Family

I have been thinking a lot about family lately. What got me started thinking was the birth of a baby boy. Ezra 善治郎 (Zenjiro) Potter was born on Monday October 11th to Ryan and Nelle Potter. Ryan was my high school youth pastor and Nelle was my freshman and sophomore English teacher. They got married 4 summers ago at my favorite place in the world, Takayama. Ezra, who is pictured below (by the way I didn't take this picture, one of his parents did), is their first child. He is so cute and I feel so blessed that I got to go and visit him and when he was only 2 days old. Its amazing how small and helpless they are. I have always loved babies (part of growing up an oldest child in a big family), they are such a precious gift and they grow up way to fast. But, this little boy also brings so much more, he is the official start of a family (at least in my mind). Being their first child means that now Ryan and Nelle aren't just a couple, they are parents and that brings a whole new dimension to life. Being a part of a family is something special, it gives you a place to belong, people to love you and people to love. Its amazing! And this little boy is a part of the beginnings of a family that I know will be fantastic.

Isn't he adorable!

I was so blessed to grow up in a loving home and be a part of a wonderful, large family. There are 8 of us in my family. My parents, 3 boys and 3 girls, now that we are even I think my parents will stop adopting :) Here we are in the picture below. My parents Tom and Maddy, my brothers (by age) Bennett, Grady and Elias and my sisters (by age) Tashia and Leila.

Elias is such a goofball :)

I have always loved being a part of a large family, especially one that is so centered on Christ. My parents raised us well, at least the 3 of us that are out of the house, they are still working on the younger 3 :) Sometimes life was chaotic and I just needed to be alone, but I loved that I could always find someone to play with or talk to if I wanted to. There were plenty of people to love and be loved by. I learned a lot about people and how to live and even thrive when your stuck with the same people every day. We formed a special bond, and it was really hard to go off to college and be all alone. Thankfully I got to visit them during the summer and some Christmas', but I haven't seen my family since May 2009, so I am really excited to go see them this Christmas. Since I'm so excited I'm going to put another picture of us in, this time we are in front of our cabin at Takayama!

Can't wait to see them!

Now, the amazing thing about God is he knows what we need most when we need it. He knew that when I was at Westmont I needed a family and I needed one badly, so he provided one for me. Its pretty crazy how it all happened ... The summer after my sophomore year my family was in the states for the summer and we were staying in a house in Goleta when there was a fire and we had to evacuate. So, my dad called a friend of his (someone he worked for when he was in college) and she said we could stay at her daughters house, so we did. They were so kind to us and such fun people to stay with, so when my family left to go back to the Philippines I called them up and asked to stay with them until school started. And from then on if I wasn't at Westmont I was pretty much always at their house. It was such a blessing to be able to escape the craziness of college and join the craziness of family life for a few days. They just took me in as one of their own and Frank and Loirann even joke that I am the daughter they had when they were 18 :) I always felt loved, blessed and comforted when I was at their home. I have so many fond memories of day trips, first days of school, globe and tea cup wars, good conversations, baseball games in their front yard, tea in the morning, Easter sunrise service, sports games, and hugs. The picture below is from a day hike we did in Santa Barbara.

Aeson, Alysse, Frank and Loriann Mastromarino

This summer I new that I would be leaving and so I spent as much time as I could with my Santa Barbara family. We did a lot of fun things together, like our road trip to West Virgina and our trip to Disneyland and I have a lot of great memories from both of them. But we also just did some normal everyday things. One of the things I like to do at their house is wake up on a Saturday morning and watch cartoons snuggled in between Aeson and Alysse on the couch. I think our collective favorite is probably Phineas and Ferb and we have spent many hours watching episodes together. As you know I watch this show online here, and this week I watched the show called "Oh, there you are Perry" Sadly, it made me homesick. I don't know how a cartoon can make you homesick, but somehow this one did. In it Perry (the pet platypus who doubles as a secret agent) is assigned to a different family and has to leave his loving home. The boys find him missing in the morning and are devastated and decided to go to the top of a building and sing a song for him to call him home. Of course it is a pretty funny song, but the whole thing reminded me of how I had to leave my Santa Barbara family and how much I miss them. This picture is from our road trip this summer, we stopped at the Grand Canyon.

Yes we wore matching T-shirts :)

As I said before, God knows our deepest desires and needs and he knows I love families! In my loneliness and fear my first few weeks here I was introduced to the Richters. I have written a little bit about them on here before. They have been a comfort and a joy to me when I have been lonely and in need of love. Joel and Megan have been so gracious and welcoming to me and have allowed me to come and be filled at least once a week in their home. I have been filled in all ways, physically, emotionally and spiritually. They feed me dinner, allow me to play with their kids and provide great conversations. I always feel filled up and overflowing after I get to see them. It has been such a blessing to have a family here in Japan, a place where I feel like I belong, people I can love and people to love me. I enjoy every minute of our time together, and look forward to it each week.

Eva, Megan, Levi and Joel Richter

This past week we went out to dinner at one of my favorite Indian food restaurants in a store here called Parco. It was delicious and then afterwards we went to the pet shop on the floor below (its kind of a tradition). It was so fun to watch Levi and Eva interacting with the dogs and the cats for sale. There were a couple of dogs especially that were really fun, they just wanted to play. Levi especially really enjoyed playing with them and was laughing and smiling the whole time. Eva started to figure it out after watching Levi, but was more interested in seeing if any of the signs came off the glass. Levi really didn't want to leave the pet shop.

I just love having fun with Levi and Eva, making them smile and laugh, running around with them, watching Eva learn to walk, hearing about their trips to the B bear basement, getting hugs, and seeing how much they have warmed up to me. Its such a joy to be a part of someone's life, especially a child's.