Pallet Visit

The little guy in the middle of the pic was shaking hands with one of the dogs. He spent most of the time with this dog and sharing tricks. It was excellent therapy for him. So many of the children are really beginning to enjoy the dogs and are definately looking forward to their coming on Sat.

Our visit to Pallet on Saturday was and is always a special time and a treat for us to love on these children along with Elizabeth sharing her dogs. This is Shouta (Sho ta). He is 11 years old and very smart young man. He loved Tomoyuki and was very talkative and by the response of his therapist he is a comedian.

Dad's Home

Everyone is so happy to have Tom/Dad back home after his 3 week trip to Iwakuni. I'm not sure who's having more fun with this new gadget. We are so glad for Tomoyuki to have a new activity to enjoy and encourage him to grow.

Bethany and Juda enjoying their "Dress Up" clothes that Tom brought them. Bethany is looking pretty "70" ish, "Flower Power" at it's best, and Juda, well, he is excited to be "Bob the Builder".

Many faces of Tomoyuki

"First Tooth"

"The Duck"

"The Rabbit"

"Chicken Little"

"I'm so shy"

"Let's Party"

"The Drooller"

The Owl - Hooty Hoooooo"

"The Screamer"

Caleb's Official BDay Dinner

Ben, Alisha, Ana, Caleb, Tomoyuki, Tom, Bethany, Shirley and Juda officially celebrating Caleb's #18 BDay at "Macaroni Grill" on Camp Foster. It's a great restaurant and MCCS is so wonderful to provide us with these restaurants that bring us the comforts of home/America. Juda ordered the plate of spaghetti you see on the table with the "Giant" Meatball on top. He proudly announced "Spa ghe tti" upon it's arrival. First time ever to say that one. Tom arrived on island just intime to join in on the celebration.

Jack being carved out for 2007

Hideki, Hikaru, Bethany and Momaru working very hard to carve Jack. These boys are so faithful to come on Saturday morning, 10 am. They'd much rather be sleeping in, however, their faithful mother wishes for them to learn/practice english. They are alot of fun, we enjoy them alot.

This was their first time ever carving a pumpkin and probably the first ever for Bethany too.

Juda did not join us for the fun, he had carved at school the day before and said "NO" to the fun.

All in a weeks work!!!

Our week started out by cutting Bethany's hair after 2 years of growth. We cut 11" off to send to "Locks of Love" for children cancer patients to make wigs for them.

I am so glad for Bethany to no longer have tangles. And doesn't she look so pretty.

After the Ai no Kesshin prayer meeting this week we went through some children's clothes that had been donated to give to some families.

Ai no Kesshin volunteers helping with the table we sponsored at the OBC Womens Bazaar. We sold loaves of bread, cookies, jello and and great japanese dessert called zen zai. We made over $100.

Rika did an excellent job translating and sharing very thoroghly all Ai no Kesshin can do for women and children in crisis. We were so thrilled to have this opportunity to speak to the "Okinawa Baptist Convention Women" . Naha Baptist hosted this event and there were around 200 japanese ladies attending. I was not the only American, there was one more, ha ha ha.

Finally, we are back to our Friday English classes with some new additions. All these ladies are so sweet and full of laughter and english. I just have to pull it out of them. Fun, Fun, Fun.

Happy 18th Birthday Caleb!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Caleb, Juda, Shoko and Mio. What a celebration. After a spaghetti dinner, we enjoyed Birthday cake for nearly everyone. After singing "Happy Birthday" four times, we were ready for dessert. Tom just returned home from Japan after being away for a few weeks. So we are still partying, more pics as we continue to celebrate Caleb's BDay.

BIG visit to Pallet

Mr. Asato is presenting us this huge Thank You note posted on the wall. We were surprised and shocked and amazed and so excited because the note referred to a note that Elizabeth read to them telling them that we do what we do because we love Jesus. Isn't God so wonderful. We had not been to Pallet in over a month because Elizabeth, the therapy dogs MOM, went on a missions trip to Mongolia, sooooo, we are just now getting back to loving on these children. What a treat, they had multiplied. The "Y" program, the after school age children program 6-18 year olds were there today to enjoy the dogs, and did they ever.

Notice on the two top corners the black origami dogs, supposed to be Alex and Hali. There was a bit more excitement with the older children as they expressed themselves a bit better, especially their fears of dogs.

James and MaryAnn came today to join in on the fun for the first time, there first time to work with special needs children. Yukika with Down Syndrome latched onto each one of us and held on tight, James was a bit surprised but was a trooper and held on too.

