Better Late Than Never.........?

Ok, ok, ok.....I know, it has officially been 8 months (and some change) since I have written. I wish I had a really good reason for it, but I don't. So, I am going to attempt to summarize as best I can the last 8 months. Don't worry, I will try not to make it be 10 pages to read. It will be a nice, short, summary and there will be more blogs to follow with more details on the bigger events.

Alright, going back to April, I was officially blessed with a job!! After many applications with much disappointment attached, I received an offer to work as the Complex Manager at a gym on a base that is very close to where Sam and I live. The job consists of me overseeing the staff and making sure they are doing their job as well as scheduling, paperwork, inventory, buying products, hiring etc. After 7 months of working there now (wow, I can't even believe it's been that long already!) I can say I still enjoy the job. I have been challenged in new ways that I didn't think I was capable of and I have been truly blessed with great co-workers. The one downfall of the job is that my shift begins at 5 a.m.....Yes, that means that I get up at 4am every day. I have officially become a coffee drinker....;) Otherwise, that's pretty much all the news that is noteworthy from the month of April.

Going on to May, there isn't really much that stands out either. We did a lot more exploring on the island and found some beautiful waterfalls. I think this picture pretty much speaks for itself. I'll let that sum up the May portion of this summary.

June brought more exploring as well and with the water being a little bit warmer from the stifling sun, we ventured out into the ocean to do a lot of snorkeling!! I cannot tell you how amazing it is to see life underwater. We will never get sick of it, and may eventually take the plunge and decide to get our scuba certs. June also officially marks the start of typhoon season. June 1 to November 30 is typhoon season. So, for half of the year, we get to live with the fear of a typhoon popping in at any moment! Luckily, this was a very mild season for Okinawa ( I wish I could say the same for our neighboring countries as we continue to keep the Philippines in our prayers).

July was a great month as I had the opportunity to fly to the states and celebrate in the uniting of two wonderful couples. One of my best friends and cousin, Brittany, married Troy Link and my brother, Dane, was united in marriage to Rachel Kramer. It was a wonderful, but busy time, filled with family and friends. Unfortunately, Sam was unable to come with me as he had duties to fill here in Okinawa to prepare for an exercise at Camp Fuji on mainland Japan.
                                
                                                         Link Wedding (above)
                                              
                                                                Hibma Wedding

July also brings the arrival of our second child, Mellow!!! Mellow is a yellow lab who fittingly is quite mellow at times, but brings a lot of joy and fun to the Wetselaar home. Here is our little pumpkin:

           

August was filled with goodbyes as I had to say goodbye to family and friends in the states as well as send Sam off on a ship for an exercise in mainland Japan. The exercise was supposed to last only six weeks, but ended up being a little bit longer than that (I'll explain more later on). August had me feeling so thankful to have the new addition to our family so that I wasn't alone :) Sam was promoted to First Lieutenant while at Camp Fuji and while I was very disappointed to not be there and pin him myself, I am still so proud of my Marine. Sam also had the opportunity to climb Mt. Fuji which is quite an accomplishment. Here is just a fraction of the beauty Sam was able to witness while on top of the mountain as well as a clip from his promotion


September: Sam was supposed to be back the second week in September but due to inclement weather amongst the seas, the HSV (high speed vessel) was delayed for three weeks. Since Sam was stuck in Fuji a little bit longer, I decided to go visit him in Tokyo! (I will be writing a separate blog on just Tokyo so the details will be limited here) We had a wonderful time, and it was great to see Sam after him being gone about 7 weeks.

October: Sam is still not home......The HSV got delayed again as more typhoons decided to pop up after being dormant all summer. I'm beginning to believe this high speed vessel isn't so high speed.....
October also brings many feelings of homesickness as my husband was away and fall is one of my favorite times of the year. Okinawa doesn't really experience seasons as it is a tropical island so the changing of leaves, cooler temperatures, scarves, boots, jackets, brisk walks, pumpkin spice lattes and apple crisp are something of a novelty. My homesickness was temporarily averted as my Aunt Katie came to visit! It was so nice to have Aunt Katie here to visit and fill our home with people once again. We had a wonderful time exploring the island. We went to Shuri castle (where the Ryukyu emperor lived when Okinawa was once a country on its own), saw the botanical gardens, walked around Peace Prayer Park (a memorial for the war on Okinawa), and took many walks along the beach. It was time well spent and it went by all too fast.

 Aunt Katie at the Botanical Gardens
           
                   The coronation ceremony at Shuri Castle

                                                                                                         Showing Katie where I work!

