Wow, it has been forever since I wrote anything! The time since the beginning of December has absolutely flown by! I will try to summarize!
I finished up the semester with my OT student's in Kona, while becoming more involved with the varsity basketball team at Kealakehe HS. Rebekah was able to find an assistant that could stay the whole season, but most practices I was still needed to make enough girls on the court to scrimmage or run game-like drills. My parents arrived Dec 18 and luckily we were able to borrow a car from a friend to accommodate Aaron working, me coaching and all of our playing. We had a great time with Mom and Dad doing a lot of relaxing, sight seeing and playing! We spent Christmas on the beach, I went for a long 13 mile hike in Volcano with my dad, we went Whale watching, and so much other stuff during their nice long stay. They took off on January 5th and Aaron and I had 4 days to get stuff in order before our next guests arrived. I say get stuff in order because we needed to move out of our ohana on the same day that our next guest would depart. James and Julie Butler arrived on January 10th. Luckily I was able to work some the week before and Aaron was able to take the week off since we were moving at the end of the week anyhow. We got to spend a lot of great quality time with the Butler's seeing the island, playing Spades and relaxing together in Hawaii's beauty. This was our last week in Kona, and so we packed up, shipped our car, and said sad good-byes to all our friends.
Goodbyes were bitter sweet: Angie took me for one last surf to work on my take offs, my students in my favorite class each made me a lei and made a goodbye note, my basketball girls gave me a hilarious card and a lei, Kona Boys took us out to an amazing dinner on the water, we sat in the rain with a group of friends saying goodbyes, and the Keisers let us sleep in their living room, then gave us a lei goodbye and took us to the airport. I wish I could express the emotion that came with saying goodbye to our home for the last year. Lots of tears, smiles and "we will see you again's". We really loved our home in south Kona and miss many parts of it daily!
There we were, leaving Kona - on our own Cessna to Maui, just a short 60 miles away. Short and yet so far away. Our own cessna, because no one else had booked that flight! It was just us and the pilot on our way to Kahalui. God definitely took care of us, because we had planned very little what we were going to do once arrived. We knew we had my job, but not much else. A good friend of ours in Kona arranged for us to stay with her parents until we found a place of our own. What a blessing! Denise and Harrison took us in like we were their children and helped us get settled. It was so amazing to have home cooked meals, someone to come home to, Aaron to have company and a great bed and shower!! Truly the palace de Hassels!
Two weeks later we have a little 2 bedroom apartment 7 minutes from a beautiful beach, our car back (arrived 2 days early), my work is settling down (that is a whole other topic for later discussion), and Aaron is job hunting. We count ourselves blessed.
So there you have it - a crazy month and a half.
Future plans! As for now the plan is to return to Loveland in June and move back into our home. We miss our family, friends and Colorado and believe it is time to jump off the traveling OT bus. It has been a nice ride, but like all things, the ride doesn't last forever!!
