26.2 x 2

PHEW!

I (Jessica) ran the Honolulu Marathon yesterday. I'd been hoping to do another one since I ran Seattle in 2010 and finally was able to.

It was a great experience, although much more challenging to me than my first full. And I'm not quite sure why!

It was a lot warmer (and a bit humid). It was around 73 degrees when we started -- at 5am mind you -- and probably a little over 80 by the time I crossed the finish line. 

I was wiped out, sore and slower than I had been in Seattle, but I still completed it! It was a much more international race than I'm used to. The major sponsor was a Japanese company, so much of the documentation and booths and the expo was all in Japanese! I've heard about 50% of the participants are from Japan, so I heard lots of Japanese as well as a few other languages while running.

Thanks to all for your support and prayers! It has been wonderful. I was able to see quite a few friendly faces along the route. Our good friend David Croswell also ran it so his wife Mariko, and their son were out cheering. Most of all, I’m so thankful for Erik and all his support—not only yesterday but also during training.  Yesterday he took the day off from work and drove around town so he could cheer me on and snap photos to send to family back on the mainland. Our victory dinner last night was Thai Food.  It hit the spot and I’m still enjoying leftovers today.

I'm crazy enough that even though I'm sore and having a hard time walking downstairs today I think I'll do it again someday. And I think Erik will let me ;) 

Life Lessons from Hawaii #4: We Aren’t Home Yet

Yesterday my aunt and uncle took my grandmother’s ashes to her final resting place: Bakersfield, California, to the cemetery where my grandfather’s ashes are.  I haven’t’ been back to Bakersfield since I was 10 years old.  My grandma moved up to Washington shortly after my grandfather died and I didn’t have the opportunity to go back. Now part of me wants to, and part of me is afraid of it—afraid of how different it will be, and that the differences will edge out my memories. And those memories are treasures.

Place has always been important to me. The idea of “home” had been one that has long been close to my heart—which makes any change a big deal. When my grandma moved and changed homes I knew it was a big deal for her, and it was also a big deal for all of us. No more summer road trips to visit family and spend hours by their pool in the sun. No more July nights spent sweating under nothing but a thin sheet simply trying to stay as cool as possible. All that was over and life changed.

Life is still changing, and while I mentioned in another post how I’m discovering that change isn’t all that bad, I have to admit I’m still not all that ready to fully embrace it. That’s why the idea of “home” now is hard. We have a “home” here in Hawaii, we still own a “home” in Seattle that we are renting, and my parents live in the “home” I grew up in. So where, then, is home? When I feel those tears coming on and the pit of homesickness in my stomach growing, what am I homesick for? I’m realizing more and more it’s not a place. It’s the people.

The place is still important to me. I have memories of people in my mind that are tied to places and activities—mental photographs that I pray will never get erased. But the place is important not because it’s a place, but because of the people—and the memories made there.

Yet, as I reflect on the idea of home, I recognize it’s something I’ve often searched for. Maybe since I left home for college, but probably even longer than that. In this life it’s hard to “fit in.”  It’s hard to feel comfortable and at peace all the time. It’s hard to go through a day without longing for something more, different, greater, or familiar.

And in my longing, in my homesickness, God is teaching me that the longing, the unsettledness is part of His plan. Place is important to Him too—after all He created the universe and lovingly placed us in the places He wanted us. But more than that, place is important because of the relationship we have with Him. We all have a longing for home—for that perfect place, surrounded by all our loved ones—because that’s how He created us. No matter where we are, we aren’t home yet. This world is not our home. We are citizens of His kingdom.

So in that, I can try to rejoice in my homesickness, knowing that I am where God has placed me and someday, like my grandma already is, I will be Home. Home in the arms of my Savior where I can praise Him forever. The longing will be gone. Homesickness will be replaced, and I hope and pray all my loved ones will be there with me, for all eternity.

We’re all on the way home, we just aren’t there yet.

Grandma and I this summer, on her 90th birthday. She went home a few weeks later.

