A very 2 year old weekend!

My little baby turned 2 this weekend. I'm not sure where the time went but he definitely got big fast! We did a lot around here that would be especially fun for him. We started at the Ilikai hotel next door to watch the fireworks then on Saturday morning headed over to the Honolulu Zoo. It was a gorgeous zoo with beautiful landscaping and views of Diamond Head and tons of open picnic type areas. Since we're only 2 miles down the road and it was only a few bucks more, we promptly bought season passes. That totally counts as school! We live off of one end of Waikiki but we hadn't been down to the other end which is the more touristy side of it so we promptly too a trip down there and of course, it was beautiful down there too! Sunday morning we went to a local church. My heart was aching already for all my dearly loved friends and church family at Metro. We really are so spoiled with the rich worship and depth of teaching in the Gospel at Metro and we were so hoping that a Sovereign Grace church plant would have made it's way to Oahu before we did. Sadly it didn't. However, the upside is that I've never actually looked for a church, so I think it will be good to see God working in so many different places and experience what else is out there... the good and the bad. It will make me ever so much more thankful for my beloved Metro too... if that's possible! :) So, we'll probably be visiting several local churches in the next few weeks and will be praying that God will make it clear where we need to be calling our church home for the next few months!

A fresh confidence in Christ!

Every so often I will find myself running through a list of questions in my mind. Questions to search out where my true joy, confidence, peace comes from. Trying to root out any idols or areas of floundering in my life may be. Is the Gospel- that which I say is of most importance- really proving to be of most importance in my life? If so, my actions, thoughts and such should line up in a clear line pointing the way to Christ being of utmost importance to me. Unfortunately, often I find that my life gets derailed by things of small importance. Majoring in the minors as someone once said. This time here is somewhat designed to help root out those minors and replace them with the Major.

I knew there would be differences here but never having lived more than a half an hour away from my childhood home, there were some things that I have never thought of or had opportunity to work through like I have already here. These last few days have been more of a struggle. I've never been away from home for more than 2 weeks and even during that vacation we had my parents along! This clearly is not a vacation though. We are living real life... cooking, cleaning, going to work, grocery shopping, teaching school, disciplining, getting into conflicts, etc. As much as parts of being here feel like a vacation, it's not. It's all so different.

Last night my sweet husband allowed me to get out without any kids for a while. I hopped in our car and drove down 9 floors of parking garage to get to the street and followed my friend, the GPS, where she told me to go. What should have been a 10 minute trip turned into a 5 o'clock traffic jam of 45 minutes. I made wrong turns, I sat at 1 light for probably 15 minutes. I was frustrated. I finally arrived at Target. I didn't realize it till I was in the store, but Target and Sams Club are kind of a home away from home. Aside from parking in a parking garage to get there and them stocking a few things- like SPAM- that I don't often see in Orlando's stores, I could almost be shopping right there in Casselberry. It's peaceful. I know where I'm going. I feel at home. Apparently too much at home, I looked down at my watch and realized painfully that it was getting dark. I checked out and loaded up my car and drove out of the parking garage into the dark. *Sigh* this is what I was hoping to avoid. I flipped on my headlights. The car alarm chirped in joyfully. Happy to be let loose again from where we confined it, it sang the whole way home. We went swimming with the key fob a few days earlier and that broke the alarm. We got it to stop but if the lights are on, then so is the alarm. Derek just didn't have the right tool to disconnect that just yet. It was rathers mortifying. Driving home with the background noise and off put looks of the pedestrians everywhere, I found myself anxious over something else. During that noisy ride home, God was so gracious to reveal to me an area that I was finding confidence in instead of Him. Finances were bothering me. I had just spend $100+ at Target... again. A normal quick grocery trip in the past would have been $25-$50 but here, I can't seem to leave a store without spending $100- $150! I have prided myself in the past at being able to grocery shop and provide good meals for my family on a meager budget. I love the fact that my home is furnished and decorated beautifully but frugally. Is that a necessity though? Here, we are in an apartment that has everything to meet our needs. Yet I find myself staring in anguish at the white walls and the furnishings and curtains that wouldn't be my exact pick. I am spending hundreds of dollars on groceries and other miscellaneous things that we need to set up the home. Am I a failure for having to do so without saving tons of money?

