good fight

it's time to post more pics and these are pretty fun! jonathan's service, project 196, had a picnic in the park this last sunday. as part of the entertainment, there was a blow-up boxing ring. jonathan and i couldn't wait to get in and duke it out. this is good marital bonding!

japanese stuff

just a few more pictures of what okinawa is like.

a day at the beach

today we took some time to go to soseko island. what a great day!



on the way back we encountered a detour. apparently, the folks on soseko are making their part of the huge rope for the big tug-of-war in naha tomorrow.

this is a really pretty road that we sometimes drive on. the americans call it Gate 2 street.

this is the seawall where i like to run.

scenery

some of my family members are wondering what okinawa looks like. well... here are some shots from our perspective.

a day off

jonathan finally got some time off - which we desperately needed since the exercise and preparation for the franklin graham festival has kept him extremely busy. so here are a few pics of our day.

for those oof you who know oki, i'll tell you that we went to the rose garden for breakfast...yum! and then we went to mihama to the beach. the weather is starting to cool off, and it was a perfect day! kristin really liked the beach this time.

He answers before we ask!

the other day i was going to send an email around asking everyone to pray that i would be organized enough and have the presence of mind to finish the paperwork necessary to get healthcare for kristin. i didn't, but today i went to mpf and everything went like clockwork! and if you are familiar with the military you know that is a miracle in itself! jonathan and i have both been trying for months to get pre-adoptive benefits for her, but we were getting the runaround. then jonathan took our adoption paperwork in before he left for the states. once again he got the runaround. today i went in "on a whim" to see if i could accomplish anything at all. she is now enrolled in DEERS (for you civilians, that means jonathan will get paid for having another dependent and she is privy to all the military benefits for dependents- including healthcare)! so i can call first thing monday and start setting appointments for well-baby check-ups and immunizations!!! Praise God! yippee!

but if you want, you can continue to pray that our lawyer in tennessee will figure out how to file the adoptive paperwork for us and that i will maintain the presence of mind to get her SSN and her name changed on her passport!

oh... and here's a picture just for kicks! her hair is really growing and it looks hilarious first thing in the morning!

too big for the sink

baby k has now graduated to the real bathtub, and she LOVES the toys aunt mmmmm got her to play with!

airplane food

this is the delicious food that they served us on the way back to oki. no wonder asian people are thin!

teeth

while we were in wv, krumpie got her first tooth. gramma hurt was babysitting her at the time. her second tooth came in about a week later.

go wvu

krumpet wore this cute little outfit the day wvu gave maryland an old fashioned butt-whoopin'!

we're back!

okay... since we've been back home i've had a few friends ask me to update the blog. and since the winds from the typhoon woke kristin up and she is sleeping while i am not... i thought this would be a great time to post some pics. but i have to tell you that the vacation pics won't be on the blog until i remember to ask jonathan to transfer them to my computer. the last hour has taught me that i am not very skilled when it comes to burning pics onto a cd from a mac computer.

these are a few that we've taken since we've been back. and you can see that we've already been back to fabs... YUMMY!

kristin & kristin

i had to post this cause it's so darn cute! we love you dristin! thanks for letting us stay in your apartmento!

well... kristin little took her first airplane ride on july 11, 2006. first we flew from okinawa to taipei. we sat in taipei for about 4 hours (which was a great time for her to nap) and then we flew on to seattle. i couldn't believe how good she was on the plane. i think the fact that we flew during her normal nighttime sleeping hours really helped. but anyway... she didn't even cry once. and that was a relief. we sat next to a taiwanese man who was really nice and he didn't mind her at all. in fact, he even held her once and when we got off in seattle he helped me carry my bags.

and now we are in bremerton, washington hanging out with dristin! yay! we are so happy to see them. the apartment is really cool, but doug works a lot. kristin took all her time off while we are here and me and baby k slept until 11:30 this morning. washington is a beautiful place and their wedding spot is gorgeous! me and soon-to-be weglarz walked on the beach yesterday and found some diseased sand dollars. very interesting. and it's really cold here compared to oki. it's so good to spend time with them again. i didn't realize just how much i missed krazy kristin until i got here!

APPROVED!!!

yep! we've been approved! our lawyer called this morning to let me know that the judge has approved our adoption! we're legal!!! yippee!

originally we thought the adoption would only take a month or so, but tennessee state law says that she has to live with us for a year before we could be approved. however, our lawyer showed that we are a special case - we all live in japan - and he successfully expedited our adoption!!! praise God!!!!

thank You, Jesus for making us parents!!!!!

lil' monkey!

there is a former student here, eric, who has always called kristin the lil' monkey (except he says it with an accent and it's funny!). here's proof that she gets it from her dad!

places to eat, etc.

i have to show everyone one of our favorite places to eat. its called fabs and they have an all-you -can-eat curry bar with french fries and salad. we love it. every time we go there i want to stay on this island forever!

working on independence

i am working on "giving my child independence" as stated in the secrets of the baby whisperer. not that i've followed any book to raise her. she is unique and i'm not conforming her to any one regiment. anyway... i won't get on that soap box, but while she is in the floor playing, i'm at the desk blogging. she's learned to go from sitting up to almost crawling. it isn't really a crawl yet, but she kind of scoots toward whatever object has her attention. i've noticed that she has a fascination with tags. she can have the cutest toy that makes the coolest noises, but she goes for the tags. i think she's very concerned about the content or maybe where her toys are made!! another thing she is very interested in is her feet. they must taste good! yummy!
just so ya know... we didn't quite make it through the whole blog before i had to go pick her up! so much for independence!

just for fun

okay... here's a couple more because she's soooooo cute!

bath time!

it turns out that the best time to blog is when i really should be studying. i just thought these pics of kristin were too cute to keep to myself!

so cute!

i was looking through some pics and i realized that my kristin little is already beginning to favor her namesake.