Becoming a Family of Four
Since our last update, our little family has grown from three to four. As many of you know, our daughter Maye Ann was born on May 29th at 2:12 pm, weighing 8 pounds and 4 ounces; she was only a pound heavier than her sister. She was born in the very heart of Tokyo, downtown at the Japan Red Cross Hospital.
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The view of downtown Tokyo at night from the maternity ward lobby.
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While she did amazing at the hospital, growing, eating well, passing all her exams, Mom on the other hand had some struggles. The surgery itself was rough (who likes surgery anyway!?); they had trouble performing the epidural, and I was much less comfortable in the surgery this time than I remember being last time. Also, while dealing with the recovery and side effects from my c-section, I managed to develop bronchitis, yikes! Not fun to have coughing fits with stitches in your abdomen!
Many of you were praying with us before Maye arrived about her delivery. I had specifically asked for prayers that she would come on her own naturally, so that I would not need a repeat caesarean. We prayed and prayed up until the day of the surgery, and then we had to be content with the answer "no". I don't know why God's answer was "no", I may never understand. What I do know is that we have been blessed with another perfect baby girl, and that God has a plan for her life and the life of my family.
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We've had a busy time since Maye was born. On the home front, besides adding another baby in the house, we had a flurry of paperwork to go through with Maye's birth documents and passport, as well as renewing our residence cards and getting a new one made for Maye. We got all our paperwork done, and our new residence cards without a hitch, which means we are approved to stay in Japan for another three years and continue our work. This month we've also had the opportunity to visit other churches for Travis to preach and to fellowship with other congregations.
At Machida Church, we started our summer events. We've had visitors from the states: first our summer intern, Alex, who arrived from Central Christian College of the Bible to work alongside our senior minister Tim Turner. Also we had a team of five from California come to do an outreach program teaching English through the Bible. They were sent from an organization called "Let's Start Talking". Check out their unique ministry here. During the flurry of paperwork, mentioned above, as well as in the middle of rainy season we were trying to fold and distribute as many flyers as we could to invite the neighborhood to come take part in the free English lessons that the team was coming to provide. It was a huge blessing and encouragement to have the team come and to see their focus and Gospel intention with the readers that came from the community. We hope to continue reaching out to those that the team connected with while they were here.
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On one evening while the Let's Start Talking team was here, we had a game night at the church. It was a nice break for the team after all their hard work, and so much fun for us to get to know them a little better!
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The beginning of summer has been busy, but full of blessings. Please keep us in your prayers as we look forward to more summer events, including travel around Japan for kids camp and a nationwide church convention. Pray that we will all stay well, and get enough rest so that we can be our best to serve at these events. Blessings to all our family and friends. We miss you all dearly!
Becky
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