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."