A request from one of
our supporting churches had me looking back at our e-newsletter archive a few
days ago. I was shocked (and somewhat horrified), that we'd only sent out ONE
Korean e-newsletter in 2014. And that newsletter began with an apology for it having
been a year since we sent out our previous one! Yikes... Major FAIL! :(
As I was reading it, I
also realized how much things had changed in our planning of 2015 and our
thoughts on our second term during the past six months.
So I write this blog posting with a BIG disclaimer: this is what we know so far about some of the main events / plans for our 2015. HOWEVER! All of this may change... And we're open to that. :) (Although we would definitely prefer for it to not change too much!) If things do change, I promise to try and keep you updated as much as possible.
Sungjae said during dinner the other night that he wants to ride an airplane again soon. Juhee told him that we will be because we're going to America. So I told him a little bit about what will probably be happening this year and I figured it'd be good to give you a quick updated summary overview too. During dinner that day, we actually got side-tracked after July and never made it to December even with me just telling him about one thing per month. :P
January - Uncle John (my brother) coming to visit, Peter preaching on 31st at ABC
February - Peter's birthday, Peter finishes teaching Kids Brown classes after first week, hopefully Jenny will be able to continue till end of month (maybe longer?),
March - baby due on 21st, our 8th wedding anniversary,
trip to US Consulate in Osaka to register birth of baby, apply for her passport, and renew
Sungjae's
April - Juhee starts second grade, Sungjae
becomes 年中 (2nd of 3 years of
preschool), apply for baby's Japan visa once we get passport
May - Sungjae turns 5, pack pack pack!!! Jenny teach one month of Kids Brown?
June - fly to America, get over jetlag, family vacation?, unpack
and repack for...
July - Dallas (reconnecting with supporting churches, spend time with sister & her family! :D)
August, September & October - back in SJ Bay Area, Juhee will attend 2nd grade and Sungjae will start kindergarten at a U.S. Elementary school, speaking engagements up and down CA
November - Jenny's birthday, Thanksgiving
(Sungjae's first ever in America!), more speaking engagements
December - Juhee's birthday, Christmas (again,
Sungjae's first ever in America)
We then return to Hiroshima in early January of 2016, unpack our suitcases, get the kids back into their Japanese school routines, and pack up the house in preparation to move in March.
I included a bit about the beginning of 2016, because we wrote about only 2015 on our Christmas / New Year's cards to our church members, and as a result, I've had people come up to me and ask if we won't be returning - oops! I've had to apologize and explain that we are, but because it's in January of next year, we didn't include it in. We definitely should have though... Next time!
The owners of the house
we currently rent in Hiroshima return in April of 2016, so we'll be busy
packing and preparing to move as soon as we get back. We'll probably be moving
at least once while we're in the U.S. too. Lots and lots of packing and unpacking
during the next 15 months - suitcases and boxes!
As many of you know, we've been praying about where and with whom God wants us to serve during our second term. When we move at the end of March next year, it'll either be to a different home in Hiroshima or down south a few hours to the Fukuoka area. We'll hopefully have an update on that for you soon!
Here are some "regular life" pictures for you from this month to finish off, one of pics of us at home, and one of us outside the home. Click on the pictures to see larger versions.
We woke up to lots of snow on New Year's Day! Juhee & Sungjae were so glad they had another chance to make a snowman (didn't get to finish the first one). :)
One Sunday after church, we ended up having a young family over for some playtime & dinner. We had a great time playing Wii together, our first ever Wii fellowship time! :D Thank you Mo's for the Wii!
One of our supporting churches, DKC, sent us a whole bunch of refill rubber bands for Rainbow Loom - our kids and their friends are loving it! It's only recently started to become really popular here so it's still pretty expensive. We're grateful for the abundant supply we've received from the US! It'll last us a long time and having so much makes it so much easier to share. :P
I took the kids to our old neighborhood in Yagi during the last day of their winter break. It was the first time in about six months (morning sickness, busyness) that I'd managed to go. I had thought that their homes were unaffected by the landslides that happened in August, but that wasn't the case. The field that Sungjae (with a big head of fresh broccoli) and our neighbor are standing in was completely flooded and all of the remaining vegetables had to be thrown out. They had to replace the flooring of their whole first floor too. The same goes for our old house and the house next to it too! We also found out that one of the grandpas that we had become close to passed away soon after my last visit. It was so sad to hear... :'(
As part of Juhee's winter vacation homework packet, she had to practice her "katakana", an alphabet used to write words that have come from a different language. One of her words was "Christ". She was so happy to see a Christian word in her homework!
For New Year's, many flower arrangements have bamboo. Most of them are pretty small, but the one in front of my OBGYN was really big, bigger than Juhee! Juhee and I went to eat udon after that appointment. Juhee was so happy she got to see the baby, eat udon while sitting next to mommy, and go on a date with mommy. :) Later that day, I took Juhee to a friend's house from her kindergarten days. They had lots of fun coloring and creating lots of cute things while the moms chatted in English (mostly) about education in Japan. We're so grateful that this family are regulars now at ABC! :)
God bless! :)
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