Ephesians 6 CC Cycle 2

Surviving the Move

I feel like we have been in survival mode for the last couple months as we have packed up and moved halfway around the world!  We are just starting to recover from all the changes and getting back into new rhythms and routines.

We survived our first typhoon this week!  It wasn't too bad but lots of wind and rain all day. The next day everything was calm and sunny.   Everyone is commenting that it was the worst storm they've seen here in many years. So if that was a bad one, I feel better about typhoon season, which lasts through November. 

We are not settled in yet, but we are comfortable enough. Still living in two hotel rooms. Still living out of the suitcases we packed back in July. We have a move in date scheduled for Sept. 9th. It should be very nice for us. It's nothing like our Florida house...at all...but from Japanese standards, it's very big and modern. It is a tall, three-story, red, brick home. It has a good size gardening plot in front of the house and enough parking for 2-3 cars. The garden is overgrown and just full of weeds and random garbage.  We've been told that we can clean it out and make it our own so we are all looking forward to becoming gardeners...in Japan.  On the back side of our house is a small yet long strip of grass/weeds with a rusty swing set. This is the little community yard/park for the surrounding 20 houses or so.  Most Japanese homes are very small and built so close to each other that you can barely  walk between them.  The fact that this house has the garden area in front, good parking on the left, an empty lot (full of weeds) on the right and a grassy park behind, makes this location rather unique and very appealing for us.  Not to mention that we are within easy walking distance to the military base.  This is a huge blessing because we wanted to live off base but still be able to be involved with all the on base activities and amenities.  This is a big issue for my three big kids.  Moving into this house will allow them to have a lot of freedom and independent access to the base, our new church, and the local Japanese markets and restaurants.  So, the Lord's timing with our move to Japan, the availability of this house, and the desires of my children are just perfect, it seems.

None of our belongings have arrived as far as we know!  The "express shipment" should have been delivered by the 20th but it's not anywhere that anyone here can track down. So who knows where it is! The majority of our school books are in that shipment and we are trying to start lessons this week.  I only packed minimal supplies and books in our suitcases so we will need to get a little creative if our stuff doesn't show up soon.

We now have local drivers licenses and have purchased a small car. It's a Nissan Cube3. I think these are driven in the States as well. But here, the steering wheel is on the right side and driving on all streets is on the left. Ugh. I haven't tried to drive yet and probably hope to never have to.  Scary!

Ethan is playing football at the school already and he is loving it. His position is defensive tackle and offensive guard. As a freshman, with no prior experience, we're not sure how much game time he will actually play, if any, but he's on the team and enjoying the daily practices.  First scrimmage is this weekend. 

Camryn and Sloan are both enrolled, part time, in the school for a variety of classes. Camryn will be taking pre-calculus, physics, drawing and digital publishing classes at the school. Sloan is registered for a Japanese culture class and a performance choir class.  They will attend the school every other day for 85 minute classes.  So that all starts next week for them. I will still homeschool them for all their core classes, using Classical Conversations as our primary curriculum program.  Ethan and Isaac will be exclusively homeschooling with me.  It should be a good arrangement for everyone, after we work out the A-day/B-day schedules.

And Isaac is currently attending the last week of a kids summer program offered on base. He's enjoying it and meeting new friends, so that has been good to jump into.  He really misses his Florida friends and has been expressing sadness and stress about this aspect of moving.  Poor guy.  He plays at the park almost everyday and has a great time doing that but no immediate friendships have developed for him just yet.  

Travis is working every day now but still waiting for local credentials to be approved before he can begin seeing patients. So I guess he is doing other training and such to keep busy at work. 

I've met some very nice women and just joined the local "officer's wives club."  This will be fun and will get me involved in monthly activities and such. There are also quite a few homeschooling families here. We all met up last weekend for an afternoon. So, my social circles look great. We've also attended a little church the last two Sunday's that is proving to be welcoming and Biblically sound as well. So that's about all I need to feel comfortable...a nice home, new friends, a good church and a few schoolbooks!  (And my husband and each of my children!)

A New Chapter

On July 17th, we had our express shipment packed up and sent out to Japan.  This was approx. 1,000 lbs.  On July 22nd, our big household pack out began.  This took the movers 3 full days and after they left, out house was pretty empty, for the most part.  This was about 16,000 lbs.  We stayed in our big, beautiful home through August 3rd, which allowed us time to deep clean, paint, shampoo carpet and mop floors. On the 3rd, the movers came to pack up all the remaining household items that we decided we didn't "need" in Japan, but wanted when we return stateside. These item are now in long term storage.  This weighted about 5,000 lbs.

