Preparing for Japan

Many of you may have expected us to have arrived in Japan already. Well, surprise. We are still in Canada!

We sold the majority of our possessions during the month of September. We had 4 moving sales. It was hard for our children to say goodbye to belongings and toys, but we reminded them that God has provided every gift we have received, and He will provide again. We moved out of our Canadian home on September 30th and sold our van.

Since then, we have been hosted by a wonderful Christian family in an additional suite they have in their home. Our children are having a great time and are staying busy playing with their children of the same age range.

We’ve been on a standby flight list for several days to fly to Japan. Several times Tak attempted to fly ahead, but has been unable to do so. We realized after speaking with the airline that the delay has been due to a number of factors including the upcoming Thanksgiving long weekend, as well as the rerouting of various flights due to Hurricane Nate in the Southern USA.

In the meantime, our children came down with the nasty, childhood Cocksackie virus AKA: Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease. They were pretty miserable for the last week with high fever, vomiting, and blistering rashes in their mouths, and on their hands and feet.

*Note: Above photo is from Dailypost….NOT our kids.

On the mend, with the approval of our doctor, and with the memory of the virus fading, we remain ready to depart to Japan this coming week!

The plan is to visit Tak’s family for a short while and then head onwards to Kanazawa.

Prayer Requests:

• We need 5 seats on a plane to Japan this week.
• At 28 weeks, Sarah will need maternity care after arriving in Japan. We know of several maternity clinics in Kanazawa. A physician who understands some English would be very helpful so that she will be able to attend appointments without needing translation of medical terms.

Praise:

• Our children are recovering nicely from HFMD, and Sarah and Tak did NOT get ill.
• Although Tak was unable to fly to Japan, his luggage was “mistakenly” sent ahead by the airline. This means we are able to bring two additional parcels to Japan by plane rather than paying $100+ per parcel to ship them to Japan. That means $200+ saved. NOT COMPLAINING AT ALL!!