Finishing up the year with joy

We've had some cold days and my office,
which gets no sun this time of year, is a 
chilly place. It's a bit hard to see, but in this
photo from Friday I had a blanket on my lap
and a heated mat under my feet, as
well as the electric heater behind me.

The last fortnight has been pretty hectic. First our first grandchild was born, then, before we'd had much time to process that, two days later we were neck-deep into running a wrestling meet at school, an intense, exhausting event.

And we really didn't stop from there. A usual full Sunday and then straight back into work for the next five days. Lots of good things, just not much breathing room in the middle. Thankfully we've remained healthy, school finished on Friday and then we had Saturday as a proper day off. 

This morning we had a visitor from the Australian OMF office–not something that we often have received in our years here, but it was a blessing to spend a few hours with this colleague who we'd barely met before today. 

This afternoon we're finishing off various home chores and a few editing/email matters for me too. Tomorrow afternoon we head to Australia to meet our new grandchild and fully immerse ourselves in that reality for 10 days or so. I guess I should do some packing soon too.

Wrestling meet admin fun. High-decibel, high-stress
workplace for 12 hours!

It's amazing to think we're coming up to nearly two years since our last child left home (in February). There'll be time for reflecting as I write my traditional last blog post for the year in a couple of weeks, but even now, as work starts to shut down for Christmas and New Year, I can't help but feel a little thoughtful. When talking with our visitor this morning, I said that we felt fairly content with how things were at present. He grabbed hold of that word "content" and was glad to hear it. And yes, it's true. We don't know what the future will hold, but for today, we're content in general with where things are at.

Yesterday David led the service at church. The theme was joy and David lead out with the fact that it was exactly (yesterday) 25 years since we first landed in Japan. [I also played the piano for worship, which was a real joy, because it's been a long time since I got to play Christmas music for worship in a church.] 

I realise that I'd shared about the anniversary in our prayer letter last month, but not here. Here is what I wrote in our prayer letter:

Here's the link to an article I wrote for our Australian OMF magazine about the anniversary: https://omf.org/au/one-day-at-a-time-25-years-in-japan/

We don't want your praise for this achievement, but I do want to share the story in a way that gives praise to God for sustaining us here this long. The reasons why people don't get to stay that long on the mission field are many and could easily have applied to us at several points in the last quarter of a century! We're thankful for the opportunities that we've had and the glory goes to God.

I'm not taking my computer with us tomorrow for this short time with our kids in Australia, so I may not get to write another blog post until after Christmas...though a short grandma-type post might be possible using my phone! In any case, I hope you have a blessed Christmas time with loved ones, whatever that looks like in your life.

P.S. And for those who asked: no, I will not be sharing our granddaughter's name or photo on this blog, just as I've never shared my kids names or photos in this public space.

Expectations

If you're a regular here you might remember that in May I mentioned an exciting development in our family—that we were going to become grandparents this year.(See here.)

Well the day has come: on Wednesday our first grandchild was born, a granddaughter! With our hearts partly in Australia, it's been tricky at times to concentrate on the things in front of us. In the age of instant communication, it was pretty easy to stay in touch with our son as he walked through the day with his wife as things progressed. Though I think the expectation of instant communication can easily make you impatient, and I can't say I was the most patient of expectant grandparents!

It's surreal because we can only look at photos and talk with them, but I guess that's a lot better than people in the past! I've heard stories of people getting a telegram months after such an event! But, nonetheless, we're getting a tiny taste of what my parents dealt with then they became grandparents. I've said previously that leaving Australia for Japan the first time in 2000 was one of the hardest experience I've ever had: we took my parents' only grandchild with us and saying goodbye was heartrending. Then, in Japan, we had our second child a couple of years later, their second grandchild, and they didn't get to meet him for several months. And, of course, most of the last 25 years our parents haven't been able to see our kids regularly.

So now, our son, who made us parents and my parents grandparents, has made us grandparents and my parents great-grandparents! A momentous week indeed.

We get to fly to Australia in less than two weeks to meet our granddaughter and spend Christmas with all our kids. That's going to be really precious, and I'm going to try to dwell on that, because it's easy for me to let the inevitable goodbye at the end of that time to colour the time we get to spend with them all.

But I've also got a difficult decision (wink!). I made cross-stitch birth gifts for almost all my nieces and nephews (here's a blog post about one I completed in 2010). Will I continue the tradition for my grandchildren? I'm not a knitter or crocheter. I've done a lot of cross-stitch in the last 27 years, but I consider myself semi-retired from cross-stitch because it's getting much harder as my eyes age. I have a really nice magnifying/light in Australia, but couldn't fit it in my luggage to bring to Japan. I guess I could try a larger count Aida cloth and a simple pattern? I'll have to think about it...I do have some nice patterns on my shelves. We'll see.