Continuing on, our first tour of duty on Okinawa commenced in January of 2002 and ended in November of 2004. Though we only lived together in Okinawa for a couple of years, we had both lived in Japan a total of almost five years. My oldest daughter Chantal had the privilege of spending all of those years in Japanese elementary schools. Hence by the time we left Okinawa at the end of 2004 she was more fluent in Japanese than in English. Our final days in Okinawa is a story in itself………the nature of Erik’s job during those years was such that he was never home, or at least that’s what it seemed like. So when my brother planned on getting married in August 2004, it came as no surprise to me that Erik would not be able to accompany me and the girls to his wedding. Thank goodness Chantal was around ten years old at the time because she was incredibly helpful when it came time to travel to the wedding. My youngest daughter Jade was just nine months old at the time and let’s just say that sitting still has never been an easy feat for her. My brother lives on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands (near Tahiti), SO, in order to get to the Cook Islands from Okinawa, this is how one must travel: depart Okinawa to Tokyo, Tokyo to Hawaii, Hawaii to New Zealand, New Zealand to Rarotonga, and then after what seems like an eternity, especially when traveling with a baby who has just discovered that her chunky little arms and legs fare amazingly well as mobile units, you eventually arrive at your destination (at 3am I might add). With that said, you will surely understand why, by the time we returned to Okinawa and stepped off the eighth plane we’d traveled on in the past two weeks, I would gladly have settled for a life in Okinawa if it meant I never had to board another aircraft ever again. The Marine Corps would have other plans however. No sooner had the girls and I recovered from our long and arduous journey, than my husband informed me with the “delightful” news that he was to report to Camp Pendleton, California within the next few weeks. Guess what that meant? It meant, “Honey, I will be checking out of my unit over the next few weeks and then I’ll have to fly ahead of you and the girls so that I can report to my new unit before my check-in date.” AKA “You will have to stay behind and TMO everything, sell the cars, clean the apartment for final inspection, you know, nothing TOO major.” Oh, and it gets worse, he was to report to Camp Pendleton only to deploy to Iraq as soon as he got there. I didn’t even have a “green card” at the time and I was so frustrated anyway that we decided it would be best for me and the girls to go home to New Zealand and stay there until Erik returned from Iraq. More tomorrow……