Butterfly Kisses

A child is like a cute little caterpillar. They are small, fuzzy, and people love to help them inch along from place to place.  Then sometime when you are not looking they hide away in a cocoon. Before you know it they emerge as this beautiful butterfly, which will soon fly away to experience life on its own, no longer needing help to "inch" them along.

This evening Matt and I were looking through some photos from our first few months in Japan. It is hard to tell how much a person has changed when you see them everyday. But sometime between March, 2009 and now, our cute little caterpillar changed into a beautiful, amazing butterfly.

Hard to believe only 19 months ago this was our little caterpillar, who had just turned 13 years old.

And here is our beautiful butterfly, who will be 15 years old next month.

I have a love/hate relationship with the song Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carslisle. However when I reflect on some of the lyrics, I can't help but think maybe Bob had the same thought as I, late one night when he thought about his own butterfly. 

Thankful Tuesday

For those that know me well you know that I am an anti-change person. So our decision to accept a job in Japan is probably very non-Alexis-like. Because change doesn't even begin to come close to mention just how much change it will be. So just why is this post titled "Thankful Tuesday?"

In just the past 3 weeks of accepting the overseas assignment I have been emailed or called by three wives of Caterpillar expats in Kobe, emailed by a friend of a friend who used to live in Tokyo, emailed back and forth several times with this awesome family, and have been invited to dinner with 4 families while we are in Kobe for our house hunting trip. We also have a full agenda already emailed to us for the week we are there, so there is nothing we have to do on our part but show up. The support that the other expats have already given us, and Caterpillar in general (they think of everything), is bound to make this exciting, yet terrifying and nerve racking transition so much easier.

So I am very very very thankful that God has placed these people in our lives. It makes me know that our decision to accept this assignment was the right one to make. I can already see how he is working in our lives not only here, but in Japan as well.