How We Got Here

 The story of how we arrived it is many years in the making.  

I grew up on Guam. Many people know this.  Many people do not.  My dad worked for the U.S Government and his job gave us the opportunity to move there.  We moved there when I was in elementary school, and they moved back to the mainland United States when I was in college.  So...Guam was home.  Living there afforded me and my family many opportunities we never would have had otherwise.  I have always wanted to be able to give my children some similar experiences, as I feel my childhood changed how I view the world.

Andrew has always had an extreme wanderlust.  Ever since I met him he has wanted to spend as much time in as many countries experiencing as many cultures as possible.  Pre-Japan he had been to 25 countries and Japan was a huge bucket list destination for him.

After we got married, we decided that eventually we wanted to be able to live with our little (though now it's not so little..) family in a foreign (to us) country.  

When we started having kids 8 years ago, and Andrew became the primary provider for the family, we realized there was basically one way for us to move out of country with his particular profession: he would need to be a therapist for the government. Why?  Because typically therapists get settle into a community, grow their clientele and rely on marketing and referrals for business. The loophole? Being a therapist for the government, on a military base, where you could accept a different position every three years if you'd like.

About 8 years ago we started looking at options, knowing it'd be awhile.  We found positions available all over the U.S., as well as several positions in various countries.  As we looked every couple of months we noticed that positions in Japan were regularly coming available.  Somewhere along the way, Japan became Andrew's goal, he wanted to live here!

After many years, many applications, many denials, and many more applications, Andrew FINALLY scored an INTERVIEW.  The only problem?  They wanted to interview him in January 2020, on a day when we would be on vacation in Hawaii.  We were dedicated to the cause so we figured out the time difference from Japan to Hawaii, and while the rest of us were eating delicious food truck lunch in Waialua, Andrew went to a Starbucks coffee shop to access free WiFi.  He interviewed, and said "Well, being in Hawaii either really hurt me, or really helped me.  They either thought I was super unprofessional for being in Starbucks with headphones on, or thought I was super dedicated to the job already by interviewing on vacation in Hawaii."

Exactly 3 weeks later, and about 4 days after the birth of our 4th child, Indie (yeah, I went to Hawaii 37 weeks pregnant) we got the email!  Andrew was offered the job!  

We knew the process would be long; it is the government, after all.  Background checks, fingerprints, paper work, and then: COVID-19.  After almost 6 months of waiting, preparing, waiting some more, selling our home, and scrambling, we got to Japan on July 24th, 2020.

Because of the current health crisis and situation, we were requited to do a full 2 week Restriction of Movement (ROM) when we arrived here.  Essentially, we had to quarantine in a 600 sq. ft. large hotel room for 2 weeks.  We could not open a window.  We could not go out the door.  More about that later.  

We are here we are safe we are happy, we are enjoying getting settled, even with all that comes with that. With every frustration that has come along, and there have been many, Andrew continues to say, "We wanted an adventure.  The adventure is the ENTIRE experience, not just the good parts!" (can you tell he is a therapist?). So we are having lots of adventures, some fun, some not fun, some incredible, and some incredibly frustrating.

So check in every once in awhile if you'd like to see what we are up to!