26 and 27 Weeks

Well we are now 28 weeks!! I can't believe that in about 12 weeks our precious daughter will be in our arms! I get all teary eyed just thinking about it. What a beautiful miracle God has given us. Today I went for my 28 week check up and baby and mommy both got a healthy report. Sweet Pea is weighing in at around 2.4 lbs. My tummy is getting very big and I can't believe we still have 12 more weeks to grow. The doctor said she was perfectly normal and that her head was turned down in the vertex position now. She may move again because she still has some room in there. But for now her little head is down. She is kicking with a lot of force these days and I have enjoyed watching my belly bounce and vibrate from side to side. Also we are getting close on deciding her name but still have not made a final decision. We have it narrowed down to 2 names now....

26 weeks


27 Weeks

Sweet Pea's Room

I have been really looking forward to setting up Sweet Pea's room. My nesting urges have been overwhelming.... Thankfully I have a very sweet, kind and patient husband. Last weekend we made some definite progress in her room. Now that we have her bed put together I can't stop looking at it. I look down into and imagine what she might look like laying there sleeping and one day looking up at me with a smile. I am so in love with my daughter already. It is like no love I have ever known. It is a beautiful and new love that I know will only grow stronger as the days continue to pass. What a blessing she is to us already.

Daddy hard at work


Wishing we could sleep in there too!


I can almost see her in there...


Her little laundry bag was hand stitched with love by Mrs. Yoshida. It has Goldilocks and the 3 Bears on it. I love it! And Daddy picked out the canopy.

22, 23, 24 week photo

Hey Friends and Family! Sorry for the delay in updates. We just got back from a wonderful trip to China to celebrate the wedding of my dear brother-in-law Jesse and his beautiful, sweet wife Maya! We had a wonderful time and will post some pics soon of our journeys. For now here are some belly pic updates! Week 23 and 24 were in China! :)
22 weeks

23 weeks

24 weeks on the Great Wall

24 weeks at the Summer Palace

Sweet Pea

23 weeks

Well we are now 23 weeks! We have been enjoying lots of tummy talking time. And yesterday Gabe felt Sweet Pea move for the very first time. She is definitely getting stronger because I feel her a lot more frequently now. It is amazing! I love the way it feels and I can't wait to be able to see her moving from outside my belly. Here is an image of 23 weeks from Babycenter.com

18, 19, 20, 21 week belly pics

The weeks are really flying by! These are pics from 18 and 19 weeks. I will upload 20 and 21 weeks later. Tomorrow we start our 22nd week!!! I can't believe it. Sweet Pea is moving around so much these days. Especially when she hears her Daddy's voice. It is really amazing when that happens. After work when Gabe picks me up from the train station and he starts talking to me, she starts moving around like crazy. It is so sweet. And I love to see how happy it makes Gabe. He is going to be a wonderful Daddy. He talks to her and sings to in my belly and I know she must love the sound of his voice. I know I do.
Well that's all for now. More pics to come later. Love you all!


18 weeks


19 weeks


20 weeks


21 weeks

20 Weeks

We've waited and wondered for 20 weeks
what precious package lies beneath....
And now you'll have to read this poem I wrote today
to find the answer that you seek!



We've been just two for 11 years
We've held each others hands
We've calmed each others fears.

The Lord joined our hearts into one
He blessed us so with friendship and love
And now He's granted that a new life shall come.

Our two has turned to three
Our hearts now shared
With our precious sweet pea

And now a name for this tiny pearl
For our darling one...........................

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Our Baby GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


This is a video of the doctor giving me the ultrasound when we found out. Enjoy!
It was so nice to see a doctor who spoke perfect English. He lived in New Mexico for 10 years. It was wonderful!

