Alexa Tabitha Tokushige
We are still waiting for Alexa.
As of Saturday 10/29 Liz was dilated 3cm and 40% effaced. I am not really sure what this means, but I do know that we need to get to 10cm and i am guessing 100% is the goal.
As we are in the final stages of waiting for Alexa, I thought I would post some thoughts of a dad to be having a girl.
-praying for a healthy normal baby girl.
-i need a gun
-i hope she looks like her mom
-i cant wait to take her on dates
-i will set the bar so high that she wont even waste time talking to loser boys that do not know how to properly treat women
-we are going to be a family of 4.
-i have a lot of pink stuff around the house
-a 2 year old and a newborn sounds like sleep is not going to happen much for a while.
-thank you Jesus for a healthy pregnancy so far
-super appreciate my wife for carrying this baby for 9 months
-we keep changing this kids name. hoping alexa sticks.
-tokushige’s facing a bunch of transitions again. trusting Jesus.
-praying for a house that we can build our family in.
-God never ceases to amaze me as He provides for our family
please continue to pray for Liz and Alexa.
the tree
20 years from now there are certain family moments that I hope we will remember as a family. Our hope is that one of these moments will be the traditions that we live out every year around christmas time. This year we started a tradition of setting up and decorating the Christmas tree. Although Ben might not remember this year, as we continue to do this we hope that the value of family, working together, and quality time becomes a part of who he is.
1 spider, 1 hour, and 5 attempts later we have a straight tree.
the lights
Tokushige fam first christmas tree.
Benaiah’s video
thought I would share this here. On September 19, 2010 Benaiah celebrated 1 year of life. Here is a video recapping some of what went down over the past year that we showed at his party.
Priorities
I blog about this every once in a while. Probably more of a reminder to myself than anything else.
In the midst of life filled with stuff I need to remember my priorities.
1. Jesus
2. The wife
3. Benaiah
4. Work and everything else.
Lord help me not to make number 4 more important than 1,2, and 3.
Manila top 10
Just got back from Manila on Monday. We spent 3 weeks in the PH and had a blast. Fighting some serious jet lag
right now, but it was definitely worth it. Here is my top 10 from our past 3 weeks. (in no particular order)
1. Time with the wifey. Staying with my inlaws meant that we were able to get some extra help taking care of Ben, which meant Liz and I had some extra time to be with each other.
2. Time with family. The in-laws got their first chance to meet the first grandson in the family.
3. The Spa.
4. EN2010
5. Victory is seriously one of my favorite churches on the face of the planet. Not only is a dynamic growing environment, but I have made some seriously unreal friends over the past few years.
6. 1st PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) game with some of my favorite people in the world. side note: if you are interested investing into some unreal missionaries to the Phillipines Rob and Sam Johnson are definitely worth the investment.
7. shopping. 168 mall, greenhills mall. I am not typically a shopper, but I am a newly married man and new father who definitely is in favor of cheaper price tags.
8. Food. Cyma, teriyaki boy, dencios, yoshinoya. drooling as I type.
9. Down time. internet was not exactly lighting speed at the house so I decided to shut down the laptop for a few weeks. definitely a good idea. (side note: hence the inactivity on this blog)
10. the people. for all of our great friends and family that we havent seen for a year, we definitely enjoyed the time catching up and hanging out.
EN2010
worshipping our God with people from 50 different nations, timely messages, divine connections and reconnections,
are a few of the many highlights from EN2010, but for me the highlight definitely was hanging out with this guy.
For the first time I attended one of these conferences as a dad. In a world where I am usually working during church meetings it was a nice change of pace to be able to sit in the back with this guy. Within a few years Benaiah will need to be with his peers in kids church, but as for EN2010 he got to stay with us. I may have not taken as many notes as I usually do, but for this year it is ok.
here are some of my lessons from EN2010:
-My number 1 priority besides Jesus is my wife, and if I can help her out I need to
-My number 2 priority is Benaiah and ministry can not come in the way of this very important priority
-even though it is a lot of work sometimes I am blessed to have a amazing wife and a terrific son.
-I pray that even though I am called to full time ministry, my kids will have a choice. I pray that we can live a “normal” life that is not centered around church meetings.
posted from iphone
Sitting here working on the message for xchange tonight, and in a moment of undisciplined distraction decided to attempt to post a blog from my phone using my wordpress app.
So far this app seems pretty user friendly.
This may allow me to post random thoughts more frequently on my website. So for my 2 readers you can be on the lookout for a little diversity from this blog.
Looks like I can even post pictures from my phone. Gotta love the wonders of technology.
1st Fathers Day
3 years ago around this time i jumped on a plane as a single man with no clue what God was about to do in my life.
Today I am happily married and have a 9 month old son. Here is a quick rundown on the last 3 years.
-May 2007: moved to Manila
-February 2008: Engaged
-June 2008: Married
-January 2009: Benaiah is 9 months away from joining our fam
-September 2009: Benaiah
To this day I can not believe that God would trust me with Liz and Benaiah. To say I am blessed would be a huge understatement.