Which finally brings us to this month!! Sam finally came home on November 3. This brought the total of weeks gone to 12 weeks which doubled the original time frame of the exercise. It is so wonderful to have my husband home safe and sound. We took our first camping excursion on the island and camped on the beach. It was a bit of a learning experience followed by many awful incidents to create a not so great experience. We are still finding sand in places it should not be....We were attacked by crabs, Mellow got sick and threw up three times in the tent, we didn't think to bring a change of clothes and were freezing most of the night, it decided to rain on us, our air mattress would not stay inflated, and we almost blew away. We'll see what the next camping adventure brings!! Hopefully we learned a little something.

This picture is a little deceiving. The scenery is beautiful, but I had to stay in the tent the whole time so that it didn't blow away....and mellow is off somewhere on the island with a bad case of diarrhea from eating too much sand.....

 

Well, that's all for now! I hope this didn't get too long for all of you and I believe I included pretty much all the major details from the past 8 months. It is amazing to see some of the plans God had for us at the beginning of this adventure and we look forward to discovering more of those plans. We love and miss you all and continue to keep all of you in our thought and prayers.

 

 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  - II Corinthians 12:9

 

Getting to know the Island!

Well, it is hard to believe that we have been here in Okinawa a month already!! We have come so far in such a short time and it is always amazing to look at where God has placed us. In a months worth of time we have moved across the world, bought 2 cars, found and moved into a home, found a church home, started getting into a routine with Sam working etc., and we have been able to explore the island! We have so much more to look forward to here on the island, and we can't wait to see what is to come!
We were able to do some yard work this past weekend which was a lot of fun. We found a lawn mower and a weed wacker for a great price on a site called bookoo.com. It's kind of like a yard sale website for people who are PCSing out of the country and need to get rid of a few things. It's a great site and I'm sure we will be buying more things from it! Anyways, Sam was itching to do some yard work so we got on it!! Here is a picture of what our yard looked like before we started:
Before:                                                                         After:

The lawn was a bit over grown. The home owners didn't do a very good job of mowing the lawn before we moved in so Sam trimmed it up real good with the weed wacker. The space in the corner right behind Sam was a very over grown area with random flowers and weeds. We trimmed the tree up really well and got all of the other plants out, except for the aloe plants which we thought might come in handy during the hot summers here! Our friend Mike ended up mowing the lawn for us, and once that was done, the yard looked so much better!! The cement wall is still a bit of an eye sore, but we can't do much about that anymore!          

The same day we did yard work, we decided to do some hiking! Here are a few pictures of our little hiking trip:

 

                                                    

 We saw so many cool caves with shrine like things in them. We also went up a pretty steep slope where we had to use ropes to get up. It seemed like we were in the jungle!! Sam and Mike kept mentioning what it must have been like when we were at war with Japan b/c it is so different than what we are used to and it is like a thick jungle everywhere with different plants and animals that we aren't used to. It isn't surprising that so many men died during WWII.

Unfortuantely we are just getting into the rainy season here so it has been a bit dreary lately, but I guess the rain is the reason why it is so beautiful and green here! There have been quite a bit of thunderstorms here lately which I guess is very unusual. I always thought that thunderstorms happen all over the world, but I guess they are especially common in the Midwest, and not in the pacific?

We are looking forward to Easter Sunday and celebrating the resurection of our Lord and Savior! It is so weird being away from home and everything we are used to, but knowing that we are a part of the church universal is something that is so comforting. We will be having dinner with a couple of families from church which will be very nice for us. Have a great weekend everyone, and Happy easter!

Luke 24:25-47
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem."

Our Home!!

Hello Everyone!! Sorry I haven't been as on the ball with writing about what is going on and everything, but we have been busy unpacking, settling, running errands, etc, etc. We are finally all situated in our home and I thought it only proper to give you all a tour! So, here is a quick tour of our home (which is literally called Ocean Mist).

 This is a view of our home from the outside! It doesn't look very nice, but none of the homes really look that nice from the outside because they are all made of cement and they are built to withstand tough winds rather than look pretty. Our home is a little older too, and completely Japanese. There are some houses that are americanized, but we got one that was strictly Japanese!

This is our front entryway. It is customary to remove your shoes when you enter a Japanese home so all of their homes have entryways so that you can take your shoes off. The cabinet to the right is a built in shelf that was made for the purpose of shoes. I'm not sure why they do this, but while we were house hunting, we had to take our shoes off every time.

