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