We are headed to Oki

That's right. We are headed to Okinawa, Japan. If you have to Google map it, don't feel bad. I did it too. Basically, it's here where the "A" is.

Steven is going to be a Comm Officer for the Combat Assault Battalion. Here's a link to trusty old wikipedia about the Battalion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Assault_Battalion. 

Because it's happening, I am pretty excited about it. That isn't to say that there are not other emotions that come with the finalization of this duty station. A year ago, I thought we would already be in, or about to move to San Diego. So instead of looking forward to the best Mexican food north of the border, I'm looking forward to the best teriyaki ever. (Did I mention I practically lived off of it for lunches one summer before we were married?)

So aside from the geography shock of it all, a lot of our family and closer friends are on the west coast. And a lot of them are having or just had babies. I thought Olivia would be able to grow up with these kids and be best friends. I know she, and we, will make friends just fine. It's just kind of a let down feeling at first. I was secretly hoping that Katie would not get her first choice of Hawaii so Aly would be close to play with as well. But that didn't work out either. 

There is hope though. Because we are going to have a great time. We are going to live in a tropical island. We are going to make new friends and have amazing experiences. We will be living on a beach or at least extremely close by. Thankfully, there are military flights that go back and forth between Seattle and Okinawa (from what I can tell anyway). The other cool thing is that we already know people on the island. From the sounds of it, not many of them will be super close, but the island really isn't that big. So everyone is not more than an hour away. 

Right now, I'm feeling grateful. Grateful that Steven has a job that he is super pumped about, grateful that we have such a cool experience ahead of us, and grateful that we have support from our family and friends. We are ready to start this next chapter with a positive outlook. I told Steven that when were getting married, that I wanted to travel. I thought two years abroad was an amazing once in a life time experience. Little did I know what I was asking for. He always goes up and above to over achieve and to perform. Love that guy! By the time we are done with this next duty station, we will have spent 5 of our 6 years of marriage outside the United States.