Tai is the son of a lady I met at a support group meeting. I had never met him, but when I spoke to him in english and he responded I was a bit surprised then asked about his language skills, then I figured out who he was, we had a great visit with him and he loved the dogs.

Bath Time after visitors

Sachiko and Bob stopped by to visit with us. While loving on Tomoyuki she also read to Bethany several Japanese children's stories from Bethany's collection from the yochien.

This is what happens when you sneeze just after you take a bite of food. I think this particular night he was trying carrots mixed in with his oatmeal ceral. Fortunately for us, it stayed on him.

Now then, I'm all cleaned up and am hitching a ride.

Look at me, sitting up in the tub now, and how about that "Six Pack", it even wraps around to the sides. And YES, I love the water, just like my big sister Bethany.

New FRIG

The "Blue" light inside is to help protect the food inside. There is even a "Germ" fighting mechanism. With the "push button" open the door feature, Juda caused the "Germ" fighter to work overtime on day one of it's arrival.

After two weeks of witnessing our frig dying and losing many $$$ worth of food, mostly from the freezer, we finally got our new frig. It is quite the state of the art even for Japan. It has been the talk of our home with each person that enters in. All the "OOOS" and "AAAAs" have been quite funny. It still surprises us how hard the japanese language is to understand, even for the japanese. We had several japanese ladies in our home on Sunday and it took all of them together to understand the controls on the frig enough for us to operate it.

Juda turns "7"

Juda looks like it is a "HAPPY" Birthday to me, he loves his new "Bathtub Basketball". He has blown his "Party Blower" until it has gotten soggy and is blowing backwards. Sounds lovely, I know, but for safety purposes, Tomoyuki need not to worry about loosing his eyesight.

Shawn finally figured out how to operate the "Party Blower" and was thrilled. His response was "Hubba Bubba", a new phrase Mr. Kenny had not heard before. Considering he is very shy and is less verbal than Juda who is not very verbal at all, we were shocked. We couldn't stop laughing at these more than funny boys. What a great Birthday celebration Juda had with his friends.

Juda is trying to give Shawn "Party Blower" lessons, and finally it worked, as seen up above. Mr. Kenny has quite a small group of funny boys this year. I have the pleasure of joining them for lunch each Thursday, what a treat. We enjoyed none other than "Ice Cream" with cool whip and sprinkles for the Birthday treat.

And of course for the final touch to end a great Birthday celebration, Juda's favorite treat, "ICE CREAM", and in a cake, who could ask for more than that on their 7th Birthday.

Believe it or not, those fingers are signifying that Juda has turned "7".

Now that is more like it, but we would expect Ben, to be able to show "7" on his hands.

First Babysitter/Dear Friend

My dear friend Sherry Reimer was Tomoyuki's first babysitter. Recently she kept him for me to go to an Open House at Bethany and Juda's school. It helped me out tremendously. We so enjoy spending these years with her and John on Okinawa, what a treat, who would have thought God would have blessed us and placed us here for such a time as this together. We've been friends now for 10+ years, so we don't introduce each other as "Old" friends, that implies that we are "Old", we say "Long Time Friends", which implies the past, present and future, ha ha ha. We met for breakfast at the "T" House, restaurant on the Kadena Golf Course. We hadn't had a chance to visit in the past few months, with summer and all the busyness of both our schedules. We were enjoying catching up so much and didn't notice that we had been there for 2-3 hours, so when the lunch crowd started coming in we felt like we should go and not stay for two meals, ha ha ha.

THANK YOU to Ai Sei Yochien

Katsue sensei and Reiko sensei loving on Tomoyuki. Reiko sensei is known for her kissing all the children's cheeks alot and Katsue is single, but wants children so bad. They were trying to take Tomoyuki away from each other, ha ha ha.

These are Bethany's sensei's (teachers) at Ai Sei Yochien (Japanese pre-school/kindergarten). We went today to give THANK YOU gifts for them and to the school. Since Bethany has started First grade at Bob Hope Elementary, she will no longer be going to Ai Sei, but will do special events with them and we will continue to join them and host American holiday parties for them, ie Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving.....

Yoko sensei was Bethany's teacher this year. She was a bit sad, well, okay, we all were, but we assured them that this was not Good Bye, just Thank You and we would still be a part of the yochien. I will continue to teach English on Friday's to the yochien mom's.