The picture to the left is our living room. We finally have our couch back from when we had it in Virginia and the lovely blue polka dot chair on the right is a government provided chair. We get what they have, and we were so lucky to get the blue polka dot one. It is very comfy and makes up for its' looks :)

The picture on the right is the tatami room. It has a special name b/c of the mats on the floor. Japanese people would sleep on these mats. Normally, there wouldn't be anything in the room other than the mats on the floor, but they said it was ok for us to put furniture in the room so we made it a study. The sliding doors along the back wall are full of storage space which is very handy.   

 The room on the left is our dining room. We got lucky with the tabel and chairs which are all government provided so we didn't have to buy a new table set right away. If you open the curtains, there is a beautiful view of the ocean and the island. It isn't so bad seeing a view like that while eating your breakfast or supper at night :)

These two pictures are both sides of the kitchen! We have a very small dish washer that we haven't used yet, and no oven except for a toaster oven that looks like a microwave which is in the picture on the right.

These two picture are of the bathroom and the laundry room. We have two bathrooms like this. They are very narrow and have interesting sinks, but they work like normal toilets in the states. The laundry machine is actually a washer and a dryer. It is very handy in terms of space, but I can't do as many loads of laundry which isn't such a bad thing ;p

Here is one half of our large master bedroom. We finally have our wonderful bed back too which has been amazing. We have been without a bed since September so we were very excited to have it back and Dane's handiwork on the bed frame is still in great shape and held up through the move. The picture below is the other half of our room. We have lots of closet space for our clothes which is awesome and we got two nice dressers from the government again as well as the other blue polka dot chair!

 

This is one of the most important rooms because anyone who is able to come visit us will be staying here!!! It is kind of a weird angle b/c I couldn't get the whole room in the pic so I had to go out on the balcony. Yes, anyone who comes and visits will have their own room with an amazing view of the pacific ocean along with access to the balcony :) Hopefully this will motivate everyone who reads this to come and visit!!

 

This last picture is of the area on the porch upstairs. It is in between both of the bedrooms upstairs and is a wonderful area for reading and hopefully bbqing in the future. It gets lots of sun and has the most beautiful view of the island along with the ocean, and the mountains.

We love our house very much and the pictures do not do it justice. It has all wood floors throughout and while all of the appliances and things are in Japanese Kanji, we are getting used to it and are finally settled in. It is amazing to see where God has taken us and how He has provided for us while we have been here just for a short time. Sam is into the swing of things now with his job, and I have been applying for jobs in hopes of a good one coming up in the near future. We ask for prayers of patience, trust, and safety as we begin to explore this amazing tropical island!

Morning Sunrise!!

Here is a short little clip of our Sunday morning here in Okinawa! We were suffereing from some bad jet lag and were up at 3 in the morning so we are only running on 5 hours of sleep today, so that is why I look so sleepy!! Sam took this video of me with his spiffy new I-phone 5 which has been awesome so far and has a great camera on it! He isn't very good with his action skills though, because he told me it wasn't on when it really was, which is why I say hello twice. So, please do not mind that and I am sorry for the two hellos right in a row, lol!! It is hard to believe it, but this beach is actually called trash beach. There were quite a few pieces of washed up trash so I'm sure that is why it is called that and they probably don't take care of it the best, but it is still absolutely beautiful! I hope you all enjoy this little sneak peak of what the beaches look like and can bask in God's glory along with us!! Happy Sunday everyone!!

We made it!!!!

