Update

Sorry it has been so long since I updated our blog. Things have been going crazy since the last time I wrote. The last thing I wrote was about our TMO appointment.
We now have an apartment, pictures to follow later, right on the ocean front! Our view is gorgeous! It is located near the seawall. We enjoy walking it at night. There are several little shops and resturants along the seawall. We have deemed it our responsibility to check them out! They are such quaint little places! We are in the process of getting settled and setting up house.
God has been so good to us! On our trip over we met a couple and their daughter. She is a doll and we played on the plane, naming colors, counting, drawing pictures on the back of the seat in front of us. They are here on the island as well and we have become friends with them- amazing what a 15 hour plane ride will accomplish. The best part about it all is that they are involved in a church here. We have been and like it. The people there are great and there are LOTS of South Carolina ties. Nearly half the people we met were from the upstate and so the Carolina v. Clemson game was a topic of conversation. Our new friends have taken to eat at two really neat places. One is Sushi-go-round. It is exactly what you think it is. We enjoyed it!! There are some pretty normal things that you can eat. The second is a bbq place. It is like The Melting Pot, only instead of cooking your own food in the pot, you grill it. They have veggies and potatoes wrapped in foil and you place them on the outer part of the grill as you cook your meat in the middle. OH MY GOODNESS it is DEVINE!!!! Truly, it is some of the best food I've ever had. The potatoes come with a mixture of butter and Japanese butter. No, we didn't count calories that night!
Driving is a fun thing to do. We both have cars and are naturals at driving on the left side of the road! All of the cars are small, in fact some of them remind us of micro-machines. The streets off of the highway are extremely small and so you are very grateful that your car is small when driving on;especially when meeting one! We will also post pictures of our cars a little later.

A Friday WHOO HOOO HOOO!

We had an amazing answer to prayer today! Patrick called me around lunch time to say that the paperwork for all intents and purposes is complete and we have a meeting with TMO at 3pm. Our orders haven't quite been generated, but we were given the "in lieu" letter. The other amazing part to all of this is that two WONDERFUL airmen actually stayed late to meet with us. For simple explanation, our meeting today was really two in one. They understood our need (our need for speed- had to throw a little Top Gun in) and offered to stay late on a Friday to help us. We signed all the necessary forms and are now in the system to be assigned to a moving company. They will come out over three days and pack us. I can hear some of you now, "Three days?" Well, this is the fun part. The first day they come they will pack up all of the large items that we can't take with us to Okinawa and put them in storage. The second day they come they will pack all of the things that we will need right when we get there (minus funiture). These things include towels, shower curtain, air mattress, plates, etc. The third day they come they will pack up the rest of the items we are taking. We aren't sure of the exact dates, but we have requested the 15th-17th. We should find out for sure on Monday, maybe even Tuesday. We are very excited about this mainly because we are in the system and things are on go!

Thank you for all the prayers. God is good all the time! And all the time God is good!

Still waiting....

I haven't forgotten to write an update, promise! Since the last time I wrote we haven't really found out anything new. We have gone to a couple of meetings, but nothing has come of them. We continue to be excited about Okinawa. It is just taking a little bit more to get there than we originally thought. No worries, no worries! We know that everything happens for a reason even if we don't quite understand it at the time.
As soon as we know something, we will let you know!!

It's all in the details...

This week has been full of just that: details. We have nearly been chasing our tails trying to get all of the things checked off of our list. The "fun" thing is that each time we cross one thing off, it adds at least three more to be done. We are taking it all in stride and laughing at ourselves as much as possible. No sense in getting upset when it doesn't change anything. All in all it is going well. We have a meeting in the morning that should prove to really set things in motion. If things go the way we think they will, we should be coming home with definite dates for the packers and movers. One AWESOME thing we do have is a flight scheduled for Okinawa! We are leaving on Nov. 20 from Seattle. This means that we will be heading out on Nov. 19 from Columbia. It will be a non-stop flight. Our dog, Cooper, will accompany us under the plane- yes he will be sedated.

We'll keep you posted.

Getting Started

We are excited about embarking on our new adventure! We invite you to come along with us through this blog. Our journey together began nearly three years ago. At that time, neither one of us ever dreamed that in this short time we would have done any of the things that we have done or that we would be heading to Okinawa, Japan. We have entitled our blog as "Livin' Lightsey: the two P's and their Pod". Our "pod" will grow, change shapes, relocate mulitple times, with God's blessing "peas" will be added. We want you to be able to be apart of our lives, see us travel, watch us grow, laugh with us, pray with us, ulitmately experience what it will be to be "Livin' Lightsey".

"Livin' Lightsey" is busy, wonderful, fun. We are getting things ready to have the packers and movers come. We are putting in much loved face-time with family and friends. Things get in gear the first of October. Patrick is attending a training class for his new job in Florida. I will be going with him. We will then spend roughly two weeks with family and head to Okinawa just before Thanksgiving.