October Focus

Hey! Thanks for keeping up with us on our blog. :)

October is already half over but here's a brief look at what has been and what we're expecting...

With October came craziness that completely exhausted me. There were new experiences that were planned and not planned and anything new usually means stress levels out the wazoo... This time, there were too many in too short of a time frame and it really knocked me out... :(

Juhee had her Sports Festival at preschool in early October. It was fun and painful at the same time. Juhee, of course, was super cute doing her little dance routines with her classmates. :) The Monday after, the teachers have the day off for having to do an event on a Saturday, so some of the kids & moms met together at a nearby park. I commented on how tiring the prep & the event was and she said that the tiredness felt for the preschool versions pale in comparison to the elementary school ones - great! :/

After more than 2 years of enduring pain, I finally got my right foot checked out at an Orthopedic Hospital with an English speaking doctor. Apparently there's nothing wrong with the bones so he said he can't treat my pain 'cause his diagnosis is unsure. He gave me some medicated patches to help ease the pain... Not looking forward to having to explore more options! Someone asked me why I didn't go sooner. Just in case you're wondering too: the pain was endurable the first two years. It was too time consuming and stressful for me to even look into getting it treated. I was also afraid of how much it would cost. The pain only started to get really bad in June when a change in my schedule meant me spending a lot more time on my feet. It started affecting my QoL so I had to look into getting it treated. 

After mo~nths of research, we finally bought Juhee her "ran-do-se-ru", the Japanese elementary school bag. We paid less than $90 for it instead of the usual $300-500... BIG ACHIEVEMENT that we a) finally bought one b) in good time c) a new one d) at a very very good price. Yay! :) Sungjae had his 3-year check-up run by the government which was sooo stressful and took a lot of prep too...

I attended Sumire Cafe at Koyo Chapel. It was a two hour talk on bullying, a very serious issue here in Japan, one which we know of first-hand with our Juhee. I wasn't going to attend 'cause it was talk-based (rather than activity-based, which tends to involve less language), but 9 of my non-believing friends wanted to go, so I went. 3 couldn't come in the end 'cause their kids got sick the morning of, but it was great to be able to take friends to Koyo Chapel. :)

I had a meeting with Sungjae's teacher, the head of the daycare side, and the overall head of the preschool/daycare to discuss changing Sungjae's class. This morning, Sungjae will have had his first experience of the "big kids" class. He's being moved from 2-3 year old kids' class to a 3-5 year old one. They all felt that he was ready and I think he is too. They're going to do the transition slowly so it'll be easier for him and hopefully for everyone else too.

We've just returned from Kabe Chapel's Family Camp and we had a blast! Hopefully more details and pics to come... :)

We're planning our Christmas events! All four of our Kids Brown classes will be having Christmas parties / performances and I'll be organizing the Kabe Chapel ladies' Christmas event too. The Chu family will be visiting us again from San Jose and they'll be bringing gifts for the Kids Brown students and Sandee will be sharing at the ladies' Christmas event. Henry's a great cook so I'm sure the whole family will be helping me cook the Christmas meal for everyone too!

Thanksgiving and Christmas is a great time to invite family friends over to our house for a meal and to get to know one another better. Right now, I'm so overwhelmed with what's already going on that I can't think of organizing anything on top of that. Pray for wisdom and energy for me and Peter, that we can balance our time and energy well. Juhee has extra practices 'cause she has a ballet performance coming up soon. There's more sewing involved again, but not a ton like last time.

Koyo Chapel is having their Mini Sports Festival & BBQ soon, I'll be reading a book about Thanksgiving to four of the classes at Juhee's preschool, Asaminami Chapel will be having their first ever outdoor service & BBQ, we have English Cafe at Asaminami Chapel, I'm substituting for Jess at her Kids Brown class at Koyo Chapel as she'll be in Hong Kong, Asaminami Chapel wants to try the Kids Brown program at "Smile Club" this month, Juhee has two more field trips this month and I just received notification for her general health check-up at the elementary school that she'll be attending. It'll be both of our first times going there. There's also the Pioneers Japan retreat coming up at the end of the month too. Lots on both home and church fronts. There are other things going on too, but those are probably the big ones. :)

Thank you so much for your constant prayers and encouragement. :)