Kurashiki

Wii to Kurashiki

Week 5 was looking alive! Man, I love hammin' it up every now and then. I am telling you folks that this week was crazy busy for us, and that was a good thing. We should've known by how the week started that it would be a good one. Last Sunday Dana was invited to a festival at the local university just a 5 minute walk from our house by his new friend Y-san. Y-san is in a band that was playing at the festival along with many others. Afterward, he and his girlfriend, M-san, came over and we all enjoyed Wii. It was so good to have some people over and let loose and play some games. If you know us well you know we love our games so this was really fun for us!

That evening our leader, Tak and Lana, arrived to spend a few days with us giving us more training for our job assignment. As you can see from the picture below we didn't have any fun. All work and no play....well, you know the rest.
A desire that Dana and I have had since arriving was to somehow get involved with our neighbors, but we weren't sure exactly how we were going to do this. We have really clicked with a couple of our neighbors, whom we have told you about previously, and both families have young kids. So, I got the idea to have a craft day that both the children and parents could be involved in. We decided to try out the idea on our neighbor T-san and her daughter to see if it would be something they would be interested in. Interested they were! So, the day after Thanksgiving we invited them over to do some Christmas crafts. T-san and her daughter, A-san, arrived with cookies and their own supplies for the afternoon. We had a fun time making snowflakes, paper birds with Santa hats, and snowmen. We are hoping to do this through the month of December and get into more Christ centered crafts for the holidays.
A-san has really shown a love for Ashton. She has no cousins or other siblings so it's fun for her to be around a baby. She jumped at the chance to feed Ash. She was much more into that than the crafts.
After the craft T-san invited us to her house for dinner next Saturday evening. We were so excited to get an invitation to their home. Their family had said they would like to have us over, but you don't know if people are just saying that to be polite. We definitely feel like we have become friends with the S-sans and are so thankful that the Lord has blessed s with such wonderful neighbors. 

We are learning more and more of the language everyday, which is a good thing because I think that's what's suppose to happen, right? Dana is so eager to know more that he gives himself more homework than he needs  some days, but the Lord has blessed him with the ability to retain it so far. Though we are each learning different things at this point it has been exciting to be able to feel like we are also teaching each other as we share what we did in class that day. Caden is speaking some Japanese already. I heard him holding a conversation with himself today. It was very interesting 'Japanish'. He already has a favorite Japanese cartoon character that everyone at his school enjoys. His name is Anpanman. He is a Japanese treat here which is a bean paste inside bread (kinda). Anpanman is a superhero that save starving children by letting them eat his head. There is a baker who will then make a new head for Anpanman. I must say I was a little disturbed at first that the children eat him, but then I thought, "What a sacrifice?!" Ash is feeling the need for mobility! He is beginning to push himself around the house to get to things but he definitely has been creative about how he does it. He pushes himself backward across our hardwood floor. I'm a little frightened about what walking is going to look like! He is doing so good health wise. Thank you all for your prayers! 

Today God really showed Himself! We went to Kurashiki, which this amazing old city (I've posted pictures below this blog), to walk around and do some Christmas shopping. On our way there I really felt the need to share with Dana something the Lord has been working on with me since orientation. Every since orientation  I really feel like God has been telling me that He wants me to learn to play the guitar, and since we've been here He's basically been yelling it at me. So I shared that with Dana for the first time because I've been wanting to make sure this is from God. I also shared that I have some reservations about it and I've been telling God 'no'. I don't know where I'll find the time for it, where and how will I do lessons, and how does this really fit into it all? Dana told me that if God is telling me to do this, I better do it. So, I decided to jump on board with God, but where will I get a guitar. Well, where we decided to park was right next to an outdoor 'flea market' that was taking place. We decided to look around and one of the men was selling a decent looking guitar (from what I could tell) and it even had a case. I thought it would be too expensive but we decided to ask. He said it was 3,000 yen, which is about $30. I looked wide eyed at Dana because I couldn't believe how cheap it was, but the man must've thought that I thought that was expensive because he immediately said, "2,5000." We looked it over and then bought the guitar. So now I have a guitar.....now what?

Please pray for

1. Me and my guitar, Woodle. (love you mom)

2. For our 'dinner date' next Saturday.

3. Caden is in a school program! Please pray that he will have fun! He will be a grasshopper. His program is on Thursday morning, Wednesday night for you.

4. Continued prayer for us during the holidays. I'm having a really hard time missing family with many a tear shed over the past few days.

Thank yo all for your support and prayers. We appreciate you so much!

Kurashiki Too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So, we survived our first Thanksgiving away from home. Though the holiday did feel different than it normally does we did everything we could to make sure it felt as close to Thanksgiving as possible. Dana made sure the table had foliage and name places, but I was a little disappointed he and the kids didn't put on a parade for me with Dana as Santa as the finale. 

