Its still doesn't really feel real, but we are in Korea. After months of planning and stressing, we have arrived. To say that this whole process has been stressful would be an understatement. Who knew there were so many moving parts to moving a family overseas! Through out this whole process, we have received so many tender mercies from the Lord. I know there is no way we would have been able to do what we have done without the Lord's help. We had "angels" here on earth who helped us and we are so grateful to all our family and friends who made this move possible. We are greatly blessed!
I'm going to write our experience with moving, so this might be a bit lengthy. There are so many things I don't want to forget! I am still functioning on adjusting to a 14 hour time change with a baby who is as well, so some of this might not make sense. :)
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Two weeks before we flew out, the movers came and packed up all of our stuff and shipped it off. I have to say, I'm not sure I will be able to go back to moving ourselves anywhere after that. It was SO wonderful to have someone else do all the packing and moving. With our house empty, we moved out of our house and into a hotel in Waldorf. Greg's job graciously covers many of these costs that go into this move, and a 10 day hotel stay was part of the costs covered. For a hotel stay, we were really happy with all the accommodations that we had. It made a long term hotel stay much easier. The boys loved having a pool they could swim in everyday, and I loved their great continental breakfast and fitness center!
We kept the boys in school for 2 weeks after Christmas break, and I am so glad we made that decision. It gave them something to do when we were so busy trying to get everything done. We were late almost every day to school since our mornings were a bit crazy, but they still made it every day! I loved their school and their teachers, so it was a very sad goodbye for me and the kids to leave their school. We are hoping for a good experience here for schools!
Greg was able to get some time off to get everything done that we needed to, so everyday after the kids were at school, we would go to the house and work on cleaning it out. Easton struggled with our crazy schedule, which I was expecting, but it still made it very hard to get anything done with him. He is normally a great napper, but he was averaging maybe 2 45 minute naps a day. He was a grump to say the least!
My dad and sister Chelsea, who finished her mission in DC just a few days before, flew out on Wednesday of that week to help us. Their help was so appreciated and just what we needed! We put them to work painting, scrubbing walls, and entertaining the kids, which they seemed to happily do! My sister Ashley was able to get a couple of days off work as well, so we had plenty of help! We also had a friend from the ward come to help. What a blessing all these wonderful people were to us then!
We were able to relax on Sunday with family, and I will always cherish that day. It was so wonderful admit the chaos to sit and talk and to just be with the people that we love.
We were able to get out of house completely on Monday, and what a relief that was! I have a problem with throwing things away that can be recycled or reused, and there were so many last minute items that were stressing me out because I didn't want to rinse food container and cleaners out just to recycle them. I finally just told Greg to take care of them and to not tell me what he did with them. Out of sight out of mind!
My dad and Chelsea flew back to Wyoming on Monday, and it was another sad goodbye. Living on the other side of the world makes traveling so much more expensive for everyone, so not really knowing when we will see family again is hard!
Tuesday was out last day in Maryland before we flew out, so we had a ton of last minute things to get done. Ashley had the day off, and she helped us get everything done that we needed to. Having her with us that whole day was so wonderful. It was great to spend some time together, and it was so great to have her help! We drove all over the DC area, picking up a rental car, dropping our car off to be shipped to Korea, and then going to the hotel airport. I am so glad she was able to help us because we ended up having so many bags that they wouldn't all fit in our rental car. We used her car as well to get all of our stuff to the hotel and then to the airport the next day.
We had an early flight (6:30am), so we had to be to the airport at 4:30. Once we got the airport, everything was so rushed that I didn't feel like we got the goodbye I wanted with Ashley. There was so much I wanted to say, but I just cried instead. It was so hard to say goodbye!
Our first flight was from Dulles to Dallas, which was about a 3 hour flight. Normally, that would feel like a long flight, but knowing that we had a huge flight ahead of us, it didn't feel too bad. Deagan and Easton slept most of the flight, so it was actually kind of a chill flight. Its nice when it works out that way! We had a short layover in Dallas, but we made sure to use all the time we had to let the boys run and play. Or in Easton's case, crawl and stand up against things.
We checked about 10 bags under the plane, but we still had a ton of stuff that we brought on the plane with us since everyone had 2 items and we had Easton's car seat for him to sleep in on the plane. (Thankfully he had his own seat!) I'm sure everyone was really happy with us as they waited for us to get situated in our seats.
I had been dreading this flight for so long, and once we were settled, the reality of how long it was going to be and how cramped we were really hit hard. I felt so overwhelmed at that moment. The person sitting in front of me had their seat reclined back the entire flight, and I had Easton's car seat next to me. I felt so claustrophobic. My mom mentioned later that she felt like she needed to pray for me because I needed something, and I think her prayer helped me to feel calm and relax. How great that Heavenly Father even cares and helps when we are overreacting about something so insignificant!
The flight that I had been dreading for so long actually turned out 100x better than I thought it would. Easton did not have really any major melt downs, which is a miracle! The boys were in love with the fact that they had their own personal TV screens and they could watched as many movies as they wanted. Easton was able to take a few really good naps in his car seat, and I tried to sleep during that time because I got hardly any sleep the night before because I was so nervous. We got fed three meals, which were really nothing to write home about, and they brought around drinks a lot, so I felt like we were set with food. We also had an entire carry on full of food and snacks, so we were never hungry. 14 hours is a long time though, and after a while, it was hard to just sit. We got up and walked the aisles a few times with the kids, and they also took a ton of potty breaks. I'm sure everyone around us was really happy with the kids running down the aisles so many times, but it kept them happy! It was cool to watch the flight path we were taking as we flew. I thought we were going to be over the ocean the entire time, but we went up to Alaska and down through Russia and over Japan. When we were over Russia, it was so neat to look out the window and see all the snow covered mountains and to see a country I have never been to before! (Even if it was only through the window of an airplane.)
