More Aeris and Yakiniku

Wearing her first shoes and a cute new vest:


She LOVES emptying containers! This was keeping her busy at church this morning:

Her self portrait and showing off her third tooth trying to break through:

Yummy yakiniku birthday dinner! Our friend, Abe-san, watched Aeris while we went to the restaurant with the O'Briens. She didn't even miss us, lol.

Remember the baby butt photo? Well...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCKt5pKMAuI

Hagi Walk 3/14, White Day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcu4872yLZo
Aeris yesterday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJXPgStykkc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0OITfRyveo
*ETA*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0ZoDVmB6hE

Flight purchased

Now arriving : Columbus, Ohio. 4:12PM Wednesday, May 4th

Columbus, Ohio. 6:10AM Friday, May 6th

We're ok, others aren't...

Proof: Aeris, about the exact time the quake struck.
We didn't feel a thing and we're thankful to be on the side of Japan that doesn't get any of the earthquakes or tsunami. We also feel so loved to know so many people were thinking of us! We are truly blessed.

Please continue to pray for Japan and its people. There is unbelieveable devastation and I'm terrified to know how many people have lost their lives. It's unimaginable. Today was a beautiful day. It's scary to think how quickly things can change. A friend posted this live link on Facebook of the coverage in Japan: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fc2mh3. I have been watching it most of this evening and it makes me want to cry. :-(

Birthday Party and Hagi Walk

Yesterday, we celebrated our friend Michiko daughter's first birthday. I made her a photo picture book. I hope she liked it. :-)




Today, we went on a walk. I decided to take along my camera because I've been wanting to get some certain pictures of Hagi before we leave. We plan on taking a walk to different parts of Hagi every time we have a nice day - so you'll probably be seeing a lot more pictures of our town in the coming weeks!

Coming home

Sooo... it looks like we'll be flying to Ohio sometime in the first week of May!! Jeremy will be technically finished with work on Saturday, April 23rd so we will be free to leave any time after that, though we may end up staying until May 8th or 9th due to Japanese holidays and flight schedules. We are still planning to take a week-long vacation to visit Kyoto and Tokyo before flying home, however the first week of May is Golden Week, the busiest, most popular holiday week in Japan...

I'm still working on another post related to leaving/returning, and hope to have that up soon.

In preparation for moving, we ask for your continued prayers. There is SO much to be done! We still need to get Aeris' visa... make travel arrangements, deep clean the house, pack and send boxes home, close out accounts, take more photos, and say good-bye to our dear friends. We just ordered Aeris an American car seat, the Combi Coccoro, after having it recommended for being the best to travel with. Unfortunately, Aeris will out grow that seat quickly, and we plan to have her rear-facing in the car for an extended period of time, so she will need another seat soon enough. We are looking at the Evenflo Triumph Advance 65 LX/DLX, Evenflo Momentum 65, or the Sunshine Kids Radian XTSL seat for her - so if anyone or anyone you know has one of them that they will be willing to sell please let us know! We are also looking at getting the Fisher Price Space Saver high chair and the DaVinci 4-in-1 Emily crib for her, so again, if anyone has one we could borrow or buy, that would be wonderful! We'll be buying her a crib mattress soon.

Also, Bell School needs your prayers. They are going through some tough, crazy times right now and it will only get crazier in the coming months. A lot of big changes are going on, specifically for the staff and teachers. Thank you!

Yesterday (3/4)

Yesterday, we took pictures of Aeris with her hina doll (hina means girl or princess in Japanese) to celebrate the Hina Matsuri (doll festival). We actually did a "bad" thing by doing this the day AFTER the festival, which traditionally is bad luck for the girl and means she'll marry late in life, but as much as Jeremy may wish it, we don't hold to that superstition. ;-)

Aeris and I had dinner plans with our friend, Yoshiko, so we hitched a ride with Jeremy to Nagato.

Jeremy playing with Eri before class: notice Aeris still has that patch of white/blonde hair - I think it's going to stay!

Our delicious Japanese dinner: sushi, tempura, soba noodles, chirashi zushi, and miso soup with fruit yogurt.

Sadly, I didn't get any photos with Yoshiko! :-(
*ETA - She sent this photo of us in email!*

And this is for you, Jeanette:


This weekend will be busy and there should be even more pictures coming soon! The next few days will be busy cooking and storing Aeris' menu for the next week: brown rice, chicken/apple, green peas/onion, peaches/oatmeal, broccoli/potato/cheddar, and carrots. Tomorrow night we'll spend with the O'briens. On Monday there will be a birthday party for our friend Michiko's daughter, Nanaha, and I still need to finish up her birthday present! And on Tuesday Aeris has her 6-7 month check up (yes, she's 8 months...) and last immunization in Japan.