Life Lessons from Hawaii #3: I'm a Sunshine Girl

It’s official. I’ve long since suspected it, and now that we’ve lived somewhere sunny, warm and tropical for nearly a year I can confirm my suspicions: I am a sunshine girl.

Growing up I loved summer. I loved being out of school and I loved being warm. I loved the pilgrimage we made to California to visit family and I loved the sun.

Seattle is one of the most beautiful places in the world, especially when the sun is out. And it will always be home in a sense. But man, I’m definitely used to wearing tank tops, dresses and “slippers” year-round. In fact, when we visited Seattle for a wedding this summer I was FREEZING. My sister and her friends were sitting in the sun in swimsuits and I was well covered in running pants and a track jacket. They laughed, but inside I knew, they were the crazy ones! 70 degrees is warm but it’s not THAT warm.

When we were first moving I wondered if I’d get tired of the sun. Answer: NO. Erik and I both love the sun, and the beach, and the water, and I have to say it was nice to make it through the winter without having to look for flights to somewhere warm and sunny. Goodbye Seasonal Affective Disorder!

I do miss the seasonal change. No crisp air in the winter, no snow to bundle up from and no fall leaves to watch change color. But for now, that’s ok, because I can hit the pool nearly any day of the year, and for me, that’s a very good thing.

Yep, we like the beach!

Life Lessons from Hawaii #2: New Friends Don’t Replace Old Ones

I have been blessed, we have been blessed, with some really great fiends here in Hawaii. I know that people in Seattle were praying for the women that would become my friends here and I am so thankful for answered prayers.

Hawaii has a word for family, and it’s “o’hana.”  An o’hana goes beyond blood ties and welcomes in people of all shapes, sizes, colors and statuses. It’s been so nice to have a family of brothers and sisters in Christ here, and for that both Erik and I are extremely grateful.

Yet having moved (and this is the first really big move I’ve ever made), I find there is truth to the old children’s song, which says, “Find new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other’s gold.”

While we have friends here, they don’t replace the friends we have in Seattle, and all around the world at this point. People we have spent years with, shared laughter and tears with and done life with will always be important to us. And man, there are days when I truly miss some of my friends who are in Seattle.

In the past I have experienced people moving away and “moving on” — getting new friends and falling out of contact. When we moved that idea scared me. I didn’t want to move on, I didn’t want to forget and in my selfishness I didn’t want to be forgotten.  By God’s grace I haven’t, and I won’t.  Those people who are true friends—the kind you can just fall apart with and not be judged — those friends will last forever.

And God, in His goodness, just keeps adding to our o’hana of friends. 

Us with the Croswells--part of our Hawaiian O'hana.

Life Lessons from Hawaii #1: Change Isn’t ALL That Bad

Those who know me well know that I hate, as in HATE, change. I always have. I’m not sure when it started but ever since I was a child the idea of change could nearly strike fear into my heart.

So imagine taking a girl who fears change and moving her away from the only area she has ever lived in. Yep. That’s change. And because Erik loves me so well we braced for it to be bad. Really bad.

Now don’t get me wrong. We didn’t think the living in Hawaii was going to be horrible, but we knew that the change would probably be a challenge for me. And to be honest, it has. But I’m delighted to say it hasn’t been as hard as I feared it might be. In fact, even from the very beginning there’s been some pretty amazing things.

Maybe, just maybe, change isn’t all that bad. God is working on me, and I’m thankful for that!

What I've learned in the past year.

One year ago today I stepped off  a plane not really knowing what to expect. It's been a year full of adventure and God has taught me a lot. I'm planning to do a blog series highlighting some of the things God has taught Erik and I during our first year in Hawaii. Hope you enjoy it.

Jess

Me, fresh off the plane a year ago. What an amazing welcome!

6 Months of Aloha

So we’ve been here over six months—half a year. On one scale that feels crazy that it’s been that long. On another it’s hard to believe it’s been six moths since we packed up and left Seattle. Six months since we’ve seen much of our family and friends back on the mainland.  Six whole months. It’s nuts.

