I'm Back!

Well it's been a 3 month break from blogging, but what can I say, we had a baby! Once you look at his cute little pictures, you'll forgive me.

Me on my due date - Asher was born 3 days later!

Life is completely and wonderfully different than before. I'm a stay at home Mom now! It's weird not being a part of staff meetings and event planning anymore, but I'm so thankful to have the opportunity and ability to focus 100% on Asher. He takes all the energy I can give!

Asher Steven Philip was born on Thursday June 7 at 6:25pm. It was a 15 hour labor, (they don't call it labor for nothing!) but by the grace of God I made it through and Asher came into the world healthy! The experience overall was great - the hospital was incredible, and I'm SO thankful that we chose the hospital that we did. Labor was much harder than I'd even imagined, but I'm so thankful for Seth's help as well as the incredible midwives and nurses who encouraged, massages, and supported me till the end. There are so many crazy, and quite hilarious moments from my labor story, but I won't be posting them here....I'll tell you in person sometime if you ask! : )

After 3 weeks of having Asher, my Mom arrived in Japan! It was so wonderful to have her here. She was an incredible support and I'm also so thankful that Asher had that special time with his Nana. We look forward to everyone in our family meeting Asher. (By the way, we are in the midst of planning our next trip to America, and it will likely be sometime Jan-Feb 2013. Hope to see many of you then!). So most of our family will meet Asher for the first time early next year when we head back to America. We are lucky though to be having my Dad and Stepmom heading here next month for their first visit to Japan! Can't wait.

Family life is truly wonderful. Of course there are lots of challenges, but when I call them "adventures" instead, it helps me stay positive and realize how truly blessed we are each day and all that God has done for us.

Lots of changes have happened in the past months at Mustard Seed Christian Church. Our amazing interns headed back to America, and we were quite sad to see them go. Also, I stepped out of being full-time staff member, so there was lots of work for others to take on. However, we gained another staff member in Osaka - Ryan Fletcher finished language school and moved to here and is now a part of the staff. Ryan is a good friend of ours as well, so its a real joy to have him here.

We also began small groups in the church recently. Previously the church had one Bible Study, but we had too many Christians whose schedules and homes were so different, that small groups became a great solution for everyone to grow and be able to meet when they were free. Jay, Seth, and Caitlin, and my friend Junko each lead a small group. I am in Junko's small group and there are four of us, each different ages and very different seasons of life. We are studying Ephesians, using a study that Jay wrote and had published into a bilingual book!
       After my first night at small group, I was on the train home with Asher, and I realized, "this is the first time in over 2.5 years that I've been in a church small group!" It was so exciting to realize, and I am very glad that our church is growing and everyone can now have this opportunity for community and support. That kind of time with other Christians is so rare to me now, I'm really thankful.

Well, that's all for now. I promise to work harder at keeping up with the blog! Don't give up on me yet. I'll keep you coming back by promising to post photos of our adorable lil guy.