God is revealing slowly to me that my confidence as a wife should not be in making a beautiful home or an extravagant meal at a great price. I have been depending on these things that he has gifted me with and only as I am seeing my expectations for myself crashing down am I realizing that in these small things, I have taken God out of the equation! Oh the blessing to see this! Thank you God for taking the time to disarm me and make me once more dependent on you in an area that I have trusted in myself. I was so encouraged this morning while reading “Valley of Vision”:

“Giver of all graces, I look to thee for strength to maintain them in me, for it is hard to practice what I believe. Strengthen me against temptations. My heart is an unexhausted fountain of sin, a river of corruption since childhood days, flowing on in every pattern of behavior; Thou hast disarmed me of the means in which I trusted, and I have no strength but in thee... keep me sensible of my weakness and of my dependence upon thy strength. Let every trial teach me more of thy peace, more of thy love. My the Spirit confirm my trust in they promised help, and let me walk humbly in dependence upon thee, for Jesus' sake.”

Two weeks in and God is just prying open the topmost layers of my dependence on myself and the smallness with which I view Him! What a journey lies ahead I am sure! One that is worth every bit of trial and the massive homesickness that I feel already! Thanks for being here with me on this journey!

School days have begun!

I gave myself a week to settle in and then we started school up yesterday. This is Ella's first year and she was super excited! Mia was definitely less so than El but considering how much she loves telling people that she hates school, I was glorying in the somewhat excitedness! We're starting off slowly, working on flash cards and bumping up practice on anything that Mia had a hard time on last year. We also learned about balance. We talked about how differently if feels to be standing strong and standing on one leg and then we went down to the lagoon to practice how it feels to be standing on something that moves beneath you! I've been watching the paddle boarders since we got here and I was itching to try it! So, we rented a paddle board and took off into the lagoon. A little more practice and we may be ready to try it on some waves! I'd say that was a fun school day!

Makapuu Beach, Lighthouse & The Windward Coast

This post should officially bring us up to date. We've only done a small bit of exploring of the island but as we've now gotten most of our shopping & setting up house stuff done, we were able to get out yesterday and explore part of the island. Our plan would be to take each Saturday to do something touristy in the way of exploring, hiking, driving, snorkeling, seeing something new & exciting this island has to offer!

We drove east towards the windward side of the island to hike up Makapuu Lighthouse Trail. It was an easy hike because it was paved but hard because it was uphill and we had 3 kids in tow! Thankfully, it was all so beautiful and of course, all downhill on the way back! The drive towards the windward coast was fantastic and we stopped at one scenic view to do a bit of hiking down some rocks towards the beach. (I am a huge "Lost" fan- the tv show- and love exploring and seeing places that were used in filming this show! The place we stopped along the road just looked so familiar to me that I knew it had to be used in the show- and I was right! It's so fun!)

After getting all hot hiking, what better to do then to hit Makapuu Beach Park right down the road. This is a great body surfing beach and though the water was fairly rough so the kids didn't get in too far, Derek had quite a good time in the water. Mia even tried out a few smaller waves in the shallows and was loving it! She has really turned an adventurous corner- loving the body surfing and every time we turned around she was trying to climb up or down some rocks to explore everywhere! Ella started off this day very timid- freaking out unless she was holding someones hand and refusing to go anywhere that looked the least bit scary! But, something clicked about half way through this day and then she was off like her sister doing it on her own and generally starting to scare Mommy! Jett meanwhile seems to think that we're going to leave him and pretty much won't walk anywhere on his own. He is fine being pushed in the stroller or being carried or hanging out near us if we set up to stay somewhere but if we're walking and try to set him down to walk on his own- whether in the hallway, elevator, along the beach, etc... oh my... we've gotten our fair share of temper tantrums! We're working on these and hopefully we'll have a break for our arms soon once he realizes that we have no babysitters here! :)

So, check out the pictures below! What an amazing beach to be on! I just sat there enjoying the sun and white sand of a totally different texture and amazed at how gorgeous it all was!

We're city people now!

I can walk to the grocery store! OK- it took about 25 minutes to get there cause I was pushing Jett in the stroller and the girls were walking and we stopped by a park on the way too... so I may not do it again with the kids... but still... it's an experience I would have never tried in Orlando! :) Here's some pictures along the road. It turned out to be a good teaching experience. We learned about homeless people and why some people sleep in the park :) and we learned about Banyan trees and how their roots grow from the tree branches down to the ground to make new tree trunks. These are actually some pretty awesome trees! That night we went across the street to see some Hawaiian singers and hula dancers and fireworks. Fun!

Pictures of our new home!

Now what have we been doing for this last week?

So I noticed that for some reason the date for my last post was not correct... who knows why but since I have very little idea what I'm doing, I will just leave it alone! I know I'm getting a bit behind already cause a lot can happen in a week, so I'll give you a brief happening of all we've been doing and then go from there!

