Wow! I can't believe it has already been almost two months since our last post. Sorry to everyone who has been checking this blog. The past two months have been a blur. We got back to Oregon on October 27th and since then have been traveling, visiting friends and family, job hunting, beginning ministry, moving stuff into our new living space, moving old stuff out, and the list goes on. Anyway, Marc is doing a majority of that stuff while I try to keep up with being a new mom. I finally figured out this blog thing so here's hoping I can keep all of you updated.

The plane ride to Oregon couldn't have gone better. God blessed us with a baby who doesn't mind traveling. He never made a peep. He just ate and slept. He was welcomed at the airport by two grandmothers, two uncles and a very excited grandfather (Marc's dad) who was holding a sign.saying "Welcome home Shigatoshi." This is the name Marc's dad gave to little Caeden. : ) We traveled around Oregon for a couple weeks visiting old friends and family and then we went to Tennessee to visit White Station Church of Christ, our new supporting church for our ministry at Agape in downtown Portland. We had a nice time meeting everyone there but we all decided that we were tired of traveling at that point. Caeden, who is an especially good traveler finally protested by sleeping only 2 or 3 hours every night that we were in Tennessee. We got to be at home for two days and catch up on some sleep and get used to another time change before we headed down to Corvallis again for Thanksgiving.

We are finally in one place for a while now. I am glad we got to see so many people, but I have to admit it is nice to stay put for a bit. However, now that things are settling down, I am beginning to miss Japan and my friends there more. Since we lived there for almost a year and a half, our trip here felt more like a vacation and I find myself wondering when we are going back "home" to Japan. If you are reading this from Japan, sabashii desu nee! : (

Caeden is doing well. We have been so busy that I feel horrible that I haven't taken many pictures of him the past two months. He is growing up so fast! He will be three months on Thursday. He loves to stare at people and smile. He loves looking in the mirror, playing with the toy that Keiichi gave him, and standing up (with a little help of course.) He recently started laughing and is ticklish in the armpits. He is getting quite the personality, but is still a calm and serious baby most of the time. When he gets upset, he likes going outside for a walk, or listening to me sing. He seems to especially like Japanese songs. His favorite song seems to be "Hareruya! Watashi wa Christian..." He also likes the Jiburi Sampo song "Aruko, Aruko,watashi wa genki!" He is a happy little guy and even though he doesn't understand yet, he seems to enjoy stories about Japan.

Well, I will write more later, but right now I am going to go to bed. Again, I will try my best to keep this blog going! Gambarimasu!

Below are some pictures of Caeden and a few videos. Enjoy!

Caeden in his "spring chair" playing with his toys

Caeden having fun looking in the mirror with mom

"Mini me you complete me"

A very cute and funny face...

Caeden and mom dressed up for Halloween

A video of Caeden having a good time with Denine

Let the count down start...

We have 12 days left here in Japan. It is very strange and sad knowing that I only have one more time to study with some of the people I have studied with for the last 15 months. Lots of great things have happened over the past year, and we are grateful to God for those things.

Without further ado... a video and some more pics of the best souvenir anyone could ask for from Japan!

More Pics and a Quick Update...

We are coming down to our last few weeks here in Japan. In case you don't already know, we are flying home on Monday, October 27! We definitely have mixed feelings about this as we don't want to break away from the relationships we have formed here over the past year and a half, but we are ready to come home to see family and friends!

I recently got accepted for an apprenticeship through KAIROS, a church planting organization! I will be an apprentice (at least for the next year) with Agape Church of Christ in Portland, OR. We were planning on helping the church in Portland anyway, but this gives us 60% of the funding we needed to raise for this apprenticeship. We are still looking for an additional $500 a month if you would be interested in supporting us for this apprenticeship.

Caeden is continuing to do really well! We go to the doctor for his last checkup here on Saturday. I added some random pictures and a few videos of Caeden in the slide show below. You can just click on the picture if you want to see a bigger version of it. Again, after you click on a photo, you can view a full screen slide show by clicking the "slideshow" button in the upper left corner of the page.

A trip we won't forget (OK... Caeden might not remember it)

We had a great time yesterday going to Tokyo to the US Embassy for Caeden's passport. We decided to take the train and use the mass transit system in Tokyo rather than drive. As nice as it would have been to drive (somebody would have driven us), it only took us about an hour to get to Tokyo by express train. The subway system in Japan is nothing short of amazing (click here if you are curious about a map of it). Our train left Kasama (our home town) at about 8:50, and we were through with everything at the embassy by 11:30. I was very surprised at how fast and rather painless the process at the embassy was. Of course there was a lot of security to get in, but once we were in, the whole process only took about 45 minutes. The security was a mix between going through airport security, and security at a jail. We had to empty our pockets, let them check our passports, and they didn't want us to bring in any liquids (although they let us take in some water because it was "for the baby" and Caeden's milk). We then went through a series of remotely locked doors and a metal detector. I guess I shouldn't really be too surprised at the security this day in age.

