Rigdon Review: Our Adventures Abroad

Please do not misunderstand me: we love the life we have created here in Japan.  We, as a family, do not regret being here in the least bit (but don't ask the kids about that on a bad day, because they will for sure tell you otherwise).  Life in a completely foreign land, speaking a foreign language (and in the middle of a pandemic!?!?!) is not, however, without extremely trying times. We write about the amazing experiences we have because they are just that, amazing.  Share-worthy. You know what else is share-worthy? The fact that in the midst of all the magic and wonder, are plenty of melt-downs, heart ache, homesickness, frustration and anxiety. Keane: Cute as they come, he is.  This kid is quick.  Incredibly bright, school has always come very easily for him.  Nothing was ever difficult.  He was ahead in math and reading and never struggled in school.  He was used to not really having to try. Fast forward--He is thrown into Japanese school and...

 We've been trying to go camping every weekend for the past many weeks, but when the time came close, the forecast showed rain.  Camping in the rain with 4 kids seems like something I'm happy to avoid.  Finally, this past weekend, the forecast was clear!  Saturday showed a cloudy morning, but other than that, clear and sunny, so we prepped! Guys, the prepping and the cleaning up part of camping is dreadful.  I cannot stand it.  But I love camping so much, and we had really heard great things about the campsite called  Jakuchikyogoryuno (Seven) Falls.   A couple of really wonderful benefits of having access to the Marine base here is that they have a service where you go in and they call and set up the reservations for you, free of charge.  It's great because....it's usually pretty rough when I call to make a reservation or try to set something up in Japanese.  Additionally there is a place called Outdoor Recreation which has ALL sor...

In the end of March, Andrew's dad called him and told him that he didn't think his mom had much longer left with us on Earth.  She had been battling a serious illness for quite some time and had recently gotten much worse.  Because we didn't have any concrete information about what was going on with VaLynn, we were unsure as to what to do.  The decision to all go back to the states, or just send Andrew back to the states, or not have anyone go back at all was a tricky one.  Perhaps it seems simple: if someone is sick and possibly dying, you go.  Duh.  But until you have lived in one of the most locked down countries in the world during a major pandemic, you just don't understand how complicated it is. Finally we decided, for various reasons, that it was best to just have Andrew go back for 10 days.  He began compiling all the necessary paperwork, talking to HR and to a travel agency on what it would take to get out, and then back into Japan.  Afte...

**Here is the compilation of all the videos from that day.  Entrance, prayer ceremony, diploma receiving, songs etc.     https://youtu.be/J2WYoXlXdDk Yochien, the school that children in Japan attend for up to three years before entering elementary school in the 1st grade.  Most children attend starting at 3 years old.   When we moved here we knew we wanted our kids to go to Japanese school, and even though Holland had finished kindergarten back in Utah, with the difference in the start and end of the school year here, Holland needed to go back to Kindergarten.  I didn't really consider trying to get her on a list before getting here and that was.....very.....ignorant of me.  Yochien only accept a certain amount of students so that the classes aren't too full.  Unbeknownst to me, November 1 of the PRIOR year is when application and registration is.  So we were only...ya know...9 months late.   As I called around to every Y...