Maika Sophia Bentley is Home

Thank you all for the great comments you have given us on the arrival of Maika. She and Yoko came home Saturday morning and are doing very well. As everyone knows, this is a great learning time, but the reality of it can't be fully understood until it is experienced. Currently it is a blessing to be where we are as there are so many things conveniently located. We have a a baby store, supermarket, shopping center, birthing clinic, and Erik's work all within a 5 minute walk. Another blessing is that we just got renters for our house in Arizona. We are having the wonderful experience of seeing God's hand at work. Again, thank all of you for your prayers. More pictures to come soon.

Just Because Someone Has a Birthday Doesn't Always Mean They are More Mature

Last weekend Erik had the great thrill of turning 36. Sarah came to help celebrate, and Yoko's brother and his 2 daughters came by, so we had a full on birthday party. The main dish was a super rich chocolate cake that Yoko bought from a local Italian restaurant. There also happened to be some other food, but the cake was what was eaten first.

Today is Saturday, July 17th, 2010, the official due date of ----- ------ Bentley, but nothing is happening. Yoko lost her mucus plug on Monday, but things have been quiet since then. Keep you eyes open for an e-mail from us as we will try to let you know as soon as it happens.

A Birthday and more Pictures

Yoko officially hit the big 30. She took it quite well and is showing no ill effects from leaving her 20s. Sarah, Erik's sister, came to help celebrate. We all went to dinner at a tasty Japanese food buffet.

We are just 2 weeks from the due date, so these may be the last pregnancy photos we get up. They have been taken over the last month with the hydrangea picture being on June 27th. Our most recent check showed everything looking good, and Yoko has the go ahead to exercise all she wants in order to get the baby to drop. It is an exciting time. Please keep us in your prayers as we enter the world of parenthood.

We Can Almost Count the Weeks Left on One Hand

It's been a month since we took pictures of the growing belly, so we went out today (Saturday 6/5) and found some new settings. Most people would frown upon a pregnant lady climbing in a tree, but when it comes to getting a shot we like, there's no limit.
Rice planting season is pretty much over, and the rice paddies are full of tender green shoots making for a nice background. Everything is so green, a nice trade off to all the rain.

We are doing very well and continue to be so blessed by the Lord. Yoko is still able to keep up her regular exercise classes and ballet. She is walking much slower, but that hasn't stopped her from getting out. Her continued active lifestyle raises eyebrows here.

Other than Yoko's growing belly and the kicking baby, things are pretty mellow. Work is going very well for Erik; he enjoys his classes and doesn't have to wear a tie for 4 months thanks to Cool Biz which started June 1st.

31 Weeks Down, 9 To Go

Our little one has finally moved out of the breech position, and there is a strong feeling that we will be having a little girl. We have been blessed with good checkups and Yoko continues to feel great. She is enjoying her pregnancy. We have been picking up some baby things, and Erik's sister Sarah was very generous and got us a baby bouncer, a bath chair and some baby clothes.

Speaking of Sarah, she came out for a visit during Golden Week (Golden Week is a series of holidays in early May). With Sarah in town, we took in one of the local tourist sites, Boso-no-Mura. We also took Sarah to Costco for some shopping and enjoyed some tasty Indian curry. While Sarah was with us, she took some pregnancy photos and anniversary photos for us.

We celebrated our anniversary with a visit to Hamazushi which is a kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi restaurant. We had planned to have tiramisu (our wedding cake) after sushi, but Erik ate 20 plates so tiramisu will be enjoyed at a later time. We don't mind stretching out our anniversary celebration.

Visiting Sarah, The Baby, and A Full Time Job

When a month goes by between posts, there must be a good reason; however, we won't give you any excuses. Now on to the latest update: Yoko's still pregnant, we're still in Japan, and we still love each other. Actually, there is a lot more than that to report. The baby is growing well, but we still don't know what it is. Our last check up showed us a healthy but uncooperative child. We have a check up coming soon, so we hope to have a real idea of what we are having. So far, the majority is saying it is a girl. Yoko's is keeping fit with ballet, stretch and maternity aerobics classes. She is still working 2 or 3 evenings a week for 3 hours at a time. Other than the continued itchiness, she is doing quite well.

We made a short trip to see Sarah (Erik's sister) and to celebrate her birthday. We took her a lot of food that she isn't able to get and made a Mexican food dinner for her. During the day we walked around where she lives, Suwa. It is located on a lake which makes for a nice setting. There are quite a few hot springs in the area, and along the edge of the lake there is a place to sit and soak one's feet. On a cool spring day, it was quite enjoyable. We have a long holiday coming up the beginning of May and will be able to see Sarah again as she will be coming to see us.

April first was the first full day for Erik at his new job. He is a full time English teacher at the Airline Business College of Narita (ABCN) and English House (EH). The two schools are under the same parent company and in the same building. He will be teaching 4, 45 minute college classes Tuesday - Friday. These classes are from 11:00 - 3:00 will an hour break in the middle. After the college classes, and on Mondays, he teaches kids ranging in age from 3 - 15 and adults. Most days begin at 10:30 and end around 7:30. The school is a 5 minute walk from where we live, so he gets to go home for lunch breaks.

This job is truly a blessing and an answered prayer from the Lord. In the process of applying for full time work, we sent a letter to to ABCN in December stating that Erik was looking for work. With all the possible work places we were looking at, we forgot about ABCN, and the end of January we heard from them. They wanted Erik to come in for an interview. After the interview and a short teaching demonstration, they offered Erik a full time position on the spot. After a night of prayer, we accepted it. The way God works in truly amazing. The job search process was not moving along at all and out of of the blue God dropped this in our laps. Just another demonstration of His faithfulness, and if we put our trust in Him, he will direct our paths.

A Date, Friends, and Our Bun in the Oven

It's been a while since we did something we labeled as a "going on a date", but that's what we did the other day. Yoko's mom won two tickets to Disneyland, and since she is not a big fan of the place, she gave them to us. Yeah for us! It was our first time to go to an amusement park together. It was pretty busy, so we didn't get on as many rides as we had hoped to , but we had fun nonetheless. We were really looking forward to some of the food we would be able to eat there but ended up being disappointed. It was expensive as was expected, but on top of that, the servings were small and not that tasty. After 3 items we decided to stop buying food and wait till we got out of the park to eat something. By the time we left, it was past dinner time and we were quite hungry, so we stopped at the first place that had food, 7-Eleven. We feasted on fried chicken, onigiri, and makizushi. We ended up spending just a bit more than we would have on one item at Disneyland, and the quality was much better. Whenever we get to go to Disneyland again, we will definitely take food with us.

It's not all that often that we get to play host to friends, but a couple weekends ago we had some friends from church stay with us. He is German, and she is Japanese. They have a cute little girl that kept us entertained. Yoko put together a very delicious chicken pesto lasagna that feed us well. We enjoy our time with this couple and are sad as they are moving to Kyoto in a week. However, now we all the more reason to make a trip there.

Yoko is feeling good but is beginning to experience the side effects of the growing belly. Her regular pants no longer fit; she is noticing it is harder to reach her shoes, and she seems to be eating constantly. We brought a few maternity items from Arizona before we came here not knowing what we would find, but we have found maternity clothes at several different stores that fit her well and are not all that expensive.

With 23 weeks down we are looking forward to finding out the sex soon. Hopefully it will be at our next checkup. Once we know, we will send out the word.