Dear Eric,
We’re all packed and ready to jump in the car early this morning to drive to the wedding of a dear friend.
It seems appropriate that we should get to celebrate marriage with friends and family and friends who feel like family (this is a “japan people” wedding - it will be wonderful to see so many people from my childhood and our time there). It is especially so, since today we celebrate our five year anniversary.
I didn’t know much about who I was marrying or even who I was when we took our vows five years ago. But, I remember we began our wedding invitation with the words, “Believing that God called us first to Himself and then to each other…” And as much as thought I believed that then, I really believe it now.
And I am just sitting here basking in thankfulness for the One who called us – into marriage, into love, into companionship, into parenting, into ministry, into trials, into hurt and healing, into laughing, into moving, into playing, into becoming one more and more as time passes. I love this calling, being your wife. It kinda takes my breath away to just think about what grace it is to be yours.
So, five years ago…
It wasn’t the happiest day of my life.
Oh, I was happy. So very happy.
But there have been so many moments, hours, days, weeks, months, and seasons since that wonderful day that have filled my “happy” cup to overflowing. I didn’t know what I was in for, but it’s better than I could have imagined. How I pray and hope and trust that these five years are only a small fraction of the years I get to spend being married to you. I’ve loved growing up with you and can’t wait to grow old with you.
I love you so very very much.
Happy Anniversary!
How sweet is this photo of Noa and three precious friends at the CCSI sports day?!? It was such a great day of fun and fellowship and community building. Eric planned the whole day and did a great job! I hope to put up more photos of this day in early October later. I’m a little behind.
Eric and I had the opportunity to attend Passion Tokyo (also in October). It was a great evening of worship and encouragement. Highlights included worshiping and hearing a message in English. We went with a group of other missionaries and Japanese friends, and it was soooo encouraging to see how many people were there, filling the C.C. Lemon Hall. I was so refreshed in my walk with Jesus, convicted of my often lukewarm response to the Gospel, and I was burdened for the lost in this land in a new way. It was an added bonus that T.G.I.F. was only a few blocks away and we could have “American” size burgers. It was a very special night. 
Noa and Martha have been growing so much in their little friendship. One thing that has been especially sweet recently is that Noa wants to “match Martha” everyday. She just loves it and gets sad when they don’t match. I have done some pretty good convincing and told her that when they are both in pants, or both have pink on their clothes, or (if I’m really desperate) are both in diapers, they ARE matching. For now, it seems to work on the days that we can’t come up with some “pair look” (as the Japanese say) clothes. I can’t blame her, though. I, myself, LOVE it when they match and pull it off as often as possible. 
I’ve mentioned before about our babysitting swap with the Pfeils. Here is one such night when we “played house” with a family of five. It is always such fun for us to have the free dates and for the kids to be together on these nights. We really enjoy our little arrangement.
A few weekends ago we enjoyed going onto Campus for their annual festival. It was such fun and a wonderful day as a family and with our friends. Noa experienced many first, including her first cotton candy and chocolate-covered banana. Both are treats she will gladly partake of again, given the chance.
Our neighbor’s daughter has the sweetest twin girls who are right in between Martha and Noa’s ages. We so enjoy it when the come to their grandma’s house because we can see them too!
Eric had a great time with these three good friends camping a few weekends ago. It was great male-bonding, apparently, and a good chance to be out in our beautiful autumn weather. He loved it and I hope he’ll take me and the girls sometime soon…well, if it doesn’t get too cold around here!
While they did their thing, me and the girls had a girls’ sleepover with Chizuka. It was a great time for us ladies. Here is Noa and Chi-chan showing off their Hello Kitty tattoos (sent by cousin Liam for Noa’s birthday).
The girls have had some big milestones recently. Martha is learning her shapes.
Noa is learning to drum
They both still love to read their books
Yikes. Last week as we were leaving church we discovered our tire was flat. All of us girls really enjoyed watching Eric fix it and get us back on the road. Noa was particularly interested. Future mechanic? Maybe.
And I’ll leave you with this photo of our youngest, totally entranced by the Gospel music at our college ministry Livehouse event last week.
Hope you’re having a great week. God bless!
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. 
Well, when I posted yesterday that we wouldn’t do anything glamorous for our anniversary, I didn’t know that that my wonderful husband had planned a very special evening. He took me into Makuhari, a beautiful new city that sits on the bay. We went to dinner in the tallest hotel there and had such a great time enjoying wonderful food and sweet time being together. Our restraunt was on the bottom floor of this very fancy hotel, but we rode the glass elevator all the way up to 50th floor and had fun sitting and enjoying the view. We could see all the way across the bay and out toward the middle of Tokyo, all lit up. We were also right in front of the Chiba Marine’s baseball stadium where a game was underway so it was cool to see it so bright next to the dark bay. It was beautiful! I’m so thankful for such a thoughtful husband who planned such a romantic evening amidst our craziness right now. What a special night!
Here is a picture of us (in the window’s reflection) looking out on the stadium and bay.
And here is a photo I snapped as the elevator raced down 50 floors. It’t not a great photo but it gives you an idea of how fabulous the lights of the city are.