This is Mia and Casey, Rika's children enjoying the "Hoola Hoops" we gifted the yochien with.

New BUS

Finally I found the time to get the details of Bethany and Juda on the same bus. Juda rates the micro bus(short bus) however, Bethany does not, sooooooo, not too surprised that this year, the first year ever, they are beginning to place special needs children on the bigger bus to mainstream them. Yippee..... sooo our only request was that Juda have a car seat, as I'm sure by the time he got to school, he'd be dancing in the isle.

It is a huge bus compared to his micro one he's been on for the past two years.

The bus driver and the bus assistant were very nice and Bethany knows a few children on the bus. She was not afraid at all, very excited actually. I was the one who needed this time to get used to the idea. Tomoyuki and I have been driving them in and picking them up everyday, which was working out, but causing us to be gone from home alot during the day, when he could have used some time outside of his car seat to stretch.

Oh Noooooo!

Tomoyuki sporting his new bed. No more back aches for me, he says.

Bethany and Juda sporting their new bedroom. Woooooo, been a long time coming.

Tom, Bethany and Tomoyuki. I find them like this often.

"First a bow then a dress, I know how Bethany operates, I've seen Juda during dress up time", so says Tomoyuki.

But, I still love her dearly, and she loves me, even tho I am just a toy to her.

Mia, Casey, Bethany, Juda and a new friend at a nearby park.

Tom, Bethany and Tomoyuki before I dropped the camera on Tomoyuki's head, they seem so happy.

Tomoyuki after I dropped the camera on his head, fortunately for him it is a small camera.

Michiko and her husband enjoying Tomoyuki. They were so sweet to visit Tomoyuki when he was in the hospital too.

Chihiro Katsuren and Bethany sharing homemade ice cream.

Well...................I've done it again, gotten so busy and have neglected posting. We have all been semi sick, you know when your not sick enough to spend time in bed, but not full functioning either and it seems to be lingering and starting the cycle over again, yukkkkk. Tomoyuki is much stronger this go round and is managing quite well. We did however make a trip to the ER the other night, and after a chest x-ray, we returned home much more confident that he was going to be fine.

Our friends the Katsuren's daughter went to Seattle this summer for a few weeks for a home stay. Upon her return we offered to prepare a meal for her of her favorite american dish she had while there. She requested Spaghetti and homemade ice cream for dessert. Well the spaghetti part was a given, but I don't have an ice cream freezer any longer. After a few phone calls we acquired one from none other than an American family friend. The evening was great fun. We were blessed with their entire family and our neighbors Candy and Cho to translate for us. Fun, Fun, Fun.

Last week was full with paperwork and meetings. Our Saturday morning started off with breakfast for our english class. We had plenty of waffles and such so Candy and Cho came down to join us after the boys ate their fill. During breakfast, one of the upstairs bedroom air conditioners was being replaced, well overdue, a month now with no air in that room therefore no one would stay in it, who would be so daring to sleep in a sauna. So in the afternoon, once the upstairs rooms cooled off we began the "Bedroom Shuffle". You see during the down time of the A/C, Ben moved in with Caleb and Juda moved in with us, (US, being me, Tom, Bethany and Tomoyuki) so yes, you counted right, 5 in one room. What would Extreme Makeover think of us, certainly they would build us a bigger house with American ratings of one person per room. Anyway, we moved Ben and Caleb into the bigger of the two non-master bedrooms, moved Bethany and Juda into the smaller of the non-master bedrooms and kept Tomoyuki in our bedroom, but assembled his new crib that someone from church so generously gave us recently. First time for a "Baby Crib" in 18 years. Yes, that is right, Juda nor Bethany ever used a "Baby Crib", we moved so often when they were little that they slept in "Porta Cribs", poor things. Tomoyuki had to be woken up on Sunday morning, he claimed that for the 4 months he's been here sleeping in the porta crib with a back ache, that he slept like a baby. Yeah right, we didn't believe him, because he always sleeps like a baby, all night long, that is why we are able to go so strong by day, because he gives us a great night sleep.

Yesterday was a big day for our church. We had our first service in our temporary location (probably 9 months). 4 of the 8 Japanese ladies who are in our Sunday school class came over for lunch then bible study, then we whisked off to the ground breaking ceremony for the building of our new church, completion date projected to be March/April/May time frame. It is so exciting to see God at work, answering many/many prayers regarding Koza Baptist Church. Today was the beginning of the demolition of the old Koza church, what a time we live in, how exciting.