16 and 17 week belly pics

Today we are actually 19 weeks. The time is flying by so quickly and I am torn between feeling sad that this precious time is almost over and feeling such impatience wanting to hold this precious baby in my arms! I love being pregnant and I love knowing that this life is growing so perfectly according to God's plans inside me. It is more than magical. It is the greatest miracle I have ever experienced. On Thursday I felt the baby move for the first time! Well the first time that I knew it was baby and not something else going on inside there. It was so wonderful. First it felt like a bubble. Then I felt a little bump like someone was poking me with a finger from the inside of my tummy. Next it felt like little butterflies fluttering around in there. It actually tickled and I started laughing. Then, of course I started crying. I just can't believe how beautiful God has designed this process. It is more amazing than any words I can think of to describe it. I still can't believe that this is all happening to me. By God's grace alone there is life growing inside me.
I was so happy that Gabe was there to witness me feeling baby for the first time too. We were working in the office together that day. It was such a blessing. Ever since that day I have felt baby more and more often. In fact, as I write this I can feel my little tickler inside me! :) I love it!!
We also went to the doctor again that day and had a good appointment. The doctor said that the baby is in the normal range as far as weight, length and heart rate. So we felt very blessed. We asked again to know the gender of our little sweet pea but the equipment was not strong enough to see. But at my 20 week appointment I will be going to the hospital to see a new doctor and there they have a 3D ultrasound. So if the baby cooperates maybe we can find out then. Even if we can't I just can't wait to see a clear picture of our little angel.
We are slowly getting unpacked and settled into our new house. It is hard to unpack when I feel so tired at the end of a work day. But we got a lot accomplished yesterday in preparations for our friend Nathan coming to visit. So today we are relaxing in a clean house. There is a nice breeze and beautiful sunshine. As I write this my sweet husband is planting marigolds around the windows outside our house. Marigolds are supposed to be good mosquito repellents! Mosquitoes LOVE me for some reason and since we don't have air conditioning we will have all the windows open all the time this summer, sweet Gabe is trying to do all he can to prevent me from being boiling hot and itchy with bites! I'm so blessed! Well I guess that's it for now. I will post 2 belly pics. Hope you enjoy

16 weeks

17 weeks

"Bare Feet On the Pavement" a poem for my dear brothers

I remember we dancing all around
As rain the came falling to the ground
We left the front door open wide
We couldn't stop smiling even if we tried

Suddenly all our worries gone
Washed away as we sang that song
We used to sing when we were small
Before you'd grown to be so tall

We used to fight
So much back then
You always had to be right
And I always had to win

But right there in that moment
With the rain upon our heads
Our bare feet on the pavement
We forgot all the things we'd said

And we all live so far apart
We're all grown up some how
But I often think about that day
And I keep you all close to my heart.

June 2008
I wrote this poem on a rainy day last year thinking about my dear sweet brothers. My loving husband told me I should blog it.
I love you and miss you so. Love, Yaya

14 and 15 week belly pics

Hello friends and family. We are so looking forward to this Easter Sunday when we can celebrate not only the new life growing within my womb but the new life that our heavenly father has given us through the loving sacrifice of His only son. I also think of Mary and the agony she felt as she watched her beloved son lay down His life for her and for all humankind. What an amazing mother she was and how I hope to be even a little like her. I am so thankful for this gift of motherhood and I pray that I will have the strength to endure it's challenges with grace.

14 weeks


15 weeks

The Beating of A Heart

Yesterday we heard the most glorious sound we have ever heard. We were finally able to hear the beating of our little baby's heart. Gabe and I went to the doctor around 3:30 yesterday and we both felt anxious waiting for the doctor to come in. I was lying on the table and Gabe was sitting beside me holding my hand. We laughed together as we waited. Finally our sweet doctor came in.
I was pleasantly surprised that the gel that he put on my belly was comfortably warm. I just expected it to be cold for some reason. Then he placed the Doppler device on my belly and began the search. As I waited a million worries rushed through my mind but then I looked into my sweet husband's beautiful eyes and felt his calming gaze wash over me. Finally that miraculous sound came through the speaker. At that very moment I began laughing and crying at the exact same time. Then as I laughed my stomach muscles tensed up which made it impossible to hear the baby. So I started trying to take deep breaths and tried to calm down again. But it was no use. I cried tears of joy the entire time. The doctor let us listen for a few minutes and said the heart rate was about 160. I felt that my heart rate must be about the same as it seemed to be beating out of my chest! We felt so relieved and so blessed.
When we got home we got a package of books from someone here in Japan. She was giving them away and we requested some of them. One book is called "The Child Within". This book is a devotional for pregnant moms. It couldn't have come at a better time. Before bed we read the chapter for the 3rd month of pregnancy. It spoke so deeply to me. It helped me to remember that God is in control of this pregnancy and that He alone can form this life within me. He only asks that I take care of myself as best I can and leave the rest to Him. For only He knows the perfect plan for this life. I rested so peacefully last night and fell asleep to the sound of our precious baby's heart beat playing over and over in my mind.
Thank you all for your continued prayers. We are still so overwhelmed with joy by this miracle God has so graciously granted us.