Over a month ago, Eric and I were asked to be the speakers for “J’s Café”, a monthly evangelistic meeting in Toke, the town where we are involved in a church plant. It meets in the Tomita’s home (the same place where we meet for church) and it usually consists of local housewives (it’s always on Monday mornings), both Christian and non-Christian. Over a week ago, we started talking about what to share for that hour and a half period and were encouraged by some of the ladies to share our testimonies, including accounts of our childhoods, dating, marriage, and now, parenting. We worked a little bit together on it, and more separately over the last week and by Sunday were pretty certain of what we would share. I still felt we needed to go over it together, and most of all, spend some time in prayer together over it. Well, Sunday night was difficult, to say the least. Noa had a terribly high fever and there were a few times in the night that we wondered if we should take her to the emergency room, for her trouble with breathing. Come Monday morning, we were feeling worn out and very unprepared for J’s Café, and even wondering if we should go. We finally decided that I needed to get Noa to the doctor, my mom could come and watch Martha, as she had planned to watch both girls for us, and Eric would go alone and share as best he could with our combined notes. As I rushed out the door with Noa and left him with a fussy Martha waiting for my mom, I really felt sick to my stomach. I felt bad for leaving him to do this alone, I felt sorry that we hadn’t prepared better, I felt sad for our sick girls, and, honestly, I was feeling anxious about what these women would think of us as Eric shared our story. Every time I thought of him throughout the morning I prayed for him and begged God to be the one who gave him the words and wisdom and that it would be God’s work, because I knew Eric was exhausted and anxious.
Well, let me just tell you that our God is great, and He delights to use weak vessels to show forth that greatness. I don’t know why I doubt, or why my faith is so small after seeing Him do it time and again, but I guess He is glorified even in me being reminded again and again. Eric came home after spending an extra hour talking and answering questions with the women. He told me and my mom that it had gone better than expected, and that it was totally the Lord, as he had even seen his own sin and struggle as he shared. It’s also been amazing to me to hear from 4 of the women that were there who said just how wonderful it was to hear Eric humbly tell of God’s work in so many areas of our life. Each of them shared that they saw Jesus, not just Eric, and it was good for the hearts of both the Christians and non-Christians who were there. Wow! As I have thought of that today, I can’t help but praise God. Only He could have done that. We say all the time that it is HIS work, not ours, that changes lives. But I think, say, if we had felt good about our preparations and had a good night’s sleep and could leave two happy, healthy babies in my mom’s care to go and do this and it went well, we would have been very tempted to feel like super missionaries with the perfect words and stories to use to move people’s hearts. It would have been easy to, at least in our hearts, steal the glory from God. Instead, He chose to work in a very weak time for us, and make it clear that it was HIS work. It was HIS work in our lives up until this point that Eric was able to share with those women. And it was HIS work that even allowed Eric to be there to share with them at all and that gave him the words to say to them. Praise God!
As I have mulled over these thoughts this afternoon, this reminder has been particularly encouraging to my heart. Today Eric and I celebrate our 3rd anniversary. We won’t do anything glamorous with the girls being sick and us being so tired. But we will have a chance to get out together alone (my mom will come brave the germ-infestation to comfort and care for her grandbabies) and I pray it will be a time of celebrating HIS work in our lives through our marriage. Because, you see, my marriage is probably the biggest area of my life where I see that it is God, not me, who works. Because this setting is the one where I see my sin most, I see my selfishness the most, I see my utter need for a Savior, who not only saves me from my sins but promises to work in me to make me more like Himself. This setting is where I learn of God’s unconditional love for me the most. This is where the person who knows me best, who sees my failures and sin the most, who is most affected by those failures and sins, still chooses, by God’s grace, to love me. Of course he can’t love perfectly, but his love serves to give me a glimpse of the love of my Savior for me, who chose to love His Bride in the most painful and sacrificial way – giving His life.
So today I am celebrating this: the love of God that is so vast that it not only saves us, but changes us and can work in and through us to bring God glory. How I pray that even on the most discouraging days – especially the most discouraging days – when I am weak, unable to be the wife, mother, missionary, friend, daughter, person that I should be; that in those times – and all times – I could be as a puppet, moved completely by that love. And that God would get all the glory for that!
*here is a photo that Mrs. Tomita e-mailed us from when Eric was sharing.
Continue reading about weak and weary vessels; One Great God!
God blessed us with an amazing 4 days at Nana’s beach house with Dad and Mom Noll. It was a special time of refreshment and being together. The girls loved their time with Grammy (”Mimi”) and Grandpa (”Papa”). We just relaxed and enjoyed each other. We played on the beach, walked around town, ate great ice cream, had two intense games of Spades (girls vs. guys), and took some photos to capture the precious memories. Eric and I even got to sneak out for a date at the Lobster House. We spent part of our honeymoon at Stone Harbor so it was special to be back there with our growing family.
Thank you, Nana, for your generosity and hospitality in letting us use the house! And thank you Mom and Dad for such a wonderful time together. We treasured every moment with you two!
