Catching Up and Some of Where We Live

Well it's been a while since I've written a real post. And I'm still going to post a few videos but not JUST of my son. Hehe. I mostly put those videos up so my parents can see him. Well and of course cause he's so darn cute who would not want to see him?? ;)

So life has been pretty good lately. Can't believe we've been in Okinawa almost 7 months now! In a way it has seems like it has flown by. Then there are days that seem like it's been forever since I've been "home". I do miss the US but I'm learning to like Japan a little more. When we first got here, everything was new and interesting and exciting. And of course I had the birth of Izaak and the visit from my parents to look forward to. But after everyone left and I was still here with this brand new little baby all by myself every day, I started to sink into a slight depression. I'm sure some of it had to do with postpartum hormones. I was also mad and sad that none of my friends and family could come see him and hold him and watch him grow. We don't have a church family that we're really connected to yet so it was sad taking him to church and no one came up and coo'ed over him and talked to us about him. We only have one car so being cooped up in the house all day didn't help anything either. Plus whenever we did go somewhere, Izaak always cried because he hated (and still sometimes hates) his carseat! Plus I think getting used to living in a new COUNTRY and getting used to mommyhood are really big challenges and it had me a little overwhelmed. And if you know me well at all, you know that I can get overwhelmed pretty easily! But I was finally able to let it out by talking to my girlfriends and my hubby about it which made me feel a lot better. (You also should know that I tend to keep things bottled up inside quite a bit). Thank you to my wonderful girlfriends back home for all of your support and prayers on my behalf. Because they definitely helped so much! And thank you to my new wonderful friends here in Okinawa. I am so thankful that God put you here with me! :) I am now learning to love where we live, I'm getting out and doing more, and of course I'm getting more settled into my new, full time, permanent job as mommy and I LOVE that too! :) And part of it could be that I'm really excited about going "home" for a visit in 3 weeks!! I'm so excited to see my family and my friends I just can't tell you! And I'm so anxious for everyone to finally meet my son! It's going to be a crazy, exhausting trip though! This is the plan right now: Flying into Seattle for my brother's wedding where we'll stay for 1 week. Flying to MD to visit John's family where we'll be for 2 weeks. Then John will be coming back home while I stay a few more weeks. From MD I will be driving to VA to visit friends for 4 or 5 days. From there I will drive to NC to visit more friends and meet up with my mom (she's flying in from TX). We'll stay there a few days and then her, Izaak and I will fly to Dallas where I'll stay with my parents for 2 weeks. *Whew* It kind of wears me out just thinking about it. And especially when I"ll have a 4 month old who has to switch time zones 4 times in a matter of 6 weeks. Pray for us! Haha! I'm also a little nervous about the flight home when it's just me and him so you can keep that on your prayer list as well. We finally were able to buy tickets last night! Oh except for Izaak's which we're going to buy tonight (didn't realize we had to BUY a ticket for him when we're going to be holding him the whole time but yep, they charge 10% of my ticket. Which will only be like $170 but still.) So for all our tickets together, we're going to end up spending around $3,500 give or take a little. Oh my goodness! But praise God that John has a not always safe but always steady job (hehe) so that we can afford this big trip home! A friend asked me if we can't hop a military flight? Yes and No. You can go through a whole bunch of paperwork to get your name on a list and then once a week you can go to the airport at the appointed time and hope that you get a seat. I have one friend who got her seat on the first try and then for one friend of a friend, it took her 13 tries to get a seat!! Also, you could get stuck at any military base for several days. Or they could lose your paperwork for your flight home and then you have to buy tickets for a commercial flight (happened to my friend who got her flight out on the first try). So all that to say, hopping a flight is very unreliable. And when you're trying to get to a wedding on time, that just won't work. It also wouldn't work for John because he only has so many days of leave and has to get back by a certain day and that definitely is not guaranteed. Anyway...I guess I've rambled long enough. Now I'm going to post some videos for you to watch!


This is of right outside our "tower". It's apartment style (almost reminds me of big dorms actually) but they are called towers here.


I took this video to show everyone a little of what our base looks like. This is up the street from us where Izaak and I go walking a lot.



I wanted to video us driving so everyone could see what it's like for us driving on the other side of the car and the other side of the road. We were driving back to our base from a day trip to Naha. (Notice the song playing in the background. Kinda funny.)



And here we are on the huge ferris wheel right down the street from us. Gives you a pretty nice view of where we live!