giving thanks

last week, kyle and i were able to celebrate thanksgiving with our team... we are starting to miss family more in the midst of the holiday season but we are increasingly thankful for the "family" we have here and especially for families back home who love us and support us being here. we miss you all!

the goedken family tradition: a veggie tray! what mother wouldn't be proud? :) everyone worked hard to provide a true american thanksgiving... mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, stuffing, pumpkin and of course:

the bird!

the women on our team plus mary's sister who was visiting!

the whole gang

kayla anxiously awaiting cheesecake for dessert :D

we are indeed blessed! thank you for being a part of our lives across many miles!

conference time!

we spent this past weekend at a conference for best club students and staff.

on of the speakers, dick, and his translator, tomo.

some fellow foreigners we have a lot in common with: they're from iowa and were junior high sweet hearts :) dick and linda spent 30 years in japan with our organization, they were a great encouragement to us!

the midtermers from around the country

our tokyo crew: joanna, megumi, kie, jen, mary, mark, norio, kyle and stephen

yukari, a new friend who studied at iowa state and now lives and works in tokyo!

time well spent!

hi there to all of our faithful readers! sorry, we know it's been awhile. over the last couple months our computer broke, was sent to American, fixed and sent back to Japan. now it's much easier for us to upload our pictures and let you know what's happening on our end of the world!

here's some shots from Keigo's family's visit to our house this weekend. we had such a good time with them and hope for much more time with them in the future!