We’re doing well and enjoying the sunnier days as spring arrives (yes, I know many of you will laugh at that statement as the temperature doesn’t vary much throughout the year, but the sun/wind/rain/etc. does).

Here’s a few things we’ve learned so far in our adventure:

1.    Weddings happen all the time

When you live in a tropical vacation destination, people often come to get married. On almost any given day when we’re at the beach we’ll see a bride and a groom dressed in their best, taking wedding photos on the sand. Saturdays, Holidays, Thursdays…it’s doesn’t matter.

2.    “Locals” think that short distances are really, REALLY far.

To be fair this is mostly people who have lived the majority of their lives here, but when we first found our apartment we heard things like “all the way out in Hawaii Kai?” and “The North shore is so far.”  We live about 6 miles from the church, which is a few miles from Waikiki.  Not far by mainland standards.  It takes about 15-20mins to get to church. Erik’s previous job in Seattle often took at least 40mins to get to.

3.    Some words aren’t that important

This is a hard one for an English major, but I’ve noticed here words in conversation often just disappear. Little words like “to” and aren’t important.  Here are a few examples:

I’d say:                              I’ve heard:

I’m going to Kauai             I go Kauai

How’s it going?                  How’s it?

4.    Spiders have been replaced with lizards

This is a welcome change for me, as someone who hates spiders. And I mean hates. In Seattle you see spiders all over. They are in your house, in your yard, you run into their webs on hikes. Blech! Here we see lizards all the time. Thankfully I don’t have a fear of lizards, so I love looking for them on walks with Jude and when I’m out running.

5.    Rice is served at every meal

I’m not sure if this is a Polynesian tradition of not (I’m inclined to think it’s because of the strong Asian influence in the Islands) but rice is served with breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you are hosting a potluck, you need to make rice—and lots of it. As a gluten intolerant person who has many stomach issues with various grains and other things this is AWESOME. I always know wherever I can go there is going to be SOMETHING I can eat.  I’ve learned to use my rice cooker and love it—and am thinking we now might need to upgrade to something bigger and fancier.

That’s it for now…we’d love to have you come visit. Just remember, in Hawaii when you go into someone’s house you must take your slippas (flip flops) or shoes off first.

And just for fun, here’s a picture of a local beach we finally made it to last week. We’d been hearing about it but hadn’t been yet. It was amazing and is about 15-20 mins from our house. Our friends call it “Sherwood Forest” because you walk through a forest of trees before your toes hit the white, fluffy sand.

God is so good to us!    

Mind Games

As I write this, it’s 75 and sunny here in Honolulu. Seattle is coming in at 34 on my trusty iPhone weather ap—yes I keep tabs on what’s going on in Seattle. These last few days Seattle has been hammered by one heck of a storm. Snow, ice, wind and power outages sound like they’ve been pretty common as winter weather as made a strong appearance in the Northwest.

And the weird thing is, my mind. It keeps tricking me. Really? It’s snowing? I look outside. No. It’s sunny. “It’s gonna get worse.” Really? Oh no. That’s Seattle. I don’t live there any more. In the midst of winter, after the bustle of the holidays, it’s hard for me to picture anything besides what is right in front of me. Temperatures in the 70s and 80s. Isn’t that what everyone is getting? It feels like July (granted it would have to be the best July Seattle has ever seen, but you know what I mean) is it really January? The pictures from friends and family help, but it also makes it seem like Seattle and my loved ones are worlds away. Which has got me thinking.

I really do think the world revolves around me. Ok, not really. But it speaks to my sin nature. I think of myself first and then move on to everyone else. Since I’m somewhere sunny and warm, isn’t everyone? Strange how our minds and hearts tell us we are what is more important. Thankfully, God tells us otherwise. God brings us out of ourselves and helps us look to him and to others. He gets us out of our minds, which for those of you that know me well, is often much needed for me.

Hope you are all staying safe and warm in Seattle. When you need some sun, please, please, come my way!