Friday, March 14, 2014

Gift #401- Pallets on My Living Room Floor



As a kid, when I would sleep over at my grandmothers house, she would always make me a thick pallet bed out of quilts on her living room floor.  Mom did the same thing for her grandchildren   I could not even begin to tell you how many pallets Nana happily made for her "grand babies" in her lifetime.  This morning, I woke up to pallets on my living room floor!  It made me so happy!   The kids sleep downstairs in the living room often, but never before in this house in Japan have they had cousins to curl up with! 

Beth and Elise arrived last night!!!  Elise, Jack, and Josh have been the best of friends for over 13 years.  They haven't seen each other in a while and I was a bit worried that they might have drifted apart.  They are lanky, moody teenagers now.  Their voices have changed and one of them is in braces! But, from the instant they saw each other in the airport, they were the same old crazy kids who made mud cities in Nana's driveway and rode around in the trailer of Papa's riding lawn mower.  They instantly laughed and joked and reminisced over silly stories (they got a little noisy when they reminisced about Uncle Scotty's tuxedo pants.  The ones that he wore over to Grandmas house.  Remember that Kim?).


We have one week to catch up on 2 years of missing each other.  I think that we can do it over train rides, and sushi dinners, and skate park lessons, and, best of all, pallets on my living room floor. 

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Gift #400- A Powerful God


M 6.3 Earthquake
13km N of Kunisaki-shi, Japan
53 mins ago – U.S. Geological Survey
An earthquake with magnitude 6.3 occurred near Oita, Kyushu, Japan at 17:06:51.10 UTC on Mar 13, 2014 ...

It is 3:20am on Friday morning.  I have been awake for almost an hour now.  We just had quite a little earthquake here.  No one was hurt.  It lasted for less than a minute.  It broke a few of my Willow Tree figurines and set off all of the baby's toys that are activated by movement, but no real damage done.  Maybe only to my nerves.  I tried to go back to sleep, but I just keep thinking of that verse in Matthew that says "What kind of man is this?  Even the winds and the waves obey him!"  It brings such comfort to know that we serve such a powerful God.  Even the winds and the waves obey him!

I will chalk this night up to another adventure in Japan and will give thanks for the reminder of God's awesome power and for his provision. 

Gift #628- Finishing