Lions and Tigers and....TYPHOONS??

Well, as I sit down to update our blog, we are right smack dab in the middle of Typhoon Chaba! I have been in some crazy storms before in Arizona and mostly Nebraska, but none of those compare to this! The entire base was shut down and gates locked and we all have to stay inside until further notice! Thankfully, we still have power and water! This is the longest the TV has been on since we got here. We have cleaned, colored, napped and surfed...the internet (hehe) and still have the rest of the night to go! In some ways, it's a little scary, but mostly it's exciting!
Aside from this crazy weather, we are really getting into our own groove here. This past week, a friend from high school and her husband moved here. He is in the Air Force. It has been so fun catching up and we are planning on attending another new church together on Sunday! She has two kids, 1 is close to Paige's age and they have the best time together.
Jason had his first FTX (field training exercise) this week, which wound up being cancelled due to the typhoon! :) This was his first week of 'real' work since we've been here. Last we he was in his mandatory Japanese class (40 hrs) where he learned about the culture and even some of the language. He got to go on two field trips that we plan on visiting as a family when this weather clears.
I am getting more involved in our PWOC and loving it! I have met so many amazing women and some of them remind me of alot of my mom's friends back home. I love it! I have also taken on the role of FRG (family readiness group) Leader for Jason's battery. I am getting more and more comfortable here and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first shipment on Monday (Nov. 1)! I cannot wait to make this house a home!
Paige is, well, Paige. She is doing amazing and loving everyone she meets! She is learning how to write her letters and identify words, some of the harder letters and her numbers. I love watching her mind grow! We have been learning more and more scriptures (some thanks to the Cubbies cd we bought with her weekly verses on it) and she loves to hear stories of Jesus. She has even taken on praying and dinner and bedtime. It melts my heart (even though she thanks God for all the birthdays and all the outfits hehe)!
We love our new life here and thank God for all he has done for us here! Thank you for all of your prayers! Hopefully the next post we will have some more pictures to share! Till then...Konichiwa!!

One month

I cannot believe that we have been here a month already! Where did the time go? We are thoroughly enjoying it here and are getting accustomed to the lifestyle and culture here. It has been amazing to watch the Lord work in our lives and know that He brought us here...whatever His reason is. I started a new Bible study last week and am really looking forward to the next 5 weeks. God has blessed me with such an amazing friend that is also a believer and we have had some wonderful talks about our faith and our lives! This is a friendship that is truly from God and the mysterious ways He works! :) The presence of the Lord is more real in my life than it has ever been and I am growing closer and closer to Him each day!
Jason is still settling into work and how things are going to be. It's been a little unsettling for him the first month of getting paperwork done and running around every day! He is excited about his job and being the "old man" in his unit (which is mostly made up of 18-19 year olds). He feels that the Lord has placed him exactly where he needs to be! :) We are still in the process of finding a church. We have tried 3 and it's been cool too watch Jason grow spiritually when discovering for ourselves if the doctrine is sound at the churches we try. I pray that we will find one that fits soon!
Paige is loving it here as well! She is attending Cubbies on base and absolutely loves it! She asks all week if it's time to go yet! We have been working on identifying letters and numbers and that keeps all of us busy. She has also entered the stage of temper tantrums...BIG time! That's fun. The Okinawans love her and her curly hair. Everywhere we go they talk to her and wave and her and touch her hair! It's so funny and she just feeds on it and poses for them and giggles.
We are still awaiting the arrival of our belongings Nov. 1 and the 15! It will be like Christmas for us! But in the meantime, we are getting by with what we have and trying new foods and places! Gotta love the island life! :)

Here's what we've been up to...

YAY! We have finally have internet! Now I can keep on top of this!
We took a little drive to the Okinawa City Zoo. It's small and we laughed when we saw domestic horses and cats on display! It was fun...and cheap! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The people there loved Paige (because she was the only American kid there) so they took pictures of her feeding the goat!

 

We got a new dog! His name is Zinga...he's a miniature dachshund! Paige absolutely loves him and has taken him on as one of her "chores". She wakes up before us and lets him outside to go potty and brings him back in to eat breakfast!

 

This is a restaraunt where we ate. The food wasn't very good, but it was fun!

 

 

 

We went to Okuma beach (as I wrote about in my last post). It was a great time and Paige's first time in the ocean!

 

 

 

 

Settling in

This week has been very exciting! Friday we got our Japanese drivers licenses! We went straight from there and bought a car! The wierd thing here is that after you buy it thy do an inspection. We didn't pick it up until Monday and that was the first time driving it, too! We loved it! We bought a 2002 Mitsubishi Dion. Friday was also the day that we were called with two housing offers. One was a third floor apartment in a tower. It was nice but bringing bikes with us was going to be tough since we didn't have any storage. The second apartment was in a little neighborhood on the Navy part of Kadena called Camp Shields. We loved it. It is going to be renovated in April of 2012 so we will move again but we chose this one and are very happy! It is a quiet area and our neighbors have a little girl that is a little younger than Paige! We are slowly setting up home here while we await the arrival of our belongings. Rigt now we are using government furniture, which isn't great but it will get us by.
We also got to our unit just in time for a mini vacation to Okuma beach with Jason's battery. We had a great time and everything was paid for! Jason snorkeled and loved it! Paige and I hung out on the beach dice she didn't like the waves very much! He made sand castles an drew her "name" in the sand (scribbles) hehe. We were anxious to come back since we were moving into our house!
Also, along with our list of "new" things we added a dog to our family! Hi name is Zinga. He's a 1 1/2 year old miniature dachshund! He was given to us by Jason's sgt. They just had a baby and disnt have the time for him. Paige is in love! She still calls him Benji, which as most of you know is our dog that mom and dad are "babysitting" til we get back). He's playful and loves Paige!
We are going to start our hunt for churches this week. We found one that offers AWANA so Paige will be able to go to Cubbies! We are praying that the Lord will put us in a church that needs us. Please pray for us as we make this decision!
One last thing...they call this island the island I fertility! Let's hope that is true for us!! :)