We Can Do Anything!

Dear children,

On the plane, I watched each of you as you were contorted in uncomfortable ways trying to sleep.  I thought about everything our family has just accomplished:

Finishing up finals for both Dad and I.
Packing up our home and putting everything into storage.
Finishing up a list two pages long of house projects.
Cleaning the entire house and getting it ready to put on the market.
Packing up and getting our lives ready so that we could move to a foreign country.
Doing all of this during Christmas.....even on Christmas Day.

I thought about how amazing our family is!  I think we can accomplish anything, as long as we do it together!!

So....what are we going to accomplish as a family during the next few months while we are in Tokyo?

As I held Kirstina on the plane and watched the plane symbol draw ever closer to Japan on the world map, I thought about some things I would like our family to accomplish.  They are:

1.  I want us to become closer to each other.  We all just left our friends, our home, everything familiar.  We are going to be in a place where we will have to rely on each other in order to be able to take care of ourselves.  I hope that this experience will help us be closer to each other and fight with each other less.

2.  I hope that each of you learn that "things" do not make you happy.  Each of you just packed up and left everything you own.  The only thing you have in your luggage is about a week's worth of clothes, a sleeping bag, your pillow pet, and your homeschooling supplies.  Will you still have fun?  Will you be happy in Japan?  I hope that you all learn that happiness lies within your attitude toward life and not in the things that you have.

3.  I hope that each of us can find beauty in things that may not be familiar or "normal" to us.  Without ever even being there, I know that Japan has a lot of beauty.  I hope that we learn to find beauty in even the little things.

Children of mine, this will be the most awesome thing we will probably ever do as a family!!!  It will be hard to top this!  What a special gift this is for us, and I hope each of you will always look back on this experience with fond memories and a love for your family.

I love you,
Mom