STILL IN IWATSUKI

The hatchling with the red shell had been photographed earlier in the month, wanting to be sure to get on the blog before June and her family went down to Okinawa, but it was already the last day!

"That's okay sweetie. I'll put you up here, okay?" It blinked for me a few times. Onto the post then...

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"What do: a Journal, Lab Results, & a Key have in common?"

Well, when I got to the U.S. and began writing in my journal, I realized I had only a few pages left and would run out way before I got back home. You want me to go the tail end of the trip without journaling, that's fine with me, I prayed.. But a few days later, my sister Joyce, completely unaware of the situation, asked if I could use a spiral notebook journal with elastic placeholder and pen.  Could I? Wasn't this God's smiling provision?

Joyce was with me when the U.S. endocrinologist said he'd send written support of use of medication--I wanted this so badly--after seeing the Japanese clinic's test results for my thyroid. Yet, a few weeks later, when Japanese clinicians refused to release test results, I wondered if I needed to trust God more, not try to ensure my own safety, and put it all back in His Hands. Imagine my surprise this past doctor's visit when results of thyroid bloodwork the past 13 years had been printed out to be given me--another wink from God?

That afternoon, we had a visit from our landlord. When I got back from my U.S. trip, and decided to move, we tried repeatedly to contact the landlord but couldn't reach him. In the end, we thought we would pay the final bills, turn everything off, and mail him the keys. But he contacted us several days ago and came so we could have a nice talk. He'd been gone a while and will be on another trip the day we leave, but we were able to see him today. It felt like God was smiling again, giving us much better closure than what we had foreseen.

A notebook, test results, a landlord? All things that had been out of my hands...then God handed back to me--what an Amazing Father!

ROOM FOR ONE MORE?

2 years ago, I remember thinking, AHA! I'd found two mallards hidden in the grass, and began sketching them. But their half dozen ducklings saw and wanted to be drawn too so surprised me by coming out of hiding. Adult caretaker mallards also came, so before I knew it, I needed to draw 10 birds. Dragonflies flying by wanted to know what was going on and perched on the reeds--2 more critters needed to be drawn. 2 basking turtles seemed to comment I had a big job to do. I found myself saying, NO MORE VACANCY!

When I went to the same place today, at first, I saw two turtles, a carp, and a white butterfly. I decided to do the sketch, but as I was finishing, a tiny spider crawled up the boulder near me, so I drew him on the boulder near the carp...then I saw a tiny hatchling on a rock behind that boulder. so added him. After I drew the outlines of the background, another turtle climbed up on that center boulder. I managed to squeeze him in behind the first turtle.

Whew. As I was about to go home, 2 more dragonflies came! Maybe tomorrow, I told them. On the way home, I saw a mallard at Step Creek. (He was one of the first 2 in the grass.) He probably sat there and chuckled at what he saw, thinking, it's happening again.

Aren't you glad God always has room for one more?

THIS HAPPENED TODAY...

I was looking at Japanese finches in the park when something floating in the pond caught my attention. I gulped. It was the little baby turtle I'd returned to the water last week (Apr 28, 2024). I've been saddened to see hatchling corpses before, but this one tore me up even more because I'd made an extra effort to save it on land.

It was such a wee thing. I thought I could give it a dandelion puff growing around the Irrigation Ditch nearby, when I saw a lizard squirm out of hiding, seeming to say, "A dandelion seed? You can do better than that." And he showed me two small wildflowers with his tail. Okay Lizzie, one flower for you, one for me--how's that? He slithered away. Lizards don't usually show themselves.

P.S.:(I noticed last year on May 3, I posted about the Japanese Finch too. I used to think they were real cute tiny birds. Maybe this time of the year, they get so noisy you can't not notice them or something.)