We’re incredibly happy to announce that we’re expecting a new baby, due on September 16, 2014! We’re praising God for this new addition to our family, and are looking forward to meeting this little one with lots of excitement (“Will it be a boy or a girl?”) and a little bit of nervousness (“How in the world are we going to handle TWO kids?”). But with each new ultrasound and checkup we’re once again in awe of our amazing Creator in watching Him knit together this little child as it develops and grows from a little speck to now even at just over 3 months, squirming around with his/her little arms and legs.
Titus will be a few months short of three when this new one is born, and while he was born in the US our second will be born here in Japan, so it’ll be interesting to go through the whole experience in a Japanese way. The doctors and medical system is quite good over here, but there are definitely differences. For one doctors are a lot more strict about weight gain here, often putting pregnant women on diets to keep it within what they consider acceptable levels. On the other hand Tomo’s American doctor told her to start eating more milkshakes and ice cream with Titus because she thought Tomo wasn’t gaining enough weight. Also, here Sushi is considered one of the best foods for pregnant women, whereas in the US most doctors said you shouldn’t eat any raw fish.
The timing of this new baby fits pretty well with our anticipated home service schedule. We’re shooting to be back in the US in February of 2015 in order to keep Tomo’s green card from being revoked. That would mean the new baby will maybe 5 months old. We appreciate your prayers for Tomo and the baby throughout her pregnancy!
David’s Spring Semester Grades:
I just got my grades in for my Spring finals, and as you can see, I’m still struggling to keep up with Kanji in this more advanced class. And since I can’t read the all the Kanji, that makes reading comprehension a big challenge as well, which is also reflected below. On the bright side I scored really highly on the speaking section of the test (96%), I feel like I’m getting the hang of the Japanese accent, so as long as I can study up on the other areas I should be relatively easy to understand when speaking with people (or preaching).
Speaking: A
Grammar: C
Writing: C
Listening: C
Kanji/Vocabulary: F
Reading: F
As I now enter into a two week long Spring break, I’ll be spending a lot of time trying to catch up on Kanji and Vocabulary, so please be praying that I will be diligent during this time and be able to memorize the dozens (hundreds?) of Kanji characters that I need to be able to read and write for next semester — which is actually the start of a new school year in Japan. So I’ll be a Ninensei (2nd year student), which means I can boss around all the the new incoming Ichinensei (1st year students), Japan’s pretty rigid about seniority here, not just in school, but in basically every aspect of society.