Wednesday, August 3, 2011

AZ here we come...

Jared and I have been waiting about 3 years for this amazing job opportunity to come.. and it FINALLY has! On February 13, Jared got a phone call offering him an agent position in CBP in Casa Grande, Arizona and he would have to report for duty February 28. When he got the call we didn't know what to do.. we had talked so much about what would happen when this moment came... We had 24 hours to give a response... We had said so many times that we were going to say no if it was out of state. We just couldn't take our kids away from cousins and aunties and uncles and especially grandparents. As soon as Jared got off we both said NO! How could we move? Not to mention I just had Hawk 2 days before that.. We realized pretty quickly that chances were we would NEVER get this opportunity again. We had to say yes. Jared called back and said yes. I knew he had to leave for 3 months and I had no idea how I was going to do it.. How could I be away from my husband for 3 months? How could I take care of my 2 sons all by myself? I was absolutely dreading Feb. 28 and hoping my last week with him would go by slowly.. I have to say I was way more tough than I gave myself credit. I definitely didn't do it all by myself though, my family and Jared's family were absolutely amazing. They all helped me so much. Whether it was just being there to talk to, watching Reefy for me, taking us out for some fun activities, or offering to have us over for dinner, they all were a tremendous help. I actually ended up moving into my sister Erika's house for 5 weeks and I am so grateful for that. It gave me the chance to spend more time with her and my nieces. The 3 months actually went by fairly quickly, which was a good and bad thing. Good because I got to see my husband again and bad because that meant we had 11 days to move to AZ. Our moms threw us a big party and we got to say bye to all of our friends and family! We moved on June 10 and have had so much fun decorating our new house. (Thank you Aiono parents and cousins for helping us move, paint, and unpack.) It definitely has not been easy being away from our family, but thankfully we have Aiono family here to keep us sane.. or at least keep me sane.. :) I LOVE being on our own, in our own house, with just the 4 of us. I get excited making dinner every night and take pride in my home being nice and tidy. We love when visitors come also! We have already had my mom, dad, nieces, and brother come for a visit and Jared's mom, dad, brother, and sister have also come. I am happy to say that we are surviving! Quite easily too, which I wasn't sure we would be able to do without our parents and siblings living close. I am just so proud of my husband and his work ethic he works so hard for our lives to be secure. He is such an amazing man and I am truly blessed to be married to him. He is enjoying his job so much and I am grateful for that too. I will post pics of the house as soon as we are done decorating!