What a difference a year makes!

I just realized that it has been a year since that day in November of 2006 when I received a phone call at about 3:30 in the afternoon from the Commodore of Brian's squadron. I answered the phone to hear this voice on the other end, "Amy- this is Earl Carter." I'm thinking- crap! What has happened to Brian? "I know you and Brian have been waiting on orders for a while now, and I wanted to let you know that the detailer will be getting those orders off to him soon as the N4 of Submarine group 7 in Yokosuka, Japan." I could barely speak. N4 where? What the heck is an N4? We had thoroughly discussed this before he deployed. Anywhere but Japan! Why would we want to go to Japan? We were settled in Chesapeake, VA, although most of our neighbors would tell you that they only saw Brian a handful of times during those years. It had been a long three years during the Engineer tour on the Newport News. We were looking forward to him coming home from deployment and living a "normal life". I told Commodore Carter how upset Brian would be with these orders and asked if he knew. He told me he had just sent off a message to the Captain. I stood there in my kitchen, looking at my boys playing in the living room and sobbed. How could this be? I didn't want to move to Japan- it was never in the plans. Little did I know that Brian was about to go stand a six hour watch that day when the CO pulled him into his stateroom and told him what the message said. The Navy certainly had other plans for us!

Meanwhile, by 3:45 I had called my friend Emily in tears. Of course, within minutes she was at the house, playing with the boys and ordering a pizza. I began the endless phone calls. What did this mean? When would Brian be home? They wanted us in Japan the first of March. The last I had heard from Brian, he wasn't being sent off the boat until end of February. To make matters worse, I had another month and a half until we would actually speak to each other, or for that matter, e-mail due to some secret thing the sub was doing. At that point I didn't care what the sub was doing. I felt the world revolved around me- I wanted answers.

Needless to say, within a week (it took me 3 days just to call my parents and tell them that the Navy would be taking their grandsons far far away) I had changed my attitude and was in action getting things ready. A house to sell/rent, an almost brand new Toyota Tundra and a Toyota Sienna to sell, a full blown medical screening for all of us, government passports, paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork. All of this needed to be done quickly so that we were able to fly out in March. I had roadblocks because many things needed Brian's signature. I would get, "Maam, you can't get that done without your sponsors signature." How the heck can I get his signature when he is floating under the sea in a submarine?

I did manage to get everything done. I sold my car, rented the house, completed our overseas screening, etc. Thank you Patty!! Thank you Emily!! Thank you Brooke!! During this process, my kids had lots of play dates with Kasey and Kyle (and Miss Emily) Patty was an angel, flying in from Chicago to help out for four incredibly packed days of selling cars, countless trips to and from the Norfolk base, and most of all, being there for my kids to feed them, play with them, and just give me a break. Thank you to our families for being so supportive. Brian and Jill- how many times did I call you?

As many of you know, our story took a slight turn. On January 8, I was watching CNN when a news ticker came across the bottom of the screen. "Uss Newport News crashes into large Japanese oil tanker". What? It was 10:30 at night. The boys were in bed. I ran to the computer to see if any more info could be found. I did receive a call that night about a half hour later that everyone was okay and the sub had minimal damage. The sub pulled in a few days later into Bahrain, which is where she sat for almost three months before heading back to Norfolk. The damage was not minimal- it was pretty substantial. The good thing to come out of this was that they were stopped, they weren't going anywhere, and Brian's replacement had shown up. He was on his way home just 3 weeks after the accident. We would now have more than a month to prepare to leave and get everything done!!

By March 8 we were on a plane headed to Tokyo, Japan. We were excited! Japan has been everything and more than we ever expected it to be. Though I still don't like Sushi, and I'll never understand why dogs are allowed in restaurants over here (yes- they even dress them up and push them around in strollers), driving on the other side of the road has become habit now, and I carry more Yen around in my purse than dollars. In fact, yen is like play money to us. I'm lovin the 500 yen coin (yes- a coin worth about five dollars). The shopping is incredible here (if I buy another piece of pottery, I may have to find a full time job while I am here), the scenery is beautiful, and if I haven't said it before, the people of Japan are the kindest and most sincere people I have ever met.

Brian just looked at me tonight and said, "Can you believe we live in Japan?" I actually can- it is home for now. The boys have great teachers, and I get to walk them to school every day. Brian is home almost every day for lunch and rarely misses a dinner unless there is some huge problem at work. We have been able to enjoy most of our weekends together as a family, always looking for a new adventure somewhere. Last weekend to ended up at Ikea the day after Thanksgiving. We figured it wouldn't be packed because it wasn't a holiday for the Japanese. Little did we know that it was a holiday for them (their Labor Day) The store was packed solid and everyone was buying these little Christmas trees (blue spruce tree about four ft tall) for 1990 yen. We decided we'd buy one too, and it has added a perfect touch to our home for Christmas. It is not the way we normally would get a tree, but we're in Japan, and things are different here.

What a difference a year makes!! I'm sorry for the long post this time. Oh- to my dear friends back in Chesapeake, Virginia (you know who you are), this is no indication of a Christmas letter to come. I will not be sending one for you to critique and tear apart :) Just keep reading the blog- now it is updates all the time, not just once a year:)

Happy Holidays to you all!