Phillipians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

12 Week Belly Shot

Our baby is growing so quickly. We are at 13 weeks and baby is the size of a peach.
This is a photo of me at 12 weeks.

This was our home

We have been so blessed! Today we signed the contract on our new home! It is actually our 4th home in Japan...crazy.
We found it about 10 days ago and now we can start moving in tomorrow! We got the key today and headed straight over to take some before shots.
It's so clean and smells so new. It has new tatami mats (grass mats) in three rooms and they fill the house with their lovely fresh scent. It was all recently re-modeled. It has 3 rooms a big kitchen and an empty store front that will become our new "shop" as Gabe and I call it. It is going to provide plenty of storage for all of our teaching materials. We are so thankful for that. With two teachers it has become pretty much impossible to have anyone over because all of our materials are spread out on every empty surface we have. Now it can all be organized OUT of the house!
Another huge blessing is that it has a fan system that runs under the house to control mold. Ofunato is a really moist city (it is a "port city") so we are truly thankful!
Well here is a video of the house room by room. It's 8 minutes long so... so watch when you like. Enjoy!




This will be our new address starting April 1st (but don't worry all of our mail from our old address will be forwarded to the new one):

38-10 Aza-Jinomori,
Ofunato-cho, Ofunato-shi
Iwate-ken,022-0002JAPAN

in Japanese:
日本岩手県大船渡市大船渡町字地ノ森３８－１０
And here is the link on google maps:http://tinyurl.com/gnsnewhome



View Larger Map

12 Week check-up (Pics & First VIDEO)

Hello everyone! Steph here,
Today we went to the doctor for our 12 week check-up. Gabe came with me today. It was our first time to go together. We were both so excited. I was a little worried that they wouldn't let him come back with me because they way the exam rooms are set up. They are only divided by curtains. But they did! We were expecting to get a regular ultrasound (the kind on the tummy) for the first time and to be able to hear the heartbeat. But for some reason he decided to do the inner ultrasound again and told us we would have to wait until the next appointment to hear the heartbeat. Because of our lack of Japanese we were unable to fully understand the reason. But it's ok because for the first time we got to watch the baby on the screen! It was amazing. We could really see baby's heart beating away. It's an absolute miracle the way God creates life. It is so beautiful. I had seen the pictures but to actually see the baby on the screen was wonderful. I just couldn't believe that all this was happening inside of me. It was indescribable. We are so thankful and so blessed. The doctor said the baby was growing perfectly healthy. The baby is 2.2 inches now. Gabe was so sweet and caring. He held my hand during the exam and took a video of the screen when the doctor was explaining the parts of the baby. He's going to be a wonderful daddy! So without further ado...for your viewing pleasure here is the first video of our "Sweet Pea". ps the video is after the pics :)

11 Weeks belly shot

waiting for the ultrasound....
12 week photo
on the big screen
when the picture is flipped upside down I think you can see the baby's profile. If you look closely.

HERE'S THE VIDEO: (click the Google button for a full-screen view)

Feed Kids for Free

From a facebook group with lots of great links:

========================

CLICK on the Links BELOW to "Feed a Child with just a Click!"

FREE FOOD DONATION CLICKS
=Staple Foods=
** http://www.freerice.com - Free Rice
** http://www.freeflour.com - Free Bread

=Free Water=
*** http://www.freepoverty.com - Lots of free water!
** http://www.helpthirst.com - Free water

=Free Meals=
*** http://www.bhook.com - Just Click!
*** http://www.pajacyk.pl - Click the green button!
*** http://www.ripple.org/give.php?p=food - Just Click!
*** http://www.porloschicos.com/PorLosChicos.NET/index_english.htm - Click the blue button!
*** http://www.feedsa.com - Click the white button!
*** http://www.hungerfighters.com - Click the green box!
*** http://www.povertyfighters.com/ - Click the blue box!
*** http://www.thehungersite.com - Click the yellow box!
*** http://www.okruszek.org.pl - Click the Bread button!
*** http://www.chintai.net/contribution/index.html - Click the blue box!
*** http://www.kct-uk.org/click - Just visit the site!
*** http://www.straatkind.nl/ - Click on the small red ball.
*** http://www.worldhunger.org/contributefood.htm - Just click!

Help the kids:
** http://children.care2.com - Click the blue box!
** http://www.hungrychildren.com - Click the blue button!

