this is our home.
i have been wanting to write this post for a while.
moving to hawaii has been such a blessing for us. Luke applied to BYU Hawaii last minute, we did it as a plan B. i had no intention on moving here, we were set on BYU Provo. Luke got his acceptance letter from Hawaii first, and the thought of moving out here began to become more of a possibility. i had NO desire to move out here....i didn't want to be that far away from our family, I knew we would be having a baby soon, and didn't want to do that in Hawaii....and all our stuff...we would have to put it all in storage....the list went on for me. i think most of all it just scared me though. i had never been to Hawaii, but i was already very familiar with Provo.
but as time went on i prayed that if this was where we were supposed to go, that i would warm up to the idea. and that is exactly what happened...we prayed a lot and weighed our options...we talked to people that had been out here...and we felt certain that this was where we are supposed to be.
Since moving to Hawaii I think the biggest blessing we have received is financially. With a baby on the way we were worried about our income. Luke would be in school full time and i would be taking care of a baby. where would the money come from for food and housing? luke was able to find some work when we first got here, helping some guys do a lot of landscape stuff.
after about 4 weeks of being in Hawaii, we were accepted to the on-campus married housing! which is huge, because it is much cheaper than off campus! when you apply for this housing, you are put on a wait list....we were #181 on that list. a few weeks later they called and said we would be moving into a 2 bedroom apartment right away! most couples have to wait a few semesters, so we were shocked! (we think it was because i was expecting and they had a lot of 2 bedrooms available - which they usually give to people with children).whatever the reason, that was a HUGE blessing. because of that, Luke was able to get an RA job. this means he works 200 yards away from our apartment in the housing department. it also means that we get FREE RENT. so awesome!
in the mean time i looked for a job. it took me much longer because i felt a little more restricted in the jobs i was actually able to perform. eventually i started working for a lady, i would help out with the kids - taking them to and from their extra-curricular activities. i no longer do that now, but it was great for me at the time!
i also heard about medicaid from several people that had had babies here, and was able to get coverage for the last half of my pregnancy and of course delivery. this was such a huge blessing as well!!! when we moved to Hawaii, i had no idea i could do that. (i did have a plan for delivery, but it was definitely more money then free). we have also been able to receive money for food each month, and that has also been such a big blessing! if you have ever been to Hawaii, you know how much more expensive food is. especially produce. in California i could buy all the produce i wanted (which was A LOT) for about $15....here, it would be about $45 for that same amount of food at the local grocery store.
paying for school...we didn't know BYU Hawaii did this, but they give students with certain GPAs scholarships! that was a great surprise! so, on top of the grant we received for school, we also received some money from this scholarship. which worked out great because the grant doesn't cover summer semesters, so the extra money that rolled over, we were able to pay for summer!
since being here we have made some great friends and gone to some truly beautiful places! its pretty beautiful wherever you go (almost) so it has been great living here. also, luke has gotten straight As s since being here! the classes are much much smaller and so the teachers really know the students much better than other schools! and luke has been able to go and talk to them when he has needed extra help or had questions. plus, i think surfing has helped him...when he gets stressed or feels like he needs a break from school, surfing has been his outlet. i think it helps keep him motivated.
we have been so blessed! we really have! when we first moved out here it was a little rough, and i wondered if we had done the right thing...but it seemed like Heavenly Father kept putting the right people in our lives and slowly things just started coming together for us. i don't say these things to boast in any way, but to share my experience - that when we pray and follow the promptings we receive from Heavenly Father, we are blessed. we felt like it was time to have a baby, and also to move to Hawaii, and although i had no idea how things were going to work out, I had faith it would all work out.
now, life definitely hasn't been perfect.
-we did buy a car, have it break down and ended up losing a lot of money on it. but now we have a different car that works! but that ordeal was extremely frustrating (and expensive).
-we have missed out on A LOT of family stuff. its just an expensive trip home. none of my siblings have even met Simon and only 2 of luke's siblings have met him and he is 6 months old. i think this might be the hardest thing for us.
-we also had a cockroach invasion when we first moved into our on campus apartment. our neighbors bug-bombd one morning (we found this out later) and all their cockroaches tried to escape the poison by coming over to our place. we killed about 60+ cockroaches in our house that day and about 90 by the end of the week. i had a melt down and was in the bathroom dry heaving because i was so disgusted. yes i was crying over bugs...you would have too if there was such an invasion in your home where you eat and sleep. there was no way i could live like that. hawaii or not. NOT worth it. i can take on just about any bug EXCEPT a cockroach. luckily we found out that it was just because of the bug bomb and there weren't normally that many in our apartment (we get about one a week now - i can handle that).
-Hawaii has a way of destroying your things. MOLD grows so fast on everything! especially our bathing suits, towels, shower curtains and your regular curtains just hanging there! and RUST, if you buy a new bike it starts to rust within a couple weeks. this also includes strollers and the metal parts on my diaper bag...oh, and your cookie sheets. and of course your car! rust loves all the cars.
-ANTS are always somewhere in your house. you missed a crumb when you wiped your counter so now there is a pile of ants on it.
-want to go to costco? target? walmart? shopping of any kind? you gotta plan for it because it's at least an hour drive to get there.
we have definitely been blessed and have loved our time here, but i sometimes feel like people think it's totally perfect and seem to have this view of Hawaii as absolute paradise, but life in Hawaii isn't necessarily paradise all the time. we sure are enjoying our stay though!
