* A very close friend of mine just gave birth to her 3rd child, a beautiful baby girl, in China. We miscarried at almost the same number of weeks, at almost the same time a couple of years ago and now we've both had healthy babies and are both living far away from where we used to live in obedience to God's calling. Praise God! :)
* Juhee's started washing dishes with me. She wanted to do it last month while Peter was away in Tohoku but I told her we had to wait till daddy got back so he could watch / distract Sungjae while we did them. She brought it up again last week so we washed the dishes together. She soaped and then did a preliminary rinse while I did a final rinse and then stacked them. She was great! The second time she did them, I folded laundry in the living room while she soaped. It was AWESOME!!! My dishes were being done while I was folding the laundry! Life was good. :) I'm so glad she likes doing dishes and hopefully she'll ask to do them now and again. When she was doing them the first time, Sungjae was trying to get on to the stool that she was standing on and she very loving told him in a very big-sisterly fashion, "Sungjae, you can wash the dishes too when you're older". ;)
* I'm usually up with or before the kids but one day earlier this week, I got up, moved a little bit, and then just laid back down again because I was so tired. Juhee just came to me, sat down by my legs and started to massage them! AND Peter got up and made toast for the kids. Felt like a spoiled queen that morning! :)
* Juhee's been saying lots of very profound things recently. So profound, I can't remember any of them right now... ㅡㅡ; The conclusions and logic of a 3 (almost 4) year old are mind boggling. Really makes you realize how many "facts" and "norms" of life we take for granted.
* When I told Juhee last Sunday that "Auntie Susan" wouldn't be at our team meeting because she was in America with her mom, aunt, and grandma, Juhee asked if she going to have a team meeting with them. If only!
* That same Sunday, in the car on our way home, Peter and I asked Juhee what she did with Sydney (Sydney and Taylor look after Juhee during our team meetings) and she said she was drawing. We asked her what she drew and she said,
"A~nything, a~nything I want to."
"Oh, I see. But what did you draw?"
"I told you, a~nything I want to."
"But what "anything" did you draw?"
"Oh, um, I can't remember." ㅡㅡ;
* Again, that same Sunday, soon after we arrived at the Murrays', I noticed they had their Happy Birthday banner up... For me... We had a wonderfully delicious Mexican dinner and then when I got up to help clear the plates, Scott said, "Jenny, why don't you just sit down" and took the dishes I was going to take to which I replied "Oh" and sat down. Only thoughts crossing me head being, "Wow, Scott's really on the ball today and really going all out with being the host..." But then Peter/Sungjae finished so I stood up to take their plates and the Jess came over and tried to take them from me, told me to sit down, and actually blocked me! I turned around slightly to try to talk toward the kitchen at which point Scott said from the kitchen, "OK, Jenny. You need to stop right there!" with both arms out and something long and thin in his hand. It was then that a light bulb went on in my head and I realized what was going on, further confirmed by the comment, "Well, there goes trying to keep it a surprise!" coming from the kitchen. Oops!!! I had NO clue until I caught a glimpse of what was in Scott's hand. We had a good laugh about it afterwards. =D Scott had bought really nice chou (pronounced 'shoe') cream (like at Papa Beard's but much nicer, I think) for my cake 'cause I LOVE chou cream. Our Pioneers Hiroshima Team members are so sweet. :)
* Sungjae loves sticking out his tongue and he's so cute when he does it, it's hard to scold him for doing it. :)
* My relationship with the other moms of Juhee's class has just really blossomed during the past few weeks. Part of it is because I've had lots of things going on at Juhee's school which meant increased frequency of meeting and the chance to chat. My relationship with other moms not of Juhee's class has also taken off thanks to the "club"s that I am a part of - Bible Class and Mary Poppins (flower arrangement). I finally feel like I'm making friends and getting to know people that I can be comfortable with, learn things from, and share our lives with too. I've also been able to give many of them a copy of our church's quarterly-ish newsletter, the Good News, as I've been teaching recently so have been using the ads on the back to let them know of the dates, etc info.
