I’d like to ask you to pray for Annie.  There are two areas this particular time where we need special wisdom as parents and where we need to entrust our daughter to God’s care.

The first — a phone call this week confirmed that Annie will need eye surgery sometime in the next few months.  Since birth, she has occasionally had one looked like a weak or lazy eye.   A pediatrician in New Jersey recommended that we take her to a pediatric eye specialist.  After a series of tests, he confirmed that it is a condition that is not correctable by glasses, patches, or exercises, but at some point over the next year or so the condition would likely worsen, requiring surgery.

The past six or eight weeks just that has happened.  We have noticed the problem repeatedly in one day, and other friends who see her frequently have noticed as well.  After calling the specialist in New Jersey late one night this week and describing the condition, he suggested that based on the description over the phone, the surgery has indeed become necessary, the sooner the better.  As the condition worsens, eventually without the surgery she will stop using the weaker eye.

So we are praying and thinking through the best way for her to get this surgery. We don’t want it to be a big problem at school– it has become more and more noticeable.  We are trusting God to guide us step by step.

The second area is her adjustment to Japanese language and yochien (kindergarten).  The other day I asked her if she had explained something to her teacher.  She said, “No, mommy!  You know I can’t speak japanese!  My mouth is zippered when I go into yochien!”  (Anyone who knows Annie knows that her mouth is NOT zippered when she’s home!)  Last week I challenged her one morning as I biked her into school to play with one person that day.  We were happy that she said she had played with two girls on the playground (but didn’t know their names).  The next day she wasn’t sure if she had played with anyone. I then challenged her to speak two words of Japanese the next day and she quickly reminded me that she doesn’t speak Japanese.

This year feels like an important year for her to begin embracing the culture and the language which we are very much a part of.  Pray with us for a Japanese friend or two with whom Annie can enjoy being a 4 1/2 year old girl.  And pray iwth us for this sweet, sweet, strong-willed child  that God- with a little help from Annie– will begin unzippering her mouth — her mind– her heart.