totallyjeneric

It’s been over a month since we arrived in Hawaii, so this will probably be the last post in our Moving series!  We are pretty settled now!  Here’s some randomness that Eric and I want to remember when we look back on this experience in the future:

1.  Of the 30 boxes we shipped via the Post Office, 28.5 of them arrived safely.  We lost half the contents of one box (CDs and DVDs), which fell apart in transit and got mixed with another person’s belongings (yes, we have photo albums that belong to someone else… it’s so sad!).  And another box, full of Christian books and a couple Bibles, didn’t make it at all.  Do you think it’s a coincidence that of all thirty boxes, we lost the one loaded with the gospel message?  I sure hope our books made it into other boxes and are bearing fruit somewhere!   I’m also thankful that we didn’t lose any of our personal/sentimental stuff, which would have been irreplaceable.

2.  We finally went to the beach this past weekend.  Finally!  We watched the sun set into the ocean, while standing shoulder-deep in the ocean… it was beautiful.  Wish I could post a picture, but I didn’t have a camera by my side this time… hoping I would see the world with both my eyes… Maybe next time!

3.  Frozen yogurt exists in Hawaii.  YESSS.  It is expensive as ever, but nonetheless, it exists!  (It was our first post-move date!)

4.  We’ve been watching the Big Bang Theory a lot because 1) Eric’s coworker lent us her DVD of Season 1, 2) we don’t have a TV (though I may have scored a free TV today!), and 3) I will be teaching physics next semester, and the show is about a bunch of physicist friends.  It’s quirky and funny!

5.  I love waking to the sound of birds in the morning.  Not so much to the sight of geckos.  Sleeping in our home is a let’s-be-one-with-nature kind of experience.

6.  Vehicle safety inspections in Hawaii are a joke.  It takes less than 2 minutes and involves checking lights and blinkers.  Eric was shocked!

7.  I need friends.  Despite being an introvert and a homebody, I am realizing that I really need people.  People (in addition to family) to love and to be loved by.  I’m 99% positive that Eric feels the same.  Please pray for us in this regard.  Also, that we will have patience because friendships take time, of course!

8.  The inside of our wedding bands is inscribed “Ruth 1:16-17″, part of which says Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. This phrase has been dear to my heart lately, as Eric and I have transplanted ourselves from one coast to another and from one family setting to another.  Our home is not a house or a location or boxes full of things; no, our home is each other.  This move would not have been possible if not for our commitment, our family, and our God.  I am very thankful!  (If you think I’m being sappy, watch the Notebook!)

9.  I got a haircut yesterday for the first time since our wedding… over TEN inches chopped off!  That’s a LOT of hair!!

10.  Finally, because posts are more interesting with something visual, the following clip (which has absolutely nothing to do with our move) is just too cute!

Eric is sleeping as I type.  This morning, however, he sleeps not upstairs in the queen-sized bed of our bedroom, but instead, on the twin-sized lower bunk of my bedroom in my parents’ home.  My mom is also asleep after a 12-hour shift, my dad is at work, and my brother on the way back to school on the East Coast.  Everything is so familiar, yet unfamliar at the same time.  The sounds of traffic and morning garbage-pickup are not new.   The bumpy rides in my family’s little green car along the Hawaiian-named streets are like they were eight years ago.  Yet now Eric is by my side.  Alongside the old, run-down buildings, there are new condominiums and retail stores popping up everywhere.  There are new traffic laws we must learn, prices we must get re-accustomed to, a new place to move into and make our home.  It’s fun and exciting, nerve-wracking and overwhelming.  I am still in a bit of shock, and I wonder what our new normal will look like once the dust settles. 

All that to say, we made it.  We are in Hawaii!  We’ve had shave ice at Waiola’s, eaten dim sum with my grandma, and been to Walmart (twice)–sign of a true local!  Haha.  I still can’t believe we survived last week’s madness of packing, selling, cleaning, goodbye-ing… I had not felt so overwhlelmed nor multitasked so furiously since the week before my wedding.  We definitely could not have done it without the help of many dear friends–friends who brought us frozen yogurt, who helped us pack & donate & throw things out, who received things that we were unable to bring, who lent me her car for an entire week so we could ship ours early (!), who helped sell my keyboard when our only interested buyer fell through at the last minute (!), who lent us a desperately-needed iMac box (!), who drove 2.5 hours with us to Jersey when we realized there was no way everything would fit into one car (!), and who rushed us to the post office so we could slip in just seconds before it closed (!).  Seriously, we are so thankful!!!  It’s as if every friend who served us and every prayer said on our behalf were pieces that God joined together to make our move possible; even one less piece would have made the puzzle incomplete and our move that much harder.  We marvel at the way things have fallen (and are still falling) into place better than we could have planned.  And now, 30 boxes, 4 check-ins, 2 carry-ons, 2 flights and 1 layover later, we are in Hawaii!!!  It is unreal.  It is by God’s grace.

Photos coming soon, once I find my camera cable.  Sending love & warmth from the Islands.  Miss you guys!!