Our original plan was to go down there get the passport stuff taken care of and come straight back home (after all, Caeden isn't even 2 weeks old yet). Once we got there and got done with the process at the embassy, Elissa felt really good and Caeden was fast asleep (as he was for about 90% of the trip), so we decided to go look around a cool area in Tokyo called Roppongi. There were a lot of American restaurants and fast food chains there (Subway, Wendy's, TGIF, Outback, and Hard Rock), and hence our draw to this area. We really have been craving American food lately I think partially due to the fact that we are only a month away from being back to the states. We ended up eating at Subway... and then Wendey's... and then took the subway back to the train station. We ended up just barely missing the train we wanted to take, but it wasn't a big deal as the express train back home runs every hour. It ended up being a good thing because in the train station was a baby lounge area where they had changing tables, and a curtained off area for feeding. After we changed Caeden and he got some food from mom, we headed back home. What a fun first family outing with Caeden!

Below is a short slide show of our trip! Enjoy!

If you want to see bigger pictures, you can click on any of the pictures, and then click on slideshow in the upper left corner. The last two pictures on the slideshow are actually videos, and you have to click on the picture to watch it. I hope this works for most of you!

More pictures...

Just a quick note that all of our pictures taken up to today are now viewable online at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/andresen.marc/CaedenPics#

Elissa and the baby are doing really well! Caeden is now back up to his normal birth weight (and has probably well surpassed that now). We went to see our midwife for a checkup last Thursday and she said Caeden was gaining 62 grams a day. That is twice the normal daily weight gain for a newborn (at least a Japanese newborn)!

We go to Tokyo to the US Embassy on Monday to apply for Caeden's passport, official birth certificate, and social security card. I will write another post after we get back from our first trip with Caeden. Until then...

Back to the house!!!

We are officially back to house and are trying to get settled with our new little friend. We have been very fortunate so far because Caeden has been sleeping pretty well at night (even giving us a 5-6 hour block in the night)! Today, Caeden and I were having a staring contest and then he fell asleep in my lap (so I guess that means I won...). It is sooooooo great being a father. Caeden's interests so far are eating, sleeping, and making one mean dirty diaper.

Elissa is continuing to heal, but is definitely still feeling sore. I hope that she starts to feel better soon because doing anything is difficult, including sitting while feeding (which seems to happen a LOT).  We go back to the doctor on Thursday so that mom and baby can get a checkup. I think they are going to do some blood tests on Caeden then.

As soon as Elissa and Caeden are feeling better and up to the task we will head down to Tokyo to the U.S. embassy. There, we have to apply for Caeden's passport, birth certificate, and social security card. Evidently, the birth certificate that you get in the hospital doesn't fly in the states. You have to get the birth certificate from the hospital here stamped by the city, and then give it to the embassy. It should be fun first family adventure!

Both grandmas head back home on Wednesday. I am sure they don't want to leave, but we won't be too far behind. Below are some more pictures of the cute little fella known as Caeden.

I added this picture last time too... I guess I like it (I actually don't know how to take it off)

He has arrived!!!

He has arrived! Our baby boy finally decided it was time to make his appearance, and what a grand appearance it was! He was born on Thursday, September 11, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. on the dot (which was his due date!). He weighed in at 3050 grams (6 pounds 7 ounces) and was 51 cm in length (20.1 inches). Elissa and I (and our two mothers who are here with us in Japan) are in heaven! 

We decided on the name Caeden, because it means companion. Since we are in Japan we chose kanji for his name. 恵 (kei or Cae) means grace and伝 (den) means speaker. I really didn’t like his name when I first heard it to be honest, but now I love it. His middle name is Leonard, named after Elissa’s dad. We thought it was a good fit, liked the name, and hope that our little boy will be as friendly and loving as Leonard Foote.

We couldn’t ask for a better gift than our perfect little handsome man! We couldn’t be more happy and THANKFUL TO GOD for giving us a healthy baby boy! Praise be to God and His awesome creation. He has Elissa’s cute little mouth and chin, and even makes some of the same faces as his mom when he is sleeping. He has also inherited my amazingly awesome hammer toe (see pics below). He has blue eyes (as did I when I was born, but they are very obviously not still blue) and what appears to be red hair!?!? He doesn't get his head washed until his bath tomorrow, so we will wait and see.

Elissa did such a great job all through her labor, which thankfully only lasted 9 hours (relatively fast time for a first pregnancy). When her contractions hit, they hit hard. By the third contraction, they were only 5 minutes apart. By the time that we got her in the car they were only 3 minutes apart. Her labor wasn’t too long, but it was very intense, and she really was a trooper through the whole ordeal. We decided to have the baby at a midwife’s house. Elissa did great, but ran out of energy in the end, so we went to a hospital that our midwife works with. The doctor there used a suction cup to help the little guy out. We found out that part of the difficulty that Elissa was having was due to the fact that the umbilical cord was wrapped around his head twice (and on top of that shorter than usual). The doctor and midwife did a great job in dealing with this difficulty.

Elissa is still very sore, but I think she is handling it very well. We thank all of you who have been praying for us and supporting us, and we look forward to seeing some of you when we return to the states at the end of October. Take care and God bless!

Little Mama Elissa

It has been a long going, but we have finally got to the 40 week mark! Elissa has been a trooper through this whole process. It has been fun and exciting to see our little Caeden grow and kick his way through 40 weeks. Both Elissa and I thought that she might have him early because of his big size... and well her small size (her mother also had all three kids early). Elissa's favorite new saying is Haiyaku aka chan! Which means hurry up baby! Both of our moms are here in Japan with us eagerly anticipating the coming of their first grandchild. They will be here until the September 17.

As we eagerly wait for Caeden to make his way into this world I have posted some pictures of Elissa and her watermelon (Most of the pictures were taken by our good friend Michi).