Trip to the Zoo

We took a trip to the zoo a little before Matthew was born.  It was kind of like the last trip with just the girls.  We went in the afternoon and avoided the crowds and spent a couple hours walking around and watching the animals.

The great thing about Chiba zoo is that you can get quite close to the animals and there is enough variety to keep the children entertained.



The giraffe`s head is just a few feet away as I took this picture of it eating grass by the fence

The girls are just a couple feet away from the giraffe.  You can see their shoes, the red ones

They don`t have the more agressive animals like the rhino or hippopotamus, or predatorss like tigers or lions though, but the usual big guys are there: elephants, giraffes, gorillas, and the like.

Ultimately the zoo reminds my children that the animals in their books are real.  In suburban Japan there is not a lot of exposure to wild animals, so the only thing you have are the pictures on the ABC charts and in books. 

It was fun and only took a couple hours to see most of everything.

Manna, in her own world



Manna is the middle child and since being born has probably suffered the most out of all our children.  She had to have surgery to open her tear duct before she was even one year old.  She has suffered from asthma and was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia before turning two years old.  She has fallen down the stairs more than once.  She has fallen chipping teeth, scraping and bruising her very white skin more times than I can count.  Recently she had a bad accident and had to be taken in an ambulance to the hospital to stitch her Achilles heel. A week later she had chicken pox all over her face and her body. She still has a way to go to recover...

It has been hard to see her go through so much, she is still only 4 years old!  She sometimes prays for it to go away, or for her sisters that they won`t get sick or hurt like her.  The experiences of her life already have put her in an almost completely different world than other children. 

She is still silly and loves to dance and run around and jump on her daddy`s back.  Yet she knows real pain, real suffering for a four year old.  She has empathy from it already.  I hate to watch her suffer, but I hope that somehow it can be used and be a blessing to many.

She is growing in her understanding of her own world.  And with that understanding there is a special wisdom.  At times she can say the most encouraging of things even to me.  The other day she told me that she can give her best because she sees me try my best everyday.  She told me not to worry about her because she would give her best effort not to cry because she doesn`t see me cry even when it hurts.