• Quick two-week trip to America over Christmastime to attend the wedding of some dear, dear friends.
• Finding out we were pregnant with baby number two! (Due October 17.)
• Studying, studying, and more studying.
• Visiting the different campus ministry areas of Japan (Utsunomiya and Tokyo, mainly), having various conversations with leadership, and praying/discussing as a couple — just exactly where should we be when our language time is up?

With six months of language study to go, we know the answer to that question:  Shizuoka!  We will remain in our current house and will begin working on campus with BEST (Bible English Sports Travel) Club at Shizuoka University (just minutes away!) at the beginning of April 2010.

Now, the only news we’re waiting on is the arrival of our little one — hopefully it will be SOON.

We are busy hosting little get-togethers for Christmas, studying, playing trains with Jones, and preparing to come home for two weeks!  Please enjoy these updated pics..

• I update my personal blog regularly, writing about such topics as daily life, motherhood, knowing Jesus, living in Japan, cooking, etc.  If you are interested, please visit High Countries!  It’s mainly just my life and thoughts..  I’ve come to really love the place.
• We send out (about) monthly ministry email updates, which also tells you when I’ve posted pictures here on The Seed.  If you are interested on being on that list, please email us at bryanandjamie (at) gmail (dot) com.  We will set you up!

We are so thankful for those who love us and root for us back home!  We couldn’t do it without you!

For all of us,
Jamie

” He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8

Jones and dad enjoying some juice and coffee.

Jones and his FIRST BIRTHDAY cake! He had a blast because of all the people at our house — he’s just like his daddy and feels better when surrounded.

The O’Donnells at Easter.

Two of Jones’s FAVORITE playmates — Brianne and Sarah — who live next door and are a fellow missionary family.

Hanging out on the floor — getting big!

Our car — a Suzuki Wagon R. A fun little (and I mean little!) thing!

Jones LOOOOOVES music and will dance on cue.

Jones also loves doing whatever I’m doing, even if that means washing dishes!

Right now, Bryan is away in Tokyo, taking our friend Chris’s boxes to his eventual home. Jones and I are chillin’ at home by ourselves and learning the roads of Shizuoka a little better without our human map (B) around — when I ride in the car, I don’t pay attention, and I sort of feel like I know the whole city because Bryan knows the whole city, and I am part of a “we.” Now that he’s gone, I realize that I do NOT know the whole city.

We are still scheduled to start language in April. We are both really looking forward to it, especially after days like this past Sunday, where there are women at church I’d like to speak to and get to know, but can’t say anything beyond “hello” to — its difficult, and though we know God can work apart from our language ability, we are both eager to be able to begin and/or deepen friendships with the Japanese — language seems like the most obvious way for this to occur. Please pray for our learning — that we would retain and that our hearts would remain eager. We will not learn anything if God is not behind our efforts. Please also pray that God woud work apart from our ability to speak, and that we would be humbled by such working.

Despite our excitement for language, we are both a little nervous about managing “class” with our tutor, study times, family time, date nights, and our various household responsibilities (learning trash/recycling schedules, cooking, shopping, cleaning, laundry, keeping up finances and bills, etc).   There are more household responsibilities than we were imagining — the trash and recycling system is quite strict, as to what you can recycle, how it must be packaged/folded/tied, where you must take it, and on what days.  And it seems like somebody is stopping by every other day to get our information for another kind of bill! Gas bills, water bills, water waste bills, cell phone bills, internet bills, etc etc etc.  Perhaps, on my part, the lack of understanding of all these transactions makes them seem more ominous.  Anyway, we are not certain what this season will look like — we both feel it will be busy and stressful, and my preference is to avoid stress by cutting out the things that cause it, which is not always applicable or good. We are trusting that God will continue to sit on the throne throughout our stress, frustrations, and time schedules. We tell ourselves that He will guide us.

Friends, this is my washer. (It’s in the kitchen, separated by a little baker’s rack).

These are my washer buttons.

As you can see, its a Toshiba washer, and according to my U.S. knowledge, Toshiba only made really complicated things, like computers. Here, Toshiba makes ANYTHING: rice cookers, denki pots (hot water pots), heaters, and apparently, washers. I think you need a closer look at these buttons.

I have no idea what these buttons are for. Only after several (maybe 12) wrong choices did I find the one that turns the washer ON. This one in particular really baffled me today.

When it was lit, the washer only filled for 30 seconds, and as the light blinked, the washer moved around inside until I pushed the button again. Who knows.

This is my fridge. High tech, eh? (Naturally, its Toshiba.  They make fridges, too, I guess.)

I’ve never seen a fridge with so many compartments.  The bottom is a freezer.

Complete with Coffee Roaster Panama roast and pepperoni.   The second drawer is a crisper with a removable tray.

The third and fourth compartments are made up of an ice maker and another little freezer.

These are the buttons I push to get my fridge to pop open.  There was another “eco-friendly,” high-tech fridge were the doors would close and seal themselves with a light tap.

This is the inside.  As you can see, its a little sparse, as we just moved in.

..and this is where you put the ice maker water.. and eggs.

And — perhaps my favorite part of the kitchen — a DISHWASHER!  We didn’t even have one in the States, so I am really excited about this tiny little thing.  It’s so cute.

The entire top rack folds up and away if I want to put anything “big” in the bottom (not American standards, here — think small).

The kicker, however, is the hot dog rolled up into the crust.

Yes, that is a HOT DOG.  I think I’ll be making most of our pizza at home.

• All the appliances talk to the user in Japanese, which is especially funny when the microwave keeps chatting on when you have no idea what it’s saying.
• Though its 50-60F each day, the houses are FREEZING because of lack of insulation and central heat/air. The Japanese have found very creative ways to deal with the cold: heating one room at a time; owning heated toilet seats (a complete life-saver! No shock when you sit down); and using a kotatsu (koe-ta-tsu), a low-to-the-floor table that heats up — you put a blanket between the removable top and the kotatsu legs, and sit with your legs under the blanket while you eat.
• Hot dogs are a gourmet selection in these parts, as well as other funny “pastries”: tarts with curry and cheese, ketchup and corn, or anpan (ah-n-pah-n: sweet red bean paste). I even saw a picture in a “pizza” ad with hot dogs rolled into the crust. (!!!)
• Coffee, beer, cigarettes, and even eggs are sold in vending machines. The coffee is particularly interesting: there is heated compartment of the machine, popping out cans of hot coffee, either black or with cream and sugar. They also have milku-cohi (co-hee), which is a wonderfully sweet treat, sort of like a cold latte, in a bottle.
• And, as you can imagine, EVERYthing here is small: houses, cars, orange juice cartons, packaged eggs, phones, beds, washers, couches and benches (very low to the floor!), and streets.  However, all the prices are big.

We are still staying next door from our house with the Van Zantes, our Nav Staff neighbors, with our container due to arrive at our door March 11th. We’re still searching stores for the best appliance deals, but hope to move next door with the basics early this week. Jones is over his jet lag and almost over his ear infection, which means that mom and dad can finally start getting over it, too. All in all, I am ready to move in and have our own home again, even if we sleep on the floor.