The last day of the year…never thought I’d be sitting in a Navy Lodge in Okinawa in 55-degree weather! The past two days have been a bit of a zombie-like whirlwind. Monday night we said our good-byes to Barrett’s family and boarded a plane to San Francisco. Our plane was delayed a bit so our sleep was short but welcome before we headed to the airport in the morning. Our seats were not together so they put us on a list to check for availability closer to boarding. Well, the Lord was kind and allowed for us to be bumped up to business class! I have never, ever been on a 12 hour flight like that! What a blessing! We had one flight attendant who enjoyed our wide eyed wonder at all that was available to us and made the trip that much sweeter! The only bump in the air was that our excitement of button pushing and wealth of movies and TV shows did not allow for much sleep!
We landed in Osaka, Japan sleepy but well fed. We did our best to toothpick our eyes open so that when we landed in Okinawa at 9:30ish at night we would be able to hit the hay. We got all our stuff through customs with no problems and instead of having to look for a taxi, we were greeted by 15 smiling well-wishers that held up a “Welcome Craigs” sign! Wow! We visited with the Chaplains and their wives for a bit and then we were taken to the Navy Lodge where they got us into our room and had provided us with a whole bunch of staple food like pop tarts, mini Oreos and milk! OK, there was a whole lotta healthy stuff too! What an amazing surprise! Annabelle and I ate it up…literally! =0) Then all three of us crashed for the night. Despite our tiredness, we didn’t sleep for the excitement of finally being in Okinawa!
So, for the past couple of days we have been up at 6, have breakfast and go for a run together. We have explored the base and even got a ride from a random lady who saw our bewildered looks at the check out line at the exchange and offered to take us around. Wow! She showed us the commissary and the hospital (where her husband works no less!). She told us how and where to get tricare and set up a doctor for me and Annabelle. Huge! We also had the opportunity to see the seawall, ginormous waves, have Japanese coffee, and do karaoke with other chaplains and their wives. We are just so thankful for all the help in this transition of foreign life of character language and other-side of the road driving! If you think of it, we would love prayer for getting cars, location of our house/apartment, and finding a new church family. And overall, just for a Christ-like attitude toward each other as we fumble some what clumsily through this process.
Happy New Year!!!