caution: these pictures are to utterly and completely deceive you.....

Yeah! Hooray for dear friends from afar visiting us!! My dear friend Anna with her two littles from Taiwan came just before Christmas for a holiday visit. Aren't the pictures great? We made gingerbread houses, coloured, made Christmas ornaments, played tea parties, dressed up, snuggled in front of 'Charlie and Lola', taught school to one another, drank warm coffee in front of the Christmas tree, went to church, had a wonderful Christmas dinner......magical......

Yet here is where the deceptive bits of blogs and facebook can come into play (remember this next time you longing look at someones blog and wish your life was her life!!)......what you don't see from our lovely photos (purposefully excluded) is....babies with conjunctivitis, ear infection, influenza B, tonsillitis, a daddy that was in bed for three days with flu, cold days that excluded play outside, long visits to the doctor with screaming boys and girls, long lists of medicines in Japanese that I tried to comprehend at the pharmacy, both mommies in tears at different times....and the effects are still lingering in our respective homes weeks hence.

And still I wouldn't trade my time with my heart friend and all our whingey babies for the world. Anna, Princess of Oz.....I am so glad we are friends....in sickness and in health. Here is to the deepening of our friendship through trial!

Nykolas is EIGHT!!!

Legos galore and the aquarium with a new friend!

Very Sweet Christmas Party at our local library....thanks Yumi!!

Jon came back through on his way home....how we love this young man....especially Noa!

Our Crossroads Traveling Team

We have found a wonderful international church about 1 hour from our place here in Osaka. It has been such a gift! We still attend out Japanese Church (as we miss our dear friends) about once or twice a month but generally attend Crossroads.

Advent: COMING

Even in the 'magic bubble' in which we live (not immersed in the materialism that is America nor fully a part of the culture in which we live) we still obsess over things....the list of wants grows and changes daily. In spite of our mobile and, comparatively speaking, downsized lifestyle (seven people living in a three bedroom condo) we have way too much. The stuffed animal bin overflows, even with a closet in each room there is not enough space for all our clothes, the boxes of dolls, plastic animals, legos, etc is constantly in need of culling, there are bikes and scooters rusting on the front step from lack of care, I have dishes I never use......seriously how do so many things find us and take over our hearts?!?! AND still we 'NEED' more!!

This year my heart ached for our family to genuflect to the only important gift.....we have an advent calendar but it is a felt Christmas tree that you hang ornaments on and of course the focus is not the coming of Christ but the getting of gifts. Then a missionary mom's website I glance at sometimes posted a link to Ann Voskamp's Jesse Tree Journey.

We drew and watercoloured our stump with a shoot sprouting forth....Is. 11:1,10 "Out of the stump of David's family will grow a shoot - yes, a new branch bearing fruit from the old root....In that day the heir to David's throne will be a banner of salvation to all the world. The nations will rally to him, and the land where he lives will be a glorious place."

Every day we read Scripture and paste a picture on our tree that helps us remember the gorgeous story of redemption that God has woven. It has been beautiful! Honestly, I am more moved and inspired than my littles, although in the midst of their squirming I do see sparks of understanding and awe.

We stop, we breath, we read, we pray.....we are moved.