Causes change monthly:
** http://www.youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=2335 - Click the red button!

Others:
* http://www.definition-of.com - Submit a word
** http://www.spendu.org/beta/index.php - German Rice Game!

[ CLICK RATINGS: *** = excellent **= good *= could be easier? ]

OUR HEARTS GO OUT:
♥ We find it hard to feel for these people, and importantly children, as they are not our own sister, son or relative.
♥ But if you just open your heart for 1 second you will be Flooded by the Despair facing the starving children of Humanity.

WANT TO KNOW MORE ?
-World Hunger: World Interactive Map - Where is World Hunger?
http://www.wfp.org/country_brief/hunger_map/map/hungermap_popup/map_popup.html
-World Hunger: A Study of families - How much do you eat?
http://worldfoodinequality.googlepages.com/

DONATE:
-Donate! 25 cents a meal @ http://www.causes.com/hunger
-Please Donate spare money! A Meal is just 25 cents!
Currently: over $15,000 USD donated (this Cause plus others)

11 Week check-up

Today I went in for my 1st trimester testing (blood work, blood pressure...etc.). I also got another ultrasound. Unfortunately I didn't get a copy to bring home and I forgot to take my camera to take a picture of the ultrasound pic. I really wish I had because for the first time you could actually tell that there was a baby in there. I could see a definite head and body form. The doctor said that the baby was growing at a healthy rate (crown to rump 1.63") and that the baby's heartbeat was , in his exact words, beautiful. It was wonderful news. My blood pressure was normal and I will get the results of the other tests later. I go back again next week for my 12 week and we will finally be able to hear the heartbeat! We are really excited about that! All in all things are going really well.
I did think that my morning sickness was passing but unfortunately it caught me by surprise this morning. But not to worry, I will make sure to have my trusty banana beside my bed tonight so I can eat it before getting out of bed. (^-^)


We also received good news about our housing situation. Our current landlord is going to let us move whenever we like and the new landlord is going to allow us to move in a the end of this month. With a few days rent free for moving our things over. The new house is actually right across the road from where we are now so it shouldn't be too hard. The Lord has blessed us in so many ways. Thank you all for your prayers and love!
Here's a fun video for you to enjoy...note I am eating organic all natural peanutbutter.

Change of Scenery?

Gabe here.
Steph has been researching the local area for a bigger place...
So, we've been looking around a little... but what we found were mostly high prices and small places :(

But, recently we saw a remodeled older home which has a store (like a little shop/businness) space attached in front...
Steph (and I) really like the space for kids and visiting family... plus there is a BIG front room for storage or whatever) and a computer controlled ventalation system tp prevent mold under the home (something that has been a real annoyance and concern for both of us in the last 3 years). Steph loves the place and we may be able to swing it finacially. So..., we might be moving soon :)
We'll see...

Blessed News

We're having a baby! We feel so blessed and are overjoyed to be experiencing this miracle. Our due date is September 28th. (2 days before Gabe's Bday!) This beautiful gift that God has so graciously given us is already so loved! Today I (steph) registered my pregnancy at the city health care center. We have National Health Care here in Japan and in order to enjoy the benefits I had to go and officially register the pregnancy. I received many booklets and 2 free diapers (we'll take em!)
I received my mother and child health record book too. Actually I got 2. One is bilingual and the other is the normal Japanese version. Another wonderful thing is my doctor likes to do ultrasounds at every visit so we have already seen 3 pictures of our little miracle.
We thought we would share some photos: (for more photos click here)

FLOW: For Love of Water (Movie)

http://www.flowthefilm.com/
Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.

Watch it here:


About Water
* Of the 6 billion people on earth, 1.1 billion do not have access to safe, clean drinking water.
(www.charitywater.org)
* The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency currently does not regulate 51 known water contaminants. (www.foodandwaterwatch.org)
* While the average American uses 150 gallons of water per day, those in developing countries cannot find five.
(www.charitywater.org)
* The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
(www.water.org)
* According to the National Resources Defense Council, in a scientific study in which more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of water were tested, about one-third of the bottles contained synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic. (www.nrdc.org)
* Water is a $400 billion dollar global industry; the third largest behind electricity and oil.
CBS News, FLOW.
* There are estimates that from five hundred thousand to seven million people get sick per year from drinking tap water. Erik Olson, Deputy Staff Director of Barbara Boxerʼs Environmental and Public Works Committee (EPW), FLOW.
* Californiaʼs water supply is running out – it has about 20 years of water left in the state.
Maude Barlow, author of Blue Covenant and co-author of Blue Gold, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, FLOW.
* There are over 116,000 human-made chemicals that are finding their way into public water supply systems.
William Marks, author of Water Voices from Around the World, FLOW.
* In Bolivia nearly one out of every ten children will die before the age of five. Most of those deaths are related to illnesses that come from a lack of clean drinking water.
Jim Schultz, founder of the Democracy Center in Bolivia, FLOW.
* The cost per person per year for having 10 liters of safe drinking water every day is just $2 USD.
Ashok Gadgil, Senior Staff Scientist in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, FLOW

