The Sacrifices We Make

I have been thinking a lot about sacrifices as I view various posts about Veteran's Day on social media.  I know that I am not alone in the sacrifices I make, but I am very aware of them.  It was a sacrifice for us to move to Japan.  We have wonderful cultural experiences that we would never get if we still lived in Utah.  But we have also missed a lot.  We have missed the birth of three nephews, the wedding our last unmarried sibling, a baptism of a cousin, a funeral of a grandfather, mission farewells of cousins, and countless family get-togethers at holidays.  We have to invent ways to stay in touch.  We do our best to Face-time and letter write on Sundays.  We enjoy sending Diaso (a Japanese 100 yen store) gifts to cousins for birthdays because they are things our kids love and we know that the little trinkets are unique to our stateside family.  We appreciate being included in invitations to things that everyone knows we will not attend.  I think maybe the family might feel included in our adventures with this silly little blog.  But time marches on and we all just live our lives and try to be grateful for the things that we can share with each other.

Josh is currently TDY (Temporary Duty Yonder- what an acronym!).  Sometimes I get on my pity party as I try to juggle all the things that he usually helps me with.  Of course I am an ocean away from any family support- that is not to say that I do not receive encouraging emails and texts.  I always appreciate that.  But the days can be long and mundane as I juggle homework for three, dance lessons, basketball practice, Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts, Activity Days, running club, and cello and guitar lessons. And that is just the kid stuff.  Then there are the LDS church duties, yoga lessons, Key Spouse responsibilities, and the all the minutiae of household chores.  I tend to be shorter with the kids than I normally would be because we have to keep a really tight hold on the schedule or it all falls apart.  If I stop at all, I notice the sacrifices that Josh has made just by having to leave.  In this TDY alone, he missed Parent Teacher Conferences, Bub's 4th Grade Veteran's Day Concert, an ITT weekend trip, a Med Group Thanksgiving Lunch, and Bear's last Primary Program where she gave a short talk and played the cello accompaniment for "Beautiful Savior."  He misses the little things that make my days bearable; seeing Bear walk out of dance with a huge smile on her face, cuddling with Pants in bed because she wants one more song, catching Bub helping Pants with her reading, and seeing all three kids sneak around the house with huge smiles because they knew I was tired of the noise.  I am not sure who has sacrificed more.  It is not necessary to compare really.  Again, we just go on and do our best and look forward to our time together.

Halloween costumes

I always love to dress up.  Bellatrix LeStrange with her hot Death Eater

Ryusendo Caves, Iwate Prefecture 

Bub gets so sick of all the pictures I take.  I remind him that I share the pics but he does not care.  They will be great blackmail pics for his wedding- a whole slide show of pouts!

Kuji Amber Museum

We missed a lot of the fall this year due to our Hawaii trip (poor us) but we did find this picturesque late fall shot at the Kuji Amber Museum