We were even  blessed with company for our meal. I made two pumpkin pies (thanks for the recipe, Dad!) and we took the extra pie to our neighbor, T-san. She was appreciative and wanted to share her meal she had just cooked with us, so we turned the tables a little and invited her and her daughter over for dinner. It was their first Thanksgiving and we were honored to be sharing it with them.  We had much to be thankful for this year, including making a good friend!
Here at the Shadburne household we have a family tradition of putting up the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving, but we decided to be a little early this year, so we did it immediately following dinner. Caden helped decorate this year but his favorite thing to do was to put on the finishing touch with the star. (Or was that Spider-man?)
Ah, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! It has been so much fun to have our house decorated and Caden is so excited that it is the Christmas Season! Now to find Santa......

Ashton Update

I wanted to update you on how our little guy is doing. My leader and I took Ash to the doctor on Tuesday and saw our new family doctor for the 2nd time with Ash. Of course Ash was feeling pretty good when the doc saw him so he didn't look sick at all. Given the symptoms he had all weekend the doc thinks that Ash was having a reaction to the antibiotics. I must say that I kindly disagree with that only because his symptoms didn't start until 4 days after he finished the antibiotics. Ash hasn't had diarrhea since yesterday and seems to be doing better except for the 'crabbiness'. To Dana and I the symptoms seem to match up with teething so today I decided to feel around his gum line to see if I felt anything, and sure enough, he had a tooth coming in on the top. That explains a lot and I must add it is actually comforting to know that his symptoms are normal. So, I've prescribed Orajel and Tylenol until this ordeal is over. Please continue to pray for him and his comfort level. Thank you for all your prayers!

Barefooting

Kyo wa samuii desu ne. It has definitely been chilly here and so Dana went out and bought me some socks. I feel a little like a Ninja Turtle, but other than that overwhelmingly cool feeling they are so functional here in Japan. I never thought I would come to appreciate being able to wear flip flops with socks.  Now, let me make it clear that I don't go to the store wearing socks and flip flops, but it comes in so handy when I'm wanting to just slip on shoes to step outside for a quick sec. 

This week Dana and I had a great experience 'barefooting'. Barefooting is us going out and using the little language we've learned for the week with native Japanese. We went out to a mall near us and decided to just window shop and see what would happen. We came to a shop that had amazing traditional decor and we decided to go in and check it out. We were greeted by the store owner and she was one of the nicest people. She was completely taken by Ashton and vice versa. We were amazed when she spoke her first sentence and we understood it. "Kyo wa samuii des ne." That means "It's cold today." That was a sentence Dana had just learned this week and we both got very excited to recognize something. So, we repeated it back to her in agreement and then were amazed again when we understood the questions she then asked. By the end of 5 minutes we had had a small conversation in Japanese! I wish I could say that it was more elaborate or longer, but I'm keeping it real so that our accomplishments in the future are still mind blowing :)

Please disregard that Ash looks frozen in time. He really did like her.

We had our neighbors, T-san and her family, over for dinner last night. We had such a fantastic time with them. The evening was filled with my favorite thing: laughter. At one point T-san told us that her daughter had gone to a Catholic school for kindergarten and had played Mary in their Christmas program. She said it was Catholic like us. We told her we weren't Catholic and she looked a little confused. She said that the Christmas program her daughter was in told the same story as the one in the New Testament we gave her. We couldn't believe that she had actually read what we gave her. We told her we read the same Bible but there were different beliefs. We were so encouraged to know that the Manga Bibles we had given our neighbors were actually being looked at.  Our neighbors told us they had a great evening and would like to have us over some time. We are looking forward to it!

Also, Dana went out for noodles with a man he met the first day we were here in Okayama. His name is Y-san and he is going to Okayama University that is only 5 minutes from our house. They had a great time and they also went to a festival at the university that Y-san was performing in. Afterward he and his girlfriend, M-san, came to our house and we got some Wii in. It was so much fun to just have a relaxing afternoon playing video games. We are hoping to get back together on Tuesday before M-san has to head back to Osaka. 

Caden had another good week at hoikuen. He is learning more Japanese though I think he's too shy to talk to Dana or me in it. We say things to him in Japanese though and he will respond to us as if we are speaking English to him. Aren't we tricky! Ashton is still sick. I wish I had better news when it came to him. Now I don't know if he's had the same thing for the past 4 weeks. His nasal congestion is completely clear but now he has a low grade fever, diarrhea, and is very lethargic at times and cranky. We are taking him to the doctor on Tuesday and I will be asking the doctor to run some tests to see if there is an infection somewhere. One of our supervisors has offered to go with me to be able to better explain my concern in his native language. 

Praises:

1. That Dana and I are picking up the language and actually enjoying the process.

2. That Caden is learning Japanese and enjoying his new friends.

3. That we are making friends with our neighbors. The Lord has really answered our prayers with our neighbors.

Prayer requests:

1. Language....as always.

2. For Ashton and his health.

3. For the Japanese people. That the Lord would prepare the hearts of those we will come in contact with. 

Thank you so much for your prayers. We definitely feel lifted up every day here and it has been such a blessing to see our prayers be answered right before our eyes.

Love and prayers,

Amy

Ashton Udate

Many of you have asked me how Ashton is doing since his doctor visit on Monday. Thankfully our language helper found us a great doctor who speaks good English. He wasn't so sure what Ashton had but he did give him antibiotics because the back of Ash's throat was red, most probably due to drainage in the morning. Since we started the antibiotics I haven't heard him cough once. Praise the Lord! Thank you all for your prayers! 