After moving everything out, we finished the cleaning, packed up our 22 suitcases, and on August 5th, we boarded the first of four airplanes...moving our family to Iwakuni, Japan!  Thankfully we were able to schedule a five day "layover" in St. Luis, Missouri. This allowed us time to recover from all the moving stress and chaos, reconnect with our Peterson family and attend Sylvia and John's wedding.  We loved it!  The wedding was just beautiful and perfect. Camryn was one of her bridesmaids and we were all able help make it a memorable event.  On August 10th, our 24th wedding anniversary, we returned to the airport and spent 28 hours traveling to our final destination. We were so exhausted by the time we arrived. Our military sponsor met us at the Hiroshima airport and safely drove us to our current residence, the on-base TLA (Temporary Lodging Accomodation).  It's basically two hotel rooms to sleep all six of us.  Each room has a bathroom, a couch, a card table and a small kitchenette.  It's not ideal, but the daily housekeeping service helps make it doable.

Since being here, the weather has been hot, sunny and humid between the extra humid, cloudy, rainy days.  On-base life is interesting!  It's a very small community of new friends.  We have been very blessed to meet the nicest people here! We had to wait a week before we could take the driving test and get licensed to drive.  In the meantime, we have been driven around base, driven off base and gone sightseeing multiple times with couples and families that welcomed us with open arms and hearts. This has made all the difference in adjusting to this new Japanese life.

Tomorrow, August 24th, we have an appointment to sign the paperwork for renting the house we have choosen. So exciting!  The house is currently still occupied, but I believe they are moving out sometime this week.  Then next week it should get cleaned and ready for us. So I think within two weeks, we should be moving in.  Our express shipment still has not arrived! (Should've been here by the 20th) So, who knows when we'll get everything that makes us comfortable. Living out of suitcases has definitely lost any appeal at this point.

And I think we finally found a car to purchase.  It is the base CO's car!  It needs the A/C fixed and a couple other minor things updated before we buy it from him, but we are looking forward to having our own transportation again.  It's a little Nisson Cube3.  Seats six with the steering wheel on the right side and all!   Yikes!

Today we attended a little Christian church that is an easy walk off base. It's all in English and mostly serves the military community. Great Biblical preaching verse by verse!  And again, such friendly families welcoming us. We feel the Lord's hand guiding us through this big international move and so far, by ultimately trusting in Him through all these changes, we feel blessed!

Back to the blog thing!

The time has come to revive this blog!  It's not that living in Florida for the last five years was uneventful or unworthy of great blog posts, but it just didn't inspire a lot of motivation for me to document our "normal" comings and goings. And I've been busy!  Busy homeschooling my three big kids, busy tutoring and directing numerous homeschool classes with other homeschooling families, busy driving Isaac back and forth to Clarke School every day/twice a day/40 min each way, busy cleaning a 4,200sq.ft. home plus all the outside landscaping,  busy running around town for ballet, acro, and contemporary dance, MMA, Bible studies, numerous field trips, grocery shopping and cooking for our family of six,  and washing/drying/folding/putting away laundry for all of us, etc., etc.

I should probably backdate an entry and briefly write about some of the fun times and our most memorable Florida events. Yes, I'll add that to my "to do" list. 😉

For now, as a quick update, July and August, 2015 flipped our world upside down...almost literally, because we are now living on the opposite side if the world. We are living in Iwakuni, Japan!  And life in Japan just seems blog worthy!  Don't you think?

The wedding day: July 2013

Reconnecting: July 2013

Flying into Salt Lake City!

Home Sweet Home...in Preston!

Wow, Mom and Dad have a big, beautiful backyard!

Amy, Me and Shellie...reconnecting at Aunt Mae's funeral.

The Gregory side:  Uncle Jay, Aunt Elaine, Uncle Morris, Uncle Darvel

"Do it, Kevin...I'll stay dry and snap pictures."

Seeing Tami as a Mom, for the first time.  Nice to meet you baby Shane.

Kryshelle, Todd and Mark.  Todd's kids are almost all grown up!

Here's a shot with JoLynn and Brady as well.  No pics of Alec?  Well, we hung out with him as well.

Out and about with Amy's family.  Blake, Tyler, Colton, Ali

Hey, I remember when Thrive was merely an idea that might be lucrative. So impressive now!

Steve's Katie, Duncan, Miles and Ava arrived from Denver.  Nice to meet you little Duncan!

Enjoying the Sundance tour with Bryan and Kevin.

Me, Collin, Austin, Gavin and Kevin

And there's little Kylie.

Thanks for all the memories!  This was such a unique vacation for me because I traveled by myself while all my kids and Travis stayed in Florida.  Mom and Dad are living in Minnesota so this was also the first time I've been back without even seeing them.  Rachel's wedding is on the last day of my visit.  That's why I planned the trip. Wish I could have spent time with Janeal and her family before the wedding day...but that's the way it turned out. The wedding was lovely.  Those pictures will be in my next post...

Swim Team: 2013