Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to wish all of our dear family and friends a very Happy Thanksgiving! Even though this was a normal week, we were able to get together twice this week with different missionary friends for fun and relaxing thanksgiving celebrations. It is always so wonderful to share special food together - Justin has fallen in love with sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie - what a smart kid! :) We have so much in our lives to be thankful for - as I think about the past year, I'm amazed at the incredible gift of Justin, the extensive time we've been able to spend with our families, the continued opportunity to be living and studying in such a wonderful country, our amazing family of God that is found no matter where we are on the globe, and that same family of God who continues to pray for us and support us - Thank you so much for your prayers and friendship! We are so blessed by each of you! Happy Thanksgiving!

Fountains are cool!

Last Saturday, we spent the day with friends from the seminary and Brian's Uncle LeBron and Aunt Anne. LeBron and Anne are visiting for the 25th anniversary of APNTS, so we're so excited to steal them and spend time together whenever someone else isn't wanting them. ;) We went to Greenbelt, an open air shopping area in Makati. It's a gorgeous place to sit, drink coffee, and catch up. Justin got tired of sitting after a while, so he and I wandered around and found this really cool fountain. Justin had such a blast playing in it, he cried when we had to leave. Here are a few of our favorite pics. When you come to Manila to visit us, we can go here together! :)

Justin at 9 months

Justin is continuing to grow and develop personality more and more each day. Now, he's crawling, pulling up on everything, finding mischievous things to do, trying to eat and drink everything we do, desperately wanting to walk and run, and the list goes on and on. Here are some pictures from the last month....

reading books

future gymnast

playing with Daddy while eating

Halloween Costume - Fuzzy Caterpillar :)
and Mommy was a butterfly...

and quite proud of himself for crawling to the door and trying to push it open :)

100 Years

On October 5 it was such a privilege to join our Philippine church family in celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Church of the Nazarene. We celebrated ALL day long and were amazed at the testimonies of God's faithfulness in the last 100 years and the hope of what will happen in the next 100 years. The church we attend baptized 100+ people and took in 100 new members on the day of the celebration - amazing! In the afternoon, the Metro Manila District met on the APNTS campus for continued celebrations. Despite the rain and mud, 2000+ people gathered to worship and commit to serving God for the next 100 years.... here are just a couple pics. :)

Taytay Church of the Nazarene:

Metro Manila District Celebration:

Long time, no blog!

Well, it's been a very long time since we've posted any blogs... but when I think about the last month, I'm not at all surprised. :) So, this will be my attempt to catch up a little bit. October was super busy since it's the last month of our semester. But in addition to all the normal end-of-semester writing and cramming sessions, I (Julie) am attempting to finish my thesis proposal so I can (hopefully!) graduate in April, and Brian has been gone for the last 2 weeks, so he was trying to finish all his assignments AND prepare for his trip! Brian went to Singapore for regional meetings and then straight to Bangkok, Thailand for a youth leaders camp and meetings with field and global youth leaders. He's had a great time and will be home tomorrow morning, so needless to say, I'm quite thrilled that my 2 weeks as a single mom with a 9 month old is coming to a close! :) But, I can't really complain... Justin has been simply amazing since Brian left, and we have really amazing friends that take such good care of us. So even though I should be working on my thesis tonight, I'm too distracted and excited that Brian will be back tomorrow.... so, I'll post a couple more blogs and make Brian write about his trip and the exciting things God did and is doing as soon as he gets back! :)

hanging out with friends, Mami and Kenji, at the mall

our wonderful friends and neighbors, Yuri and Yasuki

playing with Isaiah and Ian and their grandfather visiting from the states! :)