since we came home. That girl’s excitement is palpable! It is hilarious and precious. She is in love with her baby sister to be sure!
~Martha’s smile. It has been sorely missed while she was ill and her grin, even when it’s because she’s in mischief, is a joy to behold.
~My mom coming to our new home and jumping right in to help and serve us. She is amazing. I am so excited for this time of just being with her and enjoying her company.
~Rest.
~ Some of my parents’ dear and long time friends randomly being in the area today and stopping by for a visit. It was a treat for everyone.
~ 3 little girls all taking afternoon naps at the same time. Enjoying a quiet house and quiet moments with my husband.
~ Legs that don’t hurt anymore! It took me until yesterday to realize it, but the painful, ugly veins have disappeared and my legs don’t ache like they had.
~ God’s grace. In times like these, I see the reality of the wretchedness of my heart – I am so selfish, faithless, and quick to complain – and yet He allows me into his presence and promises cleansing through the blood of Jesus. It’s amazing. And then he tops it with blessing upon blessing.
Praise the Lord!
Thank you so much for your prayers and love showered on our family in this time. We are so grateful.
Would you please continue to pray for healing? We think our girls are all better, but we heard today that it looks like Maggie caught the crud (from helping and serving our family while I was in labor). 
Please pray for quick recovery for her and protection for Jonathan, Annie, and Lily.
I’ll be honest. This isn’t at all how I imagined welcoming our third baby to the world.
I had planned on the girls getting a few days of fun play dates with cousins and friends while I recovered in the hospital with Eric by my side. I had imagined Eric going home and picking up the proud big sisters and bringing them here to meet “my new baby” (as Noa calls her), as soon as possible after she was born. I was hoping to have a ton of photos documenting sweet Baby Glo’s first days, including our first family photo all together. I imagined leaving the hospital as soon as possible because I love being in my home, in my own bed, close to those I love, and it’s where I rest best anyway.
Instead, I left home Monday morning, aching as I passed a miserable Martha off to my brother to comfort and hold. Even before Gloria was born, I knew we wouldn’t, couldn’t expose all these new babies here by bringing our girls over to meet their sister. I sobbed Monday night after Eric left me and went home to take Martha to urgent care and try to figure out what is going on with her.
I had a wonderful day of enjoying my tiny baby yesterday, snuggling her close, and having her all to myself. And those moments are stored in my heart, not on our camera’s memory stick, which is fine. And I guess we sort of have a family photo, if you count a picture of a split computer screen showing Noa ichatting with baby Gloria.
But I missed my husband dreadfully, and came to a point when I knew I couldn’t do it without him…that was when I was waiting for him to get the girls to bed and come take me home last night. While he was on his way I began bleeding profusely, horrifying me, shocking and confounding my medical staff, and canceling my discharge. After two hours, they finally got it under control with medication and I begged him to stay with me. Martha was doing a lot better at that point and both girls were already asleep, so we asked Sachiko if it was alright with her that he not come home. We knew he needed to be there when they woke in the morning because they were expecting Mommy and Baby Gloria to be there too. He ended up leaving around 3:30 am, because he couldn’t sleep anyway after getting up for a feeding. It was a good thing, too, because moments after he got home, poor Noa woke up throwing up.
And that brings us to today, and why I am strugglin’. I just don’t get it. I have wanted so badly to go into labor without being induced, and when it finally happened, it happened at, what seems to be, the worst possible time ever! I just don’t get God’s good plan in this. I don’t doubt it’s there, I just feel so weak in my faith and ability to trust.
I long to get home still, but know it will be miserable having to stay away from my big babies in order to care for my littlest. It’s this weird feeling of nothing sounds great right now… no option is perfect. I am hoping they will discharge me today, but if not, I guess it will be good that Gloria and I aren’t exposed to this plague of a bug that won’t leave our family alone.
Anyway, this is all pretty raw. Sorry to not be so optimistic right now, but I hope you will pray for us – our bodies and our hearts in all of this. We are blessed to have wonderful family support. Jonathan and Maggie were with our kids all day Monday, but hopefully won’t get sick too. And my mom, bless her heart, flies in tonight. I can’t wait to see her, and I know having her will be an incredible blessing.
That’s all for now. I am gonna go snuggle with my baby some more and dream of when life will feel normal again…
