When we first got orders to move to Omaha, neither one of us were excited. I thought we were being banished to a flat, boring, no mans land and that there would be little opportunity for us here other than Sean's job. I could not have been more wrong. Even though our current duty station is Bellevue (which is what I Googled when we first got the orders) we are about a ten minute drive away from Omaha which is a larger city. If we drive 15 minutes one direction we get to enjoy the entertainment aspect of a big city, and if we drive 15 minutes the other direction we have the serenity of the beautiful countryside. I did not have the best attitude about moving out here when we first got the orders and ended up loving it, so I'm trying to keep that in mind as we prepare for our next journey. As a disclaimer I want to say that I am SO excited about this move, it has been a bucket list item of mine to live in a foreign country for at least a year, and we will definitely be in Japan longer than a year. It is bittersweet, I am grateful for this opportunity, but I am a little sad that we will be so far away from family and that we are leaving a place that we have come to love.
When Sean first told me he got orders to Japan, I didn't even bat an eye. I didn't even get excited, because he told me that he was adamant about not reenlisting in the Air Force. We started looking for houses in June and spent every single Saturday in July looking at houses in Omaha. We had the loan, the neighborhoods we wanted to live in and an excellent realtor. Our goal was to be in a house by August. In June we found a home that had a few things that needed work, but we really loved it and strongly considered purchasing it. We prayed and got an answer that strongly pointed to "No." I also strongly felt like we should stay in the apartment we are currently living in, but couldn't make any sense of it because all sort of logic pointed to getting a house as soon as possible. We were getting a new baby and in April Sean would be getting out of the Air Force. In April we wouldn't be allowed to live in military housing which is what our duplex is. Staying in this duplex simply did not make sense, so we kept looking for a house. We tripled our efforts to find a home that would work well for us and be a good investment. We fell in love with another home, and it was difficult to find anything wrong with it. Everything logical pointed to buying this house. When we decided to pray about it, I was more than confident I was going to get the answer I wanted, because I really really really wanted this house. I really wanted to stay in Omaha, I really wanted to be the type of people that were permanently in one place for a while. It seemed so normal, and comfortable, and this to me seemed glorious. Since I was 11 I have not lived in one place for more than 4 years at a time. I was wanting some normalcy for my daughter, I wanted to bring my baby to her home that she would be able to grow up in. When we prayed for an answer as to whether or not we should buy this house, our answer was a flat out "No." I was bitter, and angry, and confused. I also felt like we were being directed to stay in this apartment, which made even less sense. We had no clue where we were going to be living come April, because we were being told to stay living in this military housing and in April we would no longer be in the military!
When Sean got the orders, it seemed like the confusion we had been feeling with what to do was lifted. All the answers we were looking for seemed to fall into place. I am grateful for prayer, and I am grateful that I did not get the answer I wanted. If we bought a house and received the orders, I can't imagine what we would be doing now. Even though this is right and we were told this is what we should be doing, I have struggled with the aspect of "Why are we trying to fix what is not broken? I love Omaha, so why leave it?" When we were coming to Omaha, it seemed like an improvement on our lives. We wanted to get out of Idaho so bad (sorry Idaho, you just were not for us!). I've just come to the conclusion that sometimes you go from a good situation to another good situation. When people would complain about getting orders over seas I thought they were nuts, what an amazing opportunity! You get one life to live, take advantage of opportunities such as this and be happy about it! Right now, in this moment, I am stressed about downsizing, moving, flying 21 hours overseas with pets and a baby, but I know once we get there it is going to be incredible. My daughter is going to be about 4 years old when we come back, she will be coherent and have memories of living in Japan! Oh, and there is a beach, and it is warm year round! Woohoo!
If you are the praying type, please pray for us as we prepare for this new journey. Please pray that we can get our pets over there and that we won't spend a fortune doing it! Please pray that we will be able to leave on our scheduled times. It's times like this where all you really can do is have faith and hope it all turns out alright. If you love to travel, start planning your trip to come visit us, I'm excited about entertaining visitors!
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