52 days
52 days until EN2010.
50 days until we get to go back to Manila for the first time in a year.
super excited to see friends and family.
cyma, teriyaki boy, yoshinoya, crispy pata, massages, divisoria, $5 movies, zong, chinese food with GH people, and the list could go on and on…
Master Benaiah
Master Yoda
Master Benaiah
The wife snapped this pix a few days ago and posted it on her site.
Could this be the one to bring balance to the force??
God Provides
rough week for the macbook this past week. 
On wednesday morning I turned on my laptop to find that this pic to the right is all it was going to. I had a feeling it was going to happen, but up my faithful macbook crashed. After about an hour of CPR I realized i needed to take it in. It was at this moment that I began to wish I had bought the apple care (extended warranty) for all you non mac folks.
I took the lap top down to the ala mo apple store and they confirmed that the hard drive was dead. Shortly after giving me that crushing blow they added that they would replace the hard drive for free. Thats right. FREE. I was stoked to say the least. Dont know why it was free, and I dont really care, Ill take it.
Here is just another instance of God keeping His promise to provide. We are tithers and we claim the rights of tithers. Even though our finances may not be exactly where we would like it to be, GOD PROVIDES.
notes
-i did loose all my data so if you are a mac user buy a hard drive, plug it in and turn on your time machine. I seriously love time machine, and wish i knew about it BEFORE my mac crashed.
-found out that macbooks bought between 2006-2007 may be eligible for hard drive replacement.
-ON PROVISION: Sunday afternoon I received an email that someone was giving us an extra $450 this month. Can I say it again… GOD PROVIDES!!!!
benaiah update
today Benaiah is 7 months old and going strong. totally love this guy. here is a recap of the last 7 months.
that was one crazy ride
i am sooooo tired
now what are these people doing to me?!?
i can see!!!
is that what i look like?
MANNY!MANNY!MANNY!MANNY!
dang it! this rolling thing is hard work
that’s right you know who can sit on his own!!!
laughing with mommy
absolutely love having Benaiah as a part of our family…. we never know what will make him laugh, but seeing this kid laugh is probably one of my favorite things to do. check out mommy making Benaiah laugh.
Benaiah Laughing
One of the most exciting aspects of being a father is being able to see my son grow and develop. A few weeks ago Benaiah started laughing more consistently. Here is 43 seconds of Benaiah as he discovers laughing.
I will be using this blog to record all the action from our first son. Check back as Benaiah continues to move through his developmental milestones.
first roll
A few weeks ago Benaiah rolled over for the first time. He kind of has a hard time getting is hand out from under his body and still cant roll himself back onto his back. The simple act of rolling over might seem small, but I was seriously pumped when I seen this happen.
Here is a vid of the action:
diaper gene pride
Babies go through a lot of diapers. I remember when we first brought Benaiah home we would go through 10-15 diapers
a day.
We bought a diaper gene to hold all of the dirty diapers and surprisingly found that this device worked pretty well. For those of you that don’t know the diaper gene is a container that is designed to keep the dirty diaper smell enclosed. For the most part this product works pretty well.
As the diaper gene begins to fill though the smell starts to seep out. Without warning the stench begins to fill the room and if that bag is not changed the dozens of diapers quickly begin to take over the room causing a serious odor to do some damage to anyone who comes near.
The dirty diapers is kind of like pride. It is in us, but as it continues to grow the pride in us releases a stench that affects those around us. People all around us can see and smell the pride in our lives. The only way to deal with pride is to smell it early before the stench takes over the room.
Tonight I will be talking to our youth about pride and unpacking a few warning scents that we can identify to keep ourselves from becoming stink with pride.
xchange * 7pm * chun wah kam * Jan 29 * Friday
the gratitude challenge
the wife decided to participate in the gratitude challenge as a part of her 7 days of prayer and fasing. I thought I would try it out. we first heard about this through our good friend Samantha’s blog.
Here is the assignment for day 1: Use the alphabet as a fun and quick format for taking an inventory and making your list of things your are grateful for. Share this list with your social network.
Aiea: I was born and raised in this small city in Hawaii and have always had a burden to see the gospel bring transformation
Benaiah: I love my son.
Cruz’s: My inlaws have been supportive and one of our biggest fans. miss them a bunch
Dad: love my dad
Every Nation: love the people that God has called me to build his kingdom with
Freedom: grateful for those who make it possible for me to live in a free country
Grace Bible Kapolei: I get to work with some seriously smart people
Home: gotta love how God hooked us up with our own home.
Iphone: yes pretty materialistic, but still grateful
Jesus
Kissing my wife
Liz Tokushige
Mother: My mom is the most generous, caring, kind hearted person that I know.
Nice people: gotta love it when you are trying to get stuff done and a nice person helps you out.
Ocean: love all the ocean gives us
Philippines: kase pinoy ako
Queens staff: the folks who helped us welcome Benaiah into our family
Relaxing with the wifey on our date nights
Surfing and soccer: my 2 favorite hobbies
Tokushige’s: love the fam
Underwear: imagine life without underwear. might be a little uncomfortable
Visiting fam and friends in other countries: haven’t traveled in a while, but grateful in advance
Wife who is a proverbs 31 woman.