Graffiti: Doodle Art

Hello... Gabe here... Nice to have some time-off to play around and be a little creative lately.
This is "graffiti" that I made using an online application called Graffiti.
I made it for my sister-in-law. The Chinese character means "snow".
Sadly, I accidentally deleted it so I only have this picture.

But, Graffiti is really neat because it's kind of like a doodle documentary.
Here is another one that I did for Steph. The Chinese character means "green". Hit the play button to watch. You can slow it down or speed it up too.

Here is one I did today: "Rain"

Beer Jell-O!

A Present from friends... very interesting!

5 Years of Wedded Bliss

Today we will celebrate 5 blessed years together! Thank you to all of you who helped to make it such a beautiful day.

Ozōni 雑煮: Traditional New Year's Food

ozoni
Originally uploaded by G&S Eco.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoni_soup

Happy New Year! 明けましておめでとうございます！今年もよろしくおねがいします！

Christmas Eve Service in Tono

Off to Semi Onsen

..to celebrate 5 years of marriage. \(^-^)/

http://www.semi-onsen.co.jp/

This will be our second time to go to this particular hot spring.
Check out old pics:
We went there 3 years ago for or 2nd anniversary.

Aidan Born Nov. 2, 2006

Gabe here... been awake since 4:30 AM.... uploading pictures to flickr (a great site where you can privately or publicly store your photos without a limit for 25 bones a year)...

Well, flickr also allows you to upload and short video clips now (Yay!)

Here is a rare one from our archives:

My lttle bro Aidan Elizondo on his birthday (November 2, 2006)

Not Everything is Small Here

A big one from Yonesaki... near here.

Nativity by Steph

Our Church (in Tono)

Hoshigaki 2008

Recent Video from the Okirai train station:

My train ride and video from last year.

This is kaki (Japanese persimmon)-video from Gabe:

This is what the kaki look like after they have been peeled and hung outside to be dried for winter (now they become "hoshigaki")-video by Gabe:

First Snow 2008

November 5.2008

November 5. 2008 from Tarek Milleron on Vimeo.


http://november5.org/

School Lunch

Todays menu was "ika po po" (squid).... pretty rare actually...

Fun In Tokyo Airport Last Summer

Not the usual commute

Hey everyone this is Steph. Today as I was taking my usual ride home on the train I had quite a surprise. The train I take also provides scenic tours of the coastline. I am blessed because I get to ride it at least 4 times a week. The scenery is quite breathtaking and it allows me to observe the changing of the seasons from the comfort what is sometimes my own private train. Today, however, there was a tour booked for the time I needed to ride home from work. During the tour rides they sell different souvenirs and also tell the travelers about what they are seeing. Today there was something extra special though. The man leading the tour finished off the ride with our own private tiger dance. The tiger comes around and "bites" your head for good luck. He wasn't sure what to do to me though...being the only non-Japanese person on the train, so he "bit" my arm instead. Hopefully that will prove to be lucky too. (^o^)/ So here are some pics and a short video that I took. Enjoy!

Sanshin: Traditional Japanese Instrument

This elementary school teacher is a really nice guy and plays a mean sanshin (and guitar too)... :)




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanshin
The sanshin (三線, literally meaning "Three strings") is an Okinawan musical instrument, and precursor of the Japanese shamisen. Often likened to a banjo, it consists of a snakeskin-covered body, neck and three strings.

Early Autumn Bike Ride Around Town

Went on a bike ride today. You can see a little of our town--nothin'special but we had fun.
Hope to make a summer memory video soon :)

Brookgreen Gardens

Live Oak #2
Originally uploaded by beforethecoffee.

We went here while in South Carolina.
Highly recommended.

http://www.brookgreen.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookgreen_Gardens