We finally made it to Okinawa, but it certainly did take a while! Before our flight took off, we got to spend a great day in Seattle with the Eekhoffs which was really nice and helped take our minds off of the long flight we were about to take. After a great day with them, we had the pleasure of spending the night in the airport :) It was absolutely miserable!!! There is no possible way to get comfy on those chairs, and we couldn't check in yet so we were stuck on the tile floor rather than having carpet by all of the gates. We eventually made it through with little sleep and then had to wait in a very long line to get our baggage checked. Once we got that all done, we had to wait another 2 1/2 hours before our plane started to board. It didn't really surprise us that we had all of that waiting because that's basically what the marine corps life is about!!! Hurry up and wait!! Once we got onto the plane we instantly took sleeping pills so we could sleep most of the 10 1/ 2 flight we were about to take. They had movies and tv shows playing throughout the flight which was very nice, but half way through our flight, one of the fuses went out and we couldn't hear the movie anymore. We were able to sleep for a lot of the ride which was very nice, but it didn't help the time go by any faster. We were served two meals, one for breakfast, and then another for dinner. I missed the breakfast one because I was sleeping, but Sam got pancakes and sausage which he said weren't the best. We both got a beef and mashed potatoes meal for dinner which was actually pretty good. From then on it was just snacks and drinks!
Our first flight landed in Yokota, Japan. We had to stop there to drop some people off and fill the plane with more gas. We all had to get off and get back on which took way too much time, and added another 2 hours to our arrival time. We then took another small flight to Iwakuni, which is on the south side of Japan. That is where the USMC base is on mainland so we had to drop some more people off there and pick some more up as well. We had to get off the plane again for this one and that added another two hours to our arrival time once again. After we all got boarded we were finally on our way to Okinawa!! Unfortuantely, it was raining once we arrived, but we got bused from the plane to baggage claim so we didn't have to walk in the rain. We breezed through customs and were able to get out luggage quite quickly. We then we greeted by a man with a microphone, and a bunch of people waiting. The man said our name out loud, and our sponsor stepped out and led us to where we needed to go! From there, our sponsors took us to our hotel!
It is hard to believe that we are here already, and it honestly has not qute sunk in yet. It is now morning here and it looks like it is going to be a gorgeous day. It is only 9 o'clock and it is already 59 degrees!!! I know everyone at home in the midwest will be jealous of that as you guys were dumped with a bunch of snow recently!!! haha!
We will be receiving a tour of the island today from our sponsors and we will hopefully be purchasing our phones!!! It will be a while yet before we can get a car since it is the weekend here. So, hopefully on Tuesday we will be able to take a test to get our license and then get a car!!!
It is a beautifully area from what we can tell, and we hadsome beautiful sights from the plane. We were able to see Mt. Fuji from the plane which was pretty cool and many other mountains as well as lots of ocean. We are eager to see what this next week has to offer!!!
Proverbs 3:5-6 will lead us through this week, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

Location

This is a very rough map of Okinawa, but for some reason google maps doesn't show all of the military camps and most of it is in Japanese so I am using this map to give you an idea of where we will be! A lot of this is unknown to us right now, b/c we do not have a permanent home over there yet so most of this is speculation. We do know that Sam will be working in Camp Schwab which is titled B on this map. This will only be where he will be working, however, because the camp does not having housing units. We will most likely be living in Camp Courtney which is titled as E. Okinawa is set up to have strictly working camps and  housing camps which is why Sam is working on one and we would have to live on a different one. Not the most ideal, but that's just how it is.  We will find out more when we get to the island if we will be livig on Camp Courtney or need to find a place off of the base!!

Preparation and Anticipation!!

Hello everyone!!
This is my attempt to keep everyone in the loop and stay in touch with all our loved ones while we are away on the other side of the world! I am new to this blogging thing so please do not be too tough on me for my writing skills as well as typos. I will also do my best to include pictures, keep updates on what Sam and I are doing, as well as other random things that are going on.
So, here is what is going on now. We are spending our last little bit of time here in the USA in DeMotte, Indiana because we are going to be flying out of Chicago on Wednesday to head to Seattle. This is a good chance for us to spend time with friends and family. Unfortunately we are not able to make it to the Sioux Center area again before we leave, but I am very happy that my parents will be able to come here this weekend and see us off.
As I mentioned earlier, we will be flying out of Chicago on Wednesday and heading to Seattle where we will be able to meet up with some college friends in the Washington area. On Thursday, we will need to be at the airport very early. Check in time is from 1:30 to 4:30 in the morning, but I think they make it that early so that those few people that are always late are actually there on time b/c our flight doesn't actually leave until 7 or 8. We will then have a very long flight of about 14 hours that will be non stop to Okinawa. We will be flying into the Kadena air station where we will be met by our Okinawan sponsor who we have been in contact with and has been very helpful. He is also a marine officer, and he will show us around the island and help us get aquainted with most things. From that point on, everything will be new and we will have to get a lot of things done such as finding a house, buying a car(s), getting a phone plan, etc., etc.
Just a reminder for everyone that we will not have our cell phones. Once we get onto the plane in Seattle, we will not be able to use our phones anymore, so we will only be able to communicate through email, facebook, letters, and all that good stuff from next Thursday and on.
There are so many emotions going on for me and Sam right now, most of which are feelings of excitement. We have a lot of hard goodbyes to say still and it will be rough, but we know that God has an amazing plan for us over in Okinawa and we cannot wait to find out what that plan is!! God has been so good to us, and we are looking forward to being in once place for a while seeing as this will be our 5th home in a little over 1 1/2 years.  We ask for prayers as we have so many new things coming our way. We ask for patience, trust, safety while traveling, and just the strength to make it through everything that we are about to go through. We will dearly miss all of our friends and family, but before we know it, we will be back in the states again!!
As we go into this journey we are about to partake in, we hold the words from Jeremiah 29:11 close to our hearts: "For I know the planes I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."