We landed in Seoul around 4:00 pm local time. It was so weird to basically lose a day since we traveled with the sun essentially and it never got dark. I felt like our trip went really well and smoothly until we go to Seoul. We had to wait a long time to get our strollers that we were under the plane, and then we waited a long time to get through the passport line and then to get our luggage. We finally found all our bags on the opposite side of the carousel where we had been and piled up. Thank you random stranger! We had to get 2 luggage carts to hold all of our stuff, and we also had 2 strollers we were pushing through the airport. I'm sure we looked like quite the sight with all of our stuff and all our blonde hair! Everyone was staring at us as we made our way through the airport. We had to go through customs on one side of the airport and then go to the completely opposite side of the airport to catch a shuttle to base. It had to have been a mile to the shuttle, and we were all tired and grumpy. When we finally got the shuttle stop, we realized that we had missed the shuttle by minutes and had to wait an hour for the next one. Even though it was a bummer to miss the shuttle, it was also nice to just sit and relax for a few a bit. The boys ran around crazy and Easton crawled around all over the place. I think they were all a bit delirious at this point.
Our shuttle finally came and once we struggled to haul and load the bus with all our stuff, we were off! The base where we are living right now is about 45 min to an hour from the airport. The older boys fell asleep instantly, and Easton struggled to fall asleep but finally did in my arms after nursing for the 100th time that day. We arrived at the gate to get on base and the security guard came on the bus to check everyone's ID's. I did not have a military ID at this point because we weren't going to be able to get one until we got ON the base, and there was this big issue where they weren't sure they were going to let us on! After Greg explaining the situation as best he could to a non-English native, they agreed to let us sign in at the visitor's center, but they wouldn't let Greg sign is for us. They wanted ALL of us to get off an sign in. All the kids were asleep at this point, and we knew that trying to haul three sleeping kids into a building was going to be tough, so once again Greg asked if he could just go in for us. They finally agreed to let just Greg and myself go in a sign, which meant they wanted us to keep Deagan and Kayden on the bus asleep. I had reached my threshold I think by this point because I broke down in tears. Greg had to beg the bus driver to wait for us to drive us the hotel since we had sleeping kids on the bus and all of our stuff was still on. He reluctantly agreed, so we ran in, holding a sleeping Easton who instantly woke up when we got out into the cold air. After some confusion and frustration at the visitor center, they didn't want to let us on either!, we made it ON base. A feat that we didn't realize would be so frustrating!
We made it to the hotel, and Greg checked in and brought all of our stuff into the rooms. We had to wait in the lobby while Greg did all of this, and Deagan and Kayden slept on the couches in the lobby. Easton was very tired and fussy but just wouldn't sleep, so it was not the funnest thing to try to handle at that point. :) A bunch of Koreans were in the lobby coming or going to dinner, and they all stopped and smiled and laughed at the kids and I. I'm sure I looked like such a mess. I had been traveling for 24 hours, had been crying, and had food and who knows what else all over my clothes. I was just so ready to be in our room and to sleep!
After checking in and getting to our room, we put the older boys to bed in their bed and got Easton to bed. I had this idea that since we got to bed at night that everyone would sleep well since we were basically on a normal schedule. That was definitely not the case. Easton woke up every 30 minutes to an hour that night. The boys were up around 3 for the day as well. It was not the best night, and I was SO grateful to see the sun the next morning. (This rises surprising really late here!)
We spent the next few days getting all the proper paperwork done and trying to adjust to the new time change. Yesterday was the first night since getting here where Easton actually slept well. Everyone else seemed to adjust a lot better, but man he struggled, which means that I have struggled to sleep. That might explain why I feel like such a crazy lady the past few days. :)
Life here has been a roller coaster. We have fallen in love with Korea. What a beautiful place it is! The people really are nice, with the exception of a few impatient folks, but really for the most part they are so nice. The kids draw attention just like we were told they would. Deagan and Kayden don't seem to like that too much, but Easton just smiles and laughs. The language barrier is hard and has been frustrating at times, but that just solidifies the importance we feel to learn the language.
We are hotel living until we find a place off base. We at first thought we would try to stay here the whole three months that we have been approved to, but I think I might go crazy if we wait that long to find a place. Hotel living is fun for the first week I think, but we are going on week 3. It's not so fun anymore. We have as a result started to look at apartments. We are hoping and praying that we are able to find something that will fit our families needs and soon if possible!
It is so weird to think that we are so far away from our loved ones. The time change has been hard with trying to communicate back home, but I'm hoping with time we figure it out. We really are excited to be here and for the opportunities this gives our family. I have been struggling honestly though the past couple of days. Maybe its from being so crazy busy before we left to being cooped up in a hotel room that is make it hard, but I am hoping that we find a groove and a rhythm here soon. Deagan is in school now which I hope helps, so I need to find things to keep Kayden, Easton and myself busy. With Easton still taking 2 long naps a day, it makes it hard to plan things. I'm hoping we figure it all out soon!
If you made it this far, you deserve an award! I will try to update more often so I don't write novels every time I post. :) Love to all our friends and family back home!