Xerox machines: seriously could not think of a x word. still grateful for xerox machines though
Yes: what Liz said when I asked her to marry me
Zippers: without zippers life for guys would be just a little more inconvenient
move to makakilo
for the 2 of you who follow my blog, you may have noticed that I have not been keeping up with this recently. Here is an update on the latest from the Tokushige’s…..
In what was seriously a miracle we were able to get a rental in Makakilo for only $900. God opened a huge door and we had to move. For the past 2 weeks we have been buying stuff, assembling furniture, cleaning up, and bunch of other activities that are not on the top of my fun list.
We are super stoked on our place and even more stoked to be in the community that we feel God has called us to reach. Our lease is 1 year so as of now it looks like we will be here for at least 1 more year.
Here is a tour of our new place………..
chef wife’s kitchen
dinning area
living room/Benaiahs play room
benaiahs room
Benaiahs bathroom
Master bathroom
Master bedroom
This may be a first step for us, but I am super overwhelmed by God’s provision. He has been with us every time we needed Him and this is simply one more example of of his faithfulness.
tokushige Christmas scrap
Families coming together is generally a nice event. Food, talking story, and enjoying each other. Sometimes families get into disputes, because we are family.
This year Liz, Benaiah and I did not see eye to eye with my parents on some pretty big issues and this is what went down.
the grinch jacked this blog
today is Christmas in Hawaii and I just realized that I don’t have anything about Christmas on this blog.
in my attempt to redeem this blog here is our family Christmas pix.
from our family to yours maligayang pasko, mele kalikimaka, and merry christmas.
thanksgiving recap 09
For Liz and Benaiah this was their first taste of what thanksgiving is like in Hawaii. You gotta love a holiday completely devoted to gluttony and the worship of the food God with a side order of football.
Here is a peek into our thanksgiving…..
I cant believe my mom and dad are making me wear this shirt.
Ben and the bird
The wife showing off her rachel ray skills. Good thing she watches every day.
Tokushige’s 1st turkey day in Hawaii.
Benaiah’s thanksgiving dinner.
introducing Benaiah Cruz Tokushige
If a picture is worth a thousand words, here is 10,000 and some change recapping our past few days.
When we got to the hospital the wife was dialated to 2cm. We needed to wait 15 1/2 hours before she was 10cm. The wife seriously did an unreal job.
The most unreal moment in my life. Benaiah is about 5 minutes old in this shot. Liz started to push at 805am and Benaiah was out by 822am. praise Jesus.
It’s a boy.
This is literally the 1st time in my life holding an infant. Benaiah must be praying that I don’t drop him.
Benaiah and his beautiful mother.
1st shower.
Sleeping. I think he was jet lag.
1st car ride. still sleeping. I wonder what time zone he was on.
The crib…. looks like Benaiah started a gang….. crazy animals….. big bear, elmo, and ducky.
Mom and Benaiah. Can you believe she just gave birth????
Thank you everyone for standing with us in prayer. Benaiah and Mom are doing great. I thank God for an awesome wife, a healthy son, and unreal friends and family that we get to share our life with.
date night
Liz and I have always set 1 day or night a week aside as our date night. Our usual routine has been me asking her what she wants to do, then we talk, then decide on something to do.
I realized that I need to date my wife. Dating my wife means me taking the time to plan stuff for us to do. Dating my wife means me proactively asking her for some ideas on what she would like to do, not asking her on that day.
Realizing that I need to get my game in order I repented for not treating her like she should be treated, then we talked about some of the stuff that we will be doing on our upcoming dates.
Here is our list: (our plan is to do one of these activities each week)
-Cheesecake factory
-Gyokaku
-PF Chang’s
-Go watch local bands
-Macaroni Grill
-Augie T show
-North Shore. Stortos, shopping, swim.
-Kailua Beach. Swim, walk.
-Hawaiian luau show
-Sea life park
-taco Tuesdays at Therapy.
Do you have any ideas to help my game??? As you can see I can use all the help I can get.
34 weeks
34 weeks done. This means that we can expect Ben in around 4-6 weeks. After 8 months of waiting we are ready to meet our son.
Here are some random thoughts from a soon to be dad:
-I really hope this guy is a guy. We have a bunch of clothes that would be a pain to return
-Seeing him move around in the wifey’s tummy is seriously dope.
-Appreciate the wife for doing such a great job with the pregnancy
-Praying that I will be a good dad
-wondering what sports Ben is going to like to play
-praying that this guy will know Jesus at an early age
-praying for a normal, healthy baby
-hoping that soccer is the sport of choice, but if not it is ok
-hoping this guy will be into muay thai, but if not boxing is ok.
-wondering what everyone means when they say life will never be the same….
-hoping we can raise a confident, outgoing young man
-excited to see my son.
-super amazed at how God worked out a bunch of stuff for us from the time we got home
-thanking God for a great wife that has been great through this pregnancy
