Easter 2012: Part 2

Our church family has been such a big part of our love for Okinawa. After 3 years of watching others come and go, it was weird to finally be that family standing at the front with the mic, talking about what we'll miss and what God has taught us during our time in Okinawa. When we first arrived on island, we were approaching our 2nd year of marriage, with our first baby on the way, and it was our first duty station -- life was already extremely different from when we were back home. But God knew the kind of support we needed and didn't fail to provide it! We found our place amidst a small intimate church where we connected with families young and old, where we could be influenced and nurtured by those more experienced than us, and we even became close friends with our pastor and his family. Easter with our church was the perfect time to spend some last moments with everyone.

Here's our Pastor and his lovely family. We've never become so close to our church pastor before (quite hard to when always attending large churches!) so we're definitely thankful our paths crossed and that we could serve together. We'll sure miss you guys and the great times hanging out, chatting late night, playing the game Settlers, and of course our awesome arrangement of swapping babysitting! Leyna will definitely miss her best friend Justin!

After a great celebration service, we had the annual big Easter event at Comprehensive Park, with games, egg hunts, potluck picnic, and just good ole lounging around in the beautiful Okinawan weather(thankfully we were rain free this year!)







The wonderful Fernandez family was in our first small group, so they've watched Leyna grow since before she was one. Leyna was always drawn to their daughter, Danielle, so naturally Danielle became Leyna's first babysitter and a great one she was! They're a solid family of the Word and we've gained so much valuable parenting advice from them. We're definitely thankful for their wisdom and support!

Our friend Joe and his cool kids (his lovely wife Wendy isn't pictured). Joe's a super dad, Pampered Chef rep, great scuba instructor, and has been an awesome spiritual accountability for Danno in our church's men's ministry. Leyna had a blast with their family when Courtney would babysit her. Their family's fun spirit is always uplifting and contagious - never a dull moment!

April and her sweet daughters. Her husband Zach had been deployed at this time, so we missed him, but he safely returned just after we moved off the island (Welcome back Zach!). Their family had been part of our 2nd small group this past year and it's been such a joy to know them, laugh with them, and grow as a family with them. We always loved to see Leyna having such a great time with the girls and we know she'll miss the good times with them too.

Shastity, Jeremy & Jr. were also in our 2nd small group. They're another wonderful family rooted in Christ and have been a huge blessing and spiritual support to us. Shastity grew to become like a sister to me - a rare friendship you don't come across often, and surely one to value for a lifetime!


Leyna's new classmate, Kaia, started coming to our church so Leyna really enjoyed playing with her friend. The two were having endless fun just jumping in place!

Here' pics of Leyna with her best buddy Justin. Leyna lights up hearing his name, and when they're together, they've got amazing energy that could easily outlast the Energizer bunny! Babysitting is so easy when they're together.

What a great lil group. Leyna will miss Justin & his lil brother Noah!


Finally a pic with mommy =)

Woohoo fun times! Another memorable Easter.

Easter 2012: Part 1

Since this was not only our last Easter in Okinawa, but also our last full weekend in Japan, we wanted to spend as much time with our friends as possible. We were happy to have many opportunities to do so with all the non-stop activities surrounding Easter.  Being in the midst of an overseas move, this could easily be overwhelming and tiresome. We had just been packed out of our house, moved into temporary lodging, living out of our piles of suitcases, let alone many things to sell and many things left to do on the check-out list.  But turns out it was well worth to put the stresses of moving aside for these final moments with our wonderful Okinawa friends!

Our lil bunny's first Easter egg hunt was with her classmates at school.

Leyna was particular about which eggs she wanted to keep. Finding Nemo, yes...Marvel super heroes, no thanks! And I finally saw why she came home with purple on her clothes earlier that week =)

So happy Daddy could be there with us!

Our good friend from church Shastity and her son Jeremy Jr.

All done and ready to go!

As we've done every year, we had Good Friday dinner and service with our church. Afterwards we attended a friend's 30th birthday and I was meeting new people who I would have enjoyed getting to know more (of course that happens just as you're leaving island!) The following day our friends from church had a lil Easter party for the kids since they would be gone in Tokyo on Easter Sunday. It kicked off with some sugar cookie decorating...

Daddy helped Leyna with the decorating. She was the only one who didn't bother to eat any of it, but instead found it more entertaining to mash her cookies together like a sandwich and call it a day. haha

Vera doing a great job decorating and taste testing

Eli kept his cookie in order but snuck in some runaway jellybeans

Line up to get more goodies outside!

The eggs were wiped out so fast. You can see Leyna's lightning speed compared to Harrison. Keep on huntin Leyna!

Started off slow, but pickin up the pace...

Good job Leyna! She even picked some that had money in it! woohoo

Eli jolly as can be. Thanks Burtons for the great time!

Sugoi!

The Japanese movers never fail to impress us. I already had a glimpse of their skills from our previous move. This time was no exception. They were fast and efficient, packing up to 6k of household goods in only ~3.5 hrs. They break everything down to bits, so I'm really hoping the Americans can re-assemble everything correctly, especially the Japanese furniture! When you live on higher floors, they will often rope and lower items out the balcony instead of weaving their way down flights of stairs. Since the neighbors below us have a small yard directly below, they couldn't do that method and instead created their own elevated path from the staircase using empty crates and boards. Wow, way to make it work!

 Leyna n Daddy watching, before they pack up what they are sitting on =) First time Danno could be home for a pack out!

Innovate and get the job done!

 

 Behold, all our stuff in boxes.

Pack out complete!

It's That Time Again...

...time to see your life packed in boxes and hope you see it all again in one piece -- time to PCS! Wow 3 years being stationed here in Okinawa go so fast. Especially when you arrive 7 months pregnant with your first child and that first year is full of play dates, doctor appointments, being glued to every move your baby makes, all while getting accustomed to the foreign land... Then spend the 2nd year traveling via unpredictable Space-A flights, back n forth across globe, coasts to coasts, while hubby is deployed (not to mention fitting in a move to another house in Oki while he's still away).... Then by the time the 3rd year comes around, hubby is home just in time to start thinking about the next duty station. Having the kid in school during the day makes more room for working from home, which keeps you busy and definitely makes time fly... Soon you're already saying farewell to other friends PCSing and helping them move... Finish out the tour with fitting in all the last minute shopping you can (empty out the 100 yen stores and gift shops, buy the cool Japanese furniture you've been eyeing for so long), but at the same time you try to sell off your unwanted things to the other islanders enduring the limited shopping options on island you're happy to escape...

So on to the next duty station we go. The movers are coming in just 2 days (yes 2 days!!) and soon we'll be back to 'camping' in a temporary lodge, waiting to fly back to our home state of Cali where we continue living out of suitcases for over a month. We're happy to announce we will be stationed in San Diego. Not having to cross oceans to see our family and friends again is going to be a huge treat! We're very excited...but first let's get through this joyous task of moving...

These are some family photos we took a year ago when Danno returned from his deployment. Okinawa is a beautiful island, we love the Japanese people and culture, and we're definitely going to miss all the good times we've had here!

Photos by Kimberly Mitchell Photography