The weather has turned very cold here and it seemed to happen overnight. Makes it feel like being back home. :) We have had some people tell us the winters aren't that cold while others tell us it's very cold. I'm definitely leaning toward agreeing with the people who say it's very cold. The temp has been in the 40s and a bit windy. Our house isn't insulated so our home gets very cold unless we are running the heater at all times. It can get very spendy here in Japan to run your heater a lot. So, it's lots of warm bathes and cuddle time under a warm blanket. I wanted to include the picture at the top of what we are having to bundle Ash in just to go run some errands. 

I hope this blog sees you all well! Until the next update! 

Welcome to Our Blog!

Hello everyone! I am very excited to bring you to our new way of communicating with you every week. I have been wanting to set this up for some time and have finally gotten around to doing it. So, each week, instead of sending you an update via Yahoo! I will be sending you the link to this page. 

This week was another busy one. I guess I can stop saying that now and just let you assume it, eh? It started off great with a very special little girl's birthday! Our niece, Pemberly, turned 1 last Sunday. All I can say is thank God for Skype. We were able to see her on her big day!

We also started a new church. The First Baptist Church of Starbucks. Since our job is to start home churches outside of our own home we decided not to get used to having worship in our home. I came up with the idea of having worship in our local Starbucks every Sunday at the same time every week. That way we can be witnesses even though there is the language barrier. Our prayer is that we will see the same people every week and that they will begin to ask questions over time. This weekend Dana introduced himself to 3 of the employees there and they were incredibly friendly.  We are hoping to see these same employees every week. 

We got another week of language school under our belt and Dana and I already feel like we've learned quite a bit. It's retaining it that sometimes fumbles us. Dana is able to now tell you what some things are and the color that that item is. He can also introduce himself and each one of us. I can now introduce myself, tell you where I'm from, and order off a menu. I wanted to start learning food items since I do the grocery shopping. Our teachers are wonderful and very much want to work with us through the next 3 years. 

Caden survived another week at his hoikuen. His teacher is so wonderful and has Caden's best in mind. She always finds a way around the language barrier with both us and Caden. She came up with the idea of taking pictures of Caden throughout the day so she can show us what he did since she can't tell us. She asked us to bring her a memory card and she can give us the card each day and then we bring it back the next day. Caden is enjoying hoikuen but the language is the only thing that makes him not want to go some days. Everyday I ask him if he learned a new word and he always tells me, "I don't know Japanese yet." However, this week in one of my lessons, I was taught the word for juice, jusu. I realized I had heard Caden ask me for that but I didn't know what he wanted. When I got home that afternoon I asked Caden if he knew what jusu was and he said,"Yes, you drink it." That proved to me that he is picking up Japanese but maybe is too shy to share.

Ashton is still drawing in the crowds. He is actually still not improving with his cold and so we are taking him to the doctor in the morning. I am thinking he might have an infection that will require antibiotics if he is to get any better. He is still smiley and upbeat though!

 We do feel like we had some breakthroughs with our neighbors. Two days ago we spoke with T-san (I originally told you her name was K-san, sorry about that one) and she once again answered some questions for us. As the conversation was wrapping up she told me that if I ever wanted to come over and just talk I am free to come over whenever I'd like. Wow! That made me feel very good to hear her say that. She offered to also show me how to make some Japanese meals. I am definitely taking her up on that. Also, we invited them to our house for dinner next Saturday night. They will be our first dinner guests here.

Today a family in our neighborhood came over for a play date. We were planning to go to the park but it had rained all night and so it was wet outside, so we stayed in and let our kids play trains. They are a family with two children, ages  7 and 5. The husbands name is H-san and the wife's name is S-san. It was wonderful having them over, though it was challenging communicating at times. They know quite a bit of English for the most part but we did have to take out our English-Japanese dictionary and we were surprised when they took out their Japanese-English dictionary. We were actually touched that they thought of bringing it. It turned out to be H-san's birthday so we of course sang him Happy Birthday. We gave his children glow sticks so I picked up an extra one, handed it to him and said,"Happy Birthday". He got a good laugh out of that one. When they left they invited us to their house but we have not decided on a time yet. 

Prayer requests:

1. Language school will always be a huge one!

2. Ashton's doctor appointment tomorrow. Please pray he will begin to improve.

3. Be praying for our new friendships here. Other foreigners who have been here for a year or more have been blown away at the response we are getting from the nationals here. I only say this to encourage you that our prayers are being answered in mighty ways!

4. Please continue to be praying for our family in the states. As we walk the streets of downtown Okayama the department store windows remind us of the Christmas season approaching and the reality that we will not be with our family this year. Our family means the world to us and it breaks my heart to know that Christmas will not be the same. Please pray for our families as they spend the first Christmas with us not around the tree. For my parents Caden and Ashton are their only grandchildren and this will be especially hard on them. 

Again, thank you all for your unending support. Please write in back in response to this blog if you would like. I absolutely love getting emails from back home!

We love you!

Love and prayers,

Amy