Electric Hum

The Namerikawa family: Toru, Satomi, Yuki, Ryo, and us at our goodbye dinner My best Japanese friend, Satomi. She was such a gift from the Lord to me!

The stagnatingly hot weather has finally thrown its blanket over the island country of Japan. Imagine living in a sauna and you get the general idea of what we are living in here--but we are required to be fully clothed! Anyway, along with the wet heat come the cicadas. They have such a distinct and interesting sound. The first summer we were here I hated the sound because it was high-pitched and never-ending. But now I find it strangely soothing. It is a reminder that I am in a foreign land and to be thankful for the experiences I get to have here. Maybe I am growing sentimental as our time here comes to a close.

Other news:

*Today (July 18th) was Heath's last day of work.

*Heath has become the local superstar by signing his autograph for his students and getting a daily smattering of gifts from both students and coworkers.

*We are moving out in two days and flying home in four!

*My brother will be 31 tomorrow! Happy birthday, Sam! (I am younger than him ;)!)

*My nephew is now 4! Happy birthday Brayden!

*We love Zion SOOOOO much and are so thankful that the Lord gave him to us!

*We will miss the Namerikawa family. They were such a blessing to us while we were here.

Two Months Old!

Guess who is two months old today?! I can't believe how time is flying by! Enjoy the pictures from months one and two!

One Week!

We are flying home exactly one week from today! We are pretty excited about that! Our flight will arrive in Portland at 8:30 am on July 22nd.

This is a pretty busy week concluding everything but by Sunday, we will be on the home-stretch. We'll move out of our apartment and stay the last couple days with Bryce, Colleen, and Elliot.

Get ready to meet Zion Sterling!

Jozu

He loves bath time!

First piano lesson.

Recognize the outfit, Darc?

Jozu (pronounced jo-zoo) is a Japanese word that means "good job". I want to give out a couple Jozu Awards. . .

1. Heath gets this award for watching Zion last night while I went to my work goodbye dinner. It was the first time I had been away from Zion for more than 30 minutes. Well, Zion decided to unload his bowels in a big way and Heath had to clean it up, which I hear was no small feat. So, good job Heath!

2. Baby Zion gets this award for sleeping 8 hours last night! From 9:30pm-5:30am the little man slept like a champ! What a kid! He also gets this award for cooing and smiling which he has recently started doing more and more.

Five's the Number

Two weeks from today we fly home! We have to be moved out of our apartment two weeks from last Sunday so we are at the tail end of our time in our own place for a while.

Heath spent Sunday and yesterday packing up the things we wanted to send home. We sent five boxes yesterday. Heath took them to the post office just down the road from us in Zion's baby stroller. Zion hates it (it really is a piece of junk--hard to steer and not comfy for Z) so we thought we should get some use out of it. Can you just imagine seeing a guy walk down the road with a stroller full of boxes, or better yet, empty! Not like we don't already stick out here anyway!

And we can fly home with two checked bags each, plus one for Zion. Our bags cannot weigh more than 50 pounds and Zion's has to be under 22. So we get five suitcases and five boxes to do an international move with! You should see how much stuff we have gotten rid of!

Zion's eyelashes have just taken off in the last week. Now they look like his cousin's, Alex (and Madi, but not that dark). So cute! Plus, his birth hair is falling out and now he has a little smattering of really blond hair like his other cousins, Bailey and Brayden. So Zion is lucky to be so cute like all his cousins. Which, by the way, we are excited to see all our nieces and nephews! I cannot wait to meet Brody either (my brother's youngest son was born last August right after we left the US).

Heath has 8 days of work left at Nishikigaoka Junior High. He is excited to be finished and to move on to his new job, which he will start August 18th. Hopefully we will find a car and house quickly when we get home. We are going to buy a house! Yeah! Finally, we will get to have a house all our own!

An Answered Prayer

The most perfect husband, father, and new Executive Director!

Heath got a job in Portland!! Yeah! He will soon be the Executive Director of the PUMP Summer Program for inner city youth. This means that he will be in charge of the summer program itself and raising funds for it. It sounds like the perfect job for Heath--a mix of creativity, comminication, and fun.

He first learned about this job in April and just this morning, July 2nd, the job was offered to him. We are so thankful to now have the "where" and "what" questions answered. We have been praying that the Lord would lead us to exactly the perfect location and job so we know that this is the answer to those many prayers we have had these two years. We really are so thankful that He has watched out for us.