What a Week!

We've had quite the memorable week in our first week together in Hawaii. Monday we visited Steve's birthplace, Kahuku Hospital (shown in the photo w/ Steve). It's a lot smaller than Holly and I remember. Holly remembered the palm tree that she looked at each morning during recovery. We also drove by the Temple in Laie and was in awe once again of that beautiful building & landscape. BYU-Hawaii was also fun to see as we did a quick drive by as we needed to get our bank set up and do other errands.

Tuesday was interesting as Holly found a lady with some boogie boards for sale, on Craigslist, in Kaneohe. So we bought those and took them to Kailua Beach for the kids first boogie boarding day. We felt like we were in the Caribbean with such aqua marine water. On the way home, we stopped by Waimea Bay to watch the sunset...and see Christian tear off his diaper and joyfully skinny dip.

This first week we've circled the island several times to attain a vehicle that fits our family. We met a really amazing local named Lonnie who helped us get our 15 passenger van through the auction. On Tuesday, we met him and found the van we wanted. He went in on Wednesday and we got a pretty good deal. On Thursday we went to pick it up and after spending a couple of hours at the bank to get it purchased, we drove it for about two miles went it started smoking. We got it over to a dealership and we needed to fix the brakes. So we piled everybody out again into Lonnie's van and took him home. The next day we picked it up and went to get some gas. Well, the battery was dead. Unbelievable. But right then another local came out of nowhere and asked if we needed a jump. He gave us his jumper cables to get the van going again. I told him thanks and his immediate reply was, "Thank Jesus."

We were able to find a home of our dreams in Mililani, a safe, clean community with walking trails and open space behind us. We prayerfully went to preview this home with a handful of other interested renters which was quite intimidating. They were pulling up in their Corvettes, Mercedes etc and we showed up with our 15 passenger van and a dozen children piling out!! However, just an hour after we put in our application (along with all the other applicants), the realtor called and asked if we wanted the home as we were in 1st position. We could not believe it!! We went in to sign papers the next day and asked the Realtor why they chose us? He patted his heart and said, "Something told me this house was for you." The Spirit works in such amazing ways through many people to make things happen. We have felt so blessed and watched over throughout this entire relocation of our family. It is very humbling to witness this and we know Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers.

Last night, I took Steve, Lis, Jake, Kate, and Mike to Waimea Bay to watch the sunset and go cliff diving. The three oldest went diving but I didn't as the night fell on us and it seemed a little too crazy for my first time to jump into the dark into a raving ocean beneath. Maybe next time. What a wonderful, adventurous, doors opening in every which way--week.