We started on our long 30 hour journey to Okinawa... and the adventure really began.
Our first flight from Nashville to Dallas was a breeze. It was our daughters first time flying (since she was a few months old); so, of course she got the window seat! She was a total trooper and was begging to do it again when we landed in Dallas after just 2 short hours.
We got off our plane and grabbed a bite to eat to pass the time of our layovers. We walked to the gate of our next flight (to Tokyo) to board the plane and THEN, it hit me... WE are the minority now. Our fight was 98% non-English speaking Japanese.
The flight to Tokyo was a LONG one. 13 hours. But... the chairs were larger than other planes, we were served many many meals, and each seat was equipped with it's own TV and plenty of pre-loaded new releases. Needless to say, between napping, eating, and all the cartoons... JoJo had a blast!
Before we landed in Tokyo, we checked out our itinerary to prepare ourselves for navigating Tokyo airport... only to realize that because our flight had landed late... and we had approximately 8 minutes to get off our plane, thru the airport, and to our next flight. Impossible? Not totally. That was UNTIL...
Needless to say, 45 minutes later, we had missed our next flight.
Fortunately, for the first time... the Army was on top of it's game and taking care of us. We got off our plane and were quickly greeted by a Japanese woman holding a sign with our names on it. She handed us new tickets to a different flight.
Unfortunately, our new flight required us to retrieve our three 70lb. bags from baggage, go back thru customs, leave the airport on a bus, come back to the airport, check back in our bags, and then board our new flight. All in a foreign language.
Our last flight was from Tokyo straight into Naha, Okinawa. It was by far the bumpiest flight I have ever been on. Enough to make me motion sick. Blah!
Our 20+ hours of flying weren't the best hours of my life... but we made it. Safe and sound. And we are so incredibly thankful to be here.
Before We Left:
-We spent $100's of dollars shopping for things that we knew we wouldn't have here. Even more money eating and enjoying our favorite food and restaurants.
-We spent weekend after weekend making a LONG 5 hour drive (and 5 hours back) to our hometown in Georgia to spend as much time with our families as we could.
-We battled with the possibility that Devon may have to make the journey alone due to the short time frame we had to get passports.
-We had to over prepare ourselves medically, in fear of what may or may not be available in Okinawa. I had my wisdom teeth out, and Jocelyn was put in her first pair of glasses.
-We had our daughter's 3rd birthday party in our hometown. The last birthday she will share with her family, for the next three years.
-I visited with my brother for the second time since he's been home from Iraq, only to say goodbye to him once again... he will be deploying again in August, and probably again before I'm home in the states again.
-My husband said goodbye to his son, and JoJo said goodbye to her new brother (and best friend).
-We put faith in total strangers to pack every thing we owned into boxes and load them on ships that are sailing across the ocean... and will not be here until July!
-We had to sell all 3 of our cars, downsize our clothes to summer items only, and get rid of all our spray paint, cleaning supplies, toiletries, perfumes, and spices.
-We said goodbye to our comfort zones, our home, our family, and our friends.
Okinawa, JapanWhy? You ask.
One word. ARMY. My husband is a soldier in the United States Army. When we got married, our initial plan was for him to finish out his current contract and become civilians again. BUT, gotta love this economy. That factor alone was enough for us to decide that we should reconsider staying in (atleast until the job market wasn't so horrible). During this process, my husband was deployed to Iraq and I couldn't bare the thought of having to go thru that again. So, we made an agreement. We would only resign if we got a non-deployable station (which is a base or a specific unit that doesn't deploy. period.).
A week or so later, I woke up to an email from my husband. He had gotten all the offers back and... the only non-deployable option was Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. In his email, he begged me to consider it because it would guarantee that he would be able to support our family for the next 3+ years and most importantly, it would guarantee that he wouldn't have to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan for atleast 3 years. At the closing of the email, he informed me that he would call me when he got off work so that we could talk about it.
I was in shock. I had so many emotions at one time. I was terrified. I knew that my husband had already made up his mind, and this is what he wanted. And I was going to support him 100%.
So there I sat, waiting all day for a phone call from him. I had so many questions, my mind was going crazy. The only thing I knew to do, was to try to get the questions answered myself. I turned to my trusty pal, Google. I ended up finding tons and tons of information on the island, and on what military life is like there. I also chatted with some military wives that were stationed there, and all of them told me that they wish they could go back.
All the information I gathered that day was very relieving. And since then, I have become more and more excited and anxious to get there! What an amazing journey this will be.
This blog will be dedicated to our three years there. We have so many family and friends that we are leaving behind, and I want this to be a way that everyone can share our experiences with us. I hope that everyone reading will enjoy this!
And don't forget, you can post comments on each entry and let me know what you think of it!
I'll write soon!
Brie
