Mele Kalikimaka! (Merry Christmas!)

Aloha friends!

This year, in lieu of a Christmas letter, we're doing a Christmas blog entry. This is one of many changes for us this year. The biggest one being that I am writing this from our apartment in Honolulu, Hawaii. How we got here, we'll get to shortly. But before that, let me catch you up a bit on our year so far.

The start of 2010 was normal for us. Derek was working in Celebration, Florida at a surgery center. Dena was homeschooling Mia in first grade. We were very involved in Metro Life Church, where Derek leads a small group in our home every week. We were involved in events with both family and friends and normal life with our 3 kids, Mia, Ella and Jett kept us busy.

In February, we were able to take a 5 night cruise to Mexico with 3 other couples who we have been friends with since my high school days. This trip was such a treat since all 4 of us couples treasure our friendships and yet living in 4 different cities have limited time together. What a blessed time laughing and enjoying our friendship!

During a date night in April, Derek and I had a conversation where we were dreaming about things we'd like to do and possibilities for the future. Out of this conversation came to idea of possibly taking a short term travel position as a nurse in a hospital somewhere in the US. Derek had done this several times before we were married so he had an idea of what this would entail. We knew that usually these positions would be for 3-6 months. In all of our possible locations to go to, Hawaii was pretty much always at the top of the list. Derek had been working a lot of hours at his last job and the 45 minute or more commute to work and then back every day added to the time he was gone. After a while we began talking more about whether or not he should be looking for a new job. Once we had decided to look for a new job, the idea of Hawaii kept popping back into our conversations.

Over the next few weeks we were both excited and scared by the possibilities. I, for one had to battle over my trust in God. He has always shown Himself faithful, but I love Orlando so much that the thought of leaving it greatly distressed me! Leaving for 6 months didn't bother me as much as the fact that I knew so well that once we left, we could possibly see more clearly God leading us in another direction than Orlando or possibly even staying in far off Hawaii. After God so graciously showed me how I was trusting in my plan for our future more than in His, He was so kind to give me peace for the prospect. Now we just needed to trust that He would provide the details to make it happen if indeed this was in His plan for us. Time and again we were shocked at how well everything worked out: we had a job offered to Derek exactly when we wanted to go, we found a place to live there, finding someone to rent our home in Orlando and watch the dog, getting someone to lead our homegroup & a myriad of other details that all worked out so perfectly. God was once again providing and He did so in a way that was so clearly orchestrated by his hand so that if we ever doubted that this was the right thing to do, we could recount these evidences of provision.

The next few weeks were spent in a frenzy of activity preparing to leave. We celebrated Mia's 7th birthday and then in the month of August we spent a week in Atlanta with some friends and Derek's family while his brother got married. A week later the 5 of us were on a plane to Honolulu.

Before we left, we asked Derek's neice to come with us and a month after arriving, once she was out of school, Christina joined us. We have been here over 4 months now but Hawaii still feels a bit like a dream. Derek and I are out doing things sometimes and just start laughing saying how we can't believe we are here and really doing this! O'ahu is beautiful and amazing. We've taken almost every weekend to do things all together as a family around the island. We've seen 3/4 ths of the beach parks on the island, watch so many sunsets, taken several hikes, seen so many historical places and places of amazing beauty that we never expected. We definitely had some time of adjusting at first and being the first time away from home like this for me was strange. We missed all of the known things and living in a 42 story building is quite a new thing to us too. The apartment has an amazing view of the ocean from every window and is in a great area to be able to walk to everything but there are definite things to get used to. For one, it's half the size of our home in Orlando. The girls room is a closed in porch and Jett sleeps in a closet. We can make a mess of our tiny kitchen in about 30 seconds! As the weeks wore on I missed my family and friends so badly. Thankfully, my Dad is amazing and he surprised me and my mom by sending her out here to see us. Derek's Mom & Sister and nephew (Christina's family) came out to visit too. What a blessing to help ease the transition for us.

As much as the weekends here feel a bit like a vacation, there is a large amount of time that is very un-vacation like here too. For starts, Derek works 5 days a week. Also, right after we got here, we started school again. We weren't sure about homeschooling again this year, but being here for just 6 months and right in the middle of a school year, it just made perfect sense. Mia went into 2nd grade and Ella started Kindergarten. Last year was a hard year of homeschooling Mia, but this year we were finally making some progress. Her attitude about doing school has gotten better and she has also finally gotten her head around some reading. It's so cute to walk in the room and find her reading her way through a book! Mia is still our most social child. She'll talk to anyone we find. She's very proud to tell everyone that we live here now but only for 6 months and tell them everything about our day. She's getting big too. We can hardly believe that she's 7 and isn't our little baby anymore! Doing school with Ella is a very differnt thing. God has given her a love for learning. She speeds through her books and does more that I have assigned for her every day and still often comes out looking for more. Ella had her 5th birthday here and is quite happy to tell everyone just how big she's getting. She's still our more emotionally charged one but she has a happy go lucky attitude towards most everything. Jett had his 2nd birthday while we were here and is loving life. He's pretty happy most all the time. He's happy playing on his own and then he's happy following the girls and playing with them. It's a lot of fun seeing the games he's coming up with. It's definitely a boy game with trucks and dinosaurs and even when he gets the girls dress up stuff it's to use it somehow in a boy game. He cracks us up with the stuff he does and he's talking all the more now and learning to make jokes. :)

The time here has been such a blessing. The obvious is the opportunity to see the world in a way that we wouldn't be able to in any other situation! The girls have taken some hula lessons and we've been learning some Hawaiian vocabulary and enjoying learning the culture of the place. The other goals and plans that we had for here have been the most beneficial though. From the already wonderful marriage that Derek and I have, we have seen so much growth together. The time spent together and with the kids is invaluable. We've loved having some changes of habits and reading more and just loving the way we're able to be more focused here without all the distrations at home. We're hoping we've brought in some good habits that we can now take home and implement. Now comes the holidays and more time to spend together building memories. The time will fly here now until the beginning of February when we come home. My parents and brother will be here to go on vacation to Kauai with us then right before we go home. Also, Derek, Christina, the kids & I we will be taking a family trip over to Molokai and Maui. How blessed to be able to see all of that too and how excited we are to be able to get some real vacation time in while we're here too. And then, at last to be home in our Orlando! :)

Aloha & ahui hou (see you later),

Derek, Dena, Mia, Ella & Jett