Road Trip, Day 2

Today we are traveling through West Virginia and into Pennsylvania.

We are going to meet up with Debe's brother, John, who lives near Pittsburgh.

 Forgot the name, but this is apparently the longest, single arched bridge in the western hemisphere.

 Kayla, John, Emi & Mika chillaxin on the couch.

Debe with her "little" brother.


Thanks John and Kayla for letting us crash at your house-- it was great to see you!

Road Trip, Day 1

We are heading on a 6 day, 2200 mile road trip through many states to visit some family.  Day one is from Alabama to Tennessee.

We took a break in Knoxville and visited the Build-a-Bear store here.  Emi chose a chocolate colored puppy (named Emily), while Mika chose a bunny (named Ballerina Bunny).

After stuffing and dressing their new friends, here is the finished product (just inside Virginia).

Book Review: Ascent from Darkness by Michael Leehan

Ascent from Darkness by Michael Leehan is the amazing true story of a man who “sold his soul” to Satan.  Leehan explains in detail how worshipping and serving the Prince of Darkness actually empowered him.  Through a heightened spiritual awareness and contact with demons, Leehan would gain an advantage over others. He became quite successful in his earthly business of carpentry, as well as his spiritual business of distracting and misleading new or naïve Christians.

Leehan gives chilling accounts of how he would purposely attend up to 15 Bible studies a week with the goal of confusing and misleading young Christians.  Sadly, he was quite successful at this as many Christians were not fully committed to God and were vulnerable to Leehan’s misquoting Scripture and sexual advances.

The fact that this story is true makes it even more disturbing in my view. I imagine there are many more “Michaels” out there leading people away from God.  Happily, as the title indicates, Michael does not end up serving Satan. By the end of the book Leehan has done a complete 180 and today serves Jesus Christ instead of Satan.

This is an important reminder of the spiritual battle that rages on around us that we too often forget about. This book is a page turner and is an easy read.  Due to the amount of violence and sexual details contained I would not recommend it to just anyone though. The book does tend to go off on rabbit trails and contains some minor, unnecessary details, but on the whole it is an important message Christians should read.

I received this book from Thomas Nelson Press in exchange for an honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and have not been influenced in any way.

Fried Green Tomatoes

If you've seen the movie, Fried Green Tomatoes, you might recall that much of the movie takes place in a small restaurant named the Whistle Stop Cafe.  Well, it is a real restaurant and it is just minutes from Birmingham, where my in-laws live.

Of course, it's real name is the Ironside Cafe, but the food was awesome and the Fried Green Tomatoes were quite good!

Stop in Chicago

Our flight was a great price, but we had two 5 hour layovers-- one in Tokyo and the other in Chicago.

As we had to go through Immigration and Customs in Chicago, maybe it was a good idea.

They had an interesting play area here:

There was also this interesting replica of the Lincoln Memorial.

After explaining to Emi about who Lincoln was, she replies, "Oh, I thought that was God."  Good times.

Heading to the U.S.

Well it has been 6 long years since we visited the States.  Mika, 5, has never been there, while Emi, 7, has vague memories.  We will be staying in Alabama with family which will be a new experience for this "yankee".  We'll send a few updates of our experiences here!

Last Day of School

Well this year just flew by!  We all had a year filled with various challenges and wonderful blessings.  It was a good year, but it is also good to be finished.

Emi and Mika received some awards: Mika (Right) had perfect attendance (even though there were many days she did not feel like going to school).  Emi received an award for Japanese Class, as well as one for "Citizenship" for showing kindness to others. We are very proud of both our girls.

Next up: A well-earned vacation to the United States.