The flight went great- especially since we were preparing ourselves for the worst! Jett snoozed for an hour or two on the first flight and since he was a lap child we were so excited to have an extra seat with us too for him to use! Not so easy on the second flight. It was packed out so he got to ride in our laps and sit with the girls for this flight. Oh well! On this flight out of LAX we had very wired children and no show on the plane for them to watch. Thankfully we had a laptop with enough battery for them to be occupied for a while with a movie! Ella finally fell assleep for an hour and woke up just as we were coming into view of Hawaii and Mia didn't sleep until we had landed and people started getting off! (We were on the very back row though so she had a bit of time!) The airport was exciting! It was 7:30pm Honolulu time and 1:30am Orlando time. I couldn't believe our kids held it together as much as they did! Getting the 8 large bags as well as our 5 or so carry ons/ purse/ etc and the stroller & 2 car seats was interesting. In the end, Derek put me & the kids and some luggage on a bus to the hotel & then went and rented a car and met us there. There just wasn't enough room for us and all the stuff!

Waking up in Waikiki was great! We were able to go on our balcony and see the apartments across the street that we knew would probably be our future home and a beautiful view of the mountains behind. Considering the time change, our kids did great again... up at 6am. We got our first taste of the cost difference in Honolulu when we went to breakfast and split 3 meals with just water to drink and paid $35! We took a look at the apartment and it looked like it would work perfect for us! It's across the street from the beach, within walking distance to grocery stores & shops & within biking distance to Derek's work. We found God to bless us again with this because this apartment had closed in the good sized balcony and it was a whole separate room which we use as a bedroom. We're paying $2,100 a month for this 2 bedroom + enclosed lanai apartment (which actually is a very good deal!) and just what Derek's work pays us to go towards housing and we couldn't afford to get a 3 bedroom anywhere close to the beach! The apartment has it's own parking, pool, hot tub & gym too as well as pretty awesome views!

We were able to immediately get into our apartment and after a few trips across the street Derek had all of our luggage here and the unpacking and sorting began! Unfortunately, what we didn't count on was not having internet in our new place. For some reason it didn't work right for the first several days so the next 3 days were spent finding WiFi to try to figure our where we were going, finding a used car to buy, finding the best route to work and so on. Oh how we missed the at homeyness that we feel by being able to use the internet and contact friends and such. We were so happy when it got fixed! We did buy a car. We took a trip out to the- gorgeous valley between 2 mountain ranges- middle of the island and found a somewhat old beater of an SUV that we thought would suit us fine while we're here. Unfortunately, with not having a mechanic able to look at it for a few days to just check it out and having to send our rental car back soon, we just decided in prayer to walk in faith that this would be what we need. I think our exact prayer while going to pick it up was: "God, we're trusting in you to provide again. If this isn't what we should be doing and this car is not for us, just please stop it somehow from happening and protect us from it." Though of course, those prayers are easy to say, they are not always easy when they happen! We bought the car and did a wire transfer to pay for it since we don't have a local bank here. As we drove off Derek inspected the title closer and discovered that this was an insurance rebuilt car after an accident... uh oh... don't like that at all. Then we went into Walmart and bought insurance and a few other things and came back out and, what is going on? Our key won't open the front door. It looked like it had once been jimmied and the only way to get in was to pop the back of the SUV and let Mia climb through to unlock the doors. We were a fair bit disappointed. The next morning Derek got a call and the previous owner informed us that the wire transfer hadn't worked. Derek tried it again and it wouldn't still. Then he started trying to pull out money each day to get enough cash to pay for it. At only a few hundred a day it would take a while. Finally, Derek's card got stopped. He called the bank and it turned out that they thought it was suspicious activity so they stopped his card in case it was stolen. At this point we thought that perhaps God had answered our prayers. We called the guy we bought the car from and apologized profusely but said our bank had been having some issues and since we couldn't get the money to him right away we would give the car back- plus it was a full tank and detailed and everything now. What a hassle getting it back out to him and all of that but also what a relief! A few days later, we found a van in town that seems to work fine. (Except funny enough, today... Derek forgot the keys were in his swimsuit pocket and went in the ocean. When we got in the car to leave, the alarm went off and the key fob wouldn't work to turn it off! We tried everything but in the end drove home with the alarm beeping on and off the whole way! I'm sure the 1/4th of the island that we drove past thanked us for that! We got it to stop when we got home- that is, unless the lights are on- then it beeps away... oh well, we'll save that fix for another day! :)

So, the last new thing this week was Derek starting work on Tuesday. This whole week has been orientation. Pretty boring honestly, but it has also been a wonderful break from the non-stop busyness and constant phone ringing & problem solving of the last few months. I'm praying that this time of having no management responsibility at work will be a welcome rest for Derek!