* Recently, the thought that I'm so ready to throw in the towel and move back to San Jose fluttered through my mind and the thought shocked me. Life was and is hard. Very hard. But was I really ready to give up? A friend from the US emailed just a couple of days later letting me know that she's been thinking of and praying for me, especially that I will experience JOY. God used my friend to speak to me and encourage me at the perfect time. Thank you friend and thank you God! :)
* Mosquitoes really like biting Sungjae on his ear every since we started clothing him in long sleeves / pants. :( He's the only one that usually gets bit now. Mosquitoes love fresh new baby blood... :(
* Juhee very often asks us what a Japanese word means in English. Very often, we don't know the answer to her question, especially when she's speaking in the Hiroshima dialect. Peter knows the most Chinese characters so is probably the best reader and Juhee is definitely the best speaker. I can read and speak but at different levels to Peter and Juhee. Sungjae is doing pretty well learning three languages at once. It's so cute when he talks! :) Sometimes our conversations on one topic include vocabulary from all three languages.
* Every night, Juhee runs into her daddy's arms for a big good night hug. The game is to try and run so hard and fast that she knocks him over (while he's sitting on our futons) with her giving him a hug on top of him. Peter pretends to resist and then fall over, very much to Juhee's delight. She then gives him a big good night kiss, sometimes with another run over to him. Sungjae's started doing this too during the past couple of weeks. He's always so proud of himself afterwards! =DDD
* Juhee's becoming a daddy's girl. Recently, she always wants daddy to sit next to her at the dining table and wants to go to daddy, play with daddy, pray with daddy, etc, "because I like daddy today". :) Sometimes, she likes both me and Peter "today". And sometimes, we wonder if she's 3 or 13! :)
* During the past couple of weeks, ladies in two different States have been helping me organize my first ever Thanksgiving Party. Like my first ever, not just first ever in Japan. They've helped me with the craft and the meal. Today, I made mashed sweet potato for the first time in preparation (as an experiment) for the meal with Christian & non-Christian Japanese friends from Juhee's preschool. It was pretty yummy! :) I'm so looking forward to receiving the packages that they've sent and finalizing the details. One of them will also contain 4 boxes of Pumpkin Bread, of which at least 3 will probably be used to give to the students of Juhee's preschool in the 3 classes that I read the Thanksgiving book too. If I have enough (time and mix), maybe I'll bake one for the teachers too. :)
* Sungjae had his first ever playdate. It was so much fun! Two moms + 2 one-year-old boys + 2 older siblings + Jess came to our house to just have fun and eat dinner together. We did just that! It was a great time of getting to know the moms better (both attendees of Kabe Chapel) and for the kids to be able to play together in a bigger environment with more toys as it's a bit small and crowded at church. The moms would speak to us foreigners in proper Japanese and speak to each other in Hiroshima dialect. :) One of the best things for me was that one mom brought two types of salad and another brought two types of dessert so I was able to try yummy, healthy food from other moms too. Everyone enjoyed the chicken dish (닭도리탕) that I made too which was awesome and us 3 Korean-Americans got a lot of Japanese practice that evening too. The Japanese moms were very happy to get some English practice! :) It was so awesome to see Sungjae "playing" with the other 1 year olds too and have hope in them all growing up together. It was nice to feel connected, to know that he would have friends, friends of families that we would be friends with, friends that will hopefully keep him accountable in his Christian faith. Another "best" thing (is one allowed to have so many "best"s?) for me was that the husband of one of the moms had said that morning that he really wanted to come too! The reason why we had the playdate on a Friday evening instead of a Saturday evening was because the husband had previously been very closed to attending any church / Christian events. Because he works late Mon-Fri, the mom & kids couldn't leave him alone at home on a Saturday late pm / evening so we had it on a Friday when he wouldn't be home anyway. But apparently he wants to come and be friends with us! Praise God!!! :) So next time we have a playdate, it's going to be on a Saturday and hopefully both dads will be able to join us, and maybe one other family with a one-year-old that just started attending Kabe Chapel.
* Whatever Juhee does, Sungjae wants to do. Whatever Juhee is playing with, Sungjae wants to play with. :)
This post turned out to be way longer than I thought it would be and I know I've forgotten a few things that I'd originally wanted to write about in this post, but I'll have to jot them down for another post when I remember, if I remember. There are always so many things I want to blog about but never have the chance to. My life is so "interesting", so busy, so blessed. :)
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