Gaines Move to Okinawa

Yesterday my sister and her family left for a three year tour in Okinawa. My sister and brother-in-law didn’t show it much, even when I last saw them on the night before their early departure, but I know that they’ve lost a lot of sleep over this move half way around the globe. I hope they are able to rest when they arrive after traveling for an entire day and night and finally stepping off the plane in a new place whose time zone is 13 hours different from where they left.

I hope more than anything, though, that they are able to enjoy themselves while they are there. They’re going to be in a place that I’ll most likely never see in an area further away than I’m ever to likely travel. I just think that is so awesome. It sounds like such an incredible experience to see and learn and grow together in. I know, though, that I’m not the one leaving all my friends and family for the next three years.

A coworker once gave me a photocopy of an article when I first became a father which was authored by a father of older children who have left the nest, the father looking back on what he did with his family that meant the most. One of the things the author suggested to younger families was to pack the car up and travel to a place that none of them had been before for a vacation. He says that getting there and not knowing anyone and then sharing all the discoveries really tightens the family bonds. That is sort of how I hope my sister and her family will take this move, as an adventure.

Though we will miss seeing them, we will still keep up with them regularly while they are on their adventure. May God bless them.