Moving Day

After 30 months of traveling in a minivan on deputation, 7 months of living with family members and then one month of living with the Winters - On January 28, 2012 we moved into our very own apartment in Japan!!  It is 736 square feet of our own space!! 

After the first week in Japan Mike began looking for a place for us to rent on the internet.  He jokingly said - "I am going to rent the first place we see.  I don't care what it looks like.  If it has four walls and a roof, I am going to take it."  Now being the wife and mother, knowing that we had certain needs, I said, "No you will not!!!  We will look at as many places as we need to until we find the PERFECT PLACE!!!"  So the next morning, Mike heads out with Mike Winters to go talk to a realtor about a place to rent.  About two hours later, they call and say they found a place and wanted me to look at it.  I went with the attitude that it would be OK but not perfect.  It couldn't be, it was the first place we were looking at.

We arrived at a small apartment.  It was on the first floor.  It had three bedrooms.  It had a small yard.  It was across the street from a park.  It was a block from the church.  It was three blocks from two stores. They were not asking for any deposit.  They didn't even want Key Money {in Japan you have to put down at least a month of rent to get the keys to the apartment - on top of the depoist money.  This can all total about 6 months rent.}  They had promised to re-wallpaper the apartment (no extra cost).  They had promised to re-do the hardwood floors.  The apartment was perfect.  The apartment was an answer to my prayers.  We sent in the application and then we waited three weeks for them to finish what they had promised.

 Eli and Jonah very happy to be in there new room!!

 Rachal on her side of the room.

 Taken from the kitchen facing the livingroom.

(Alyssa, Rachal, Becky, Kayla)

 Noah's side of the room. 

(About an hour after moving in we found out

Noah is allergic to the flooring and had

to move to the room with hardwood floors)

 Mine and Mikes room

 Noah and Alyssa watching the men unload the new refrigerator.

 From the livingroom looking into the kitchen.

(Becky is translating my instructions to the oven)

 Moving in the new frig

 The shower and bath tub. 

 It's starting to look like a home!! 

 Noah and Ethan playing Lego's

(you can tell Noah is not feeling good)

 Rachal and Kayla working on Rachal's room.

 Jonah and Eli's beds and toys

 Rachal loves PINK!!!

 Jonah's bed

 Eli's bed

Noah's bed

So very blessed to have such a great place to live.  The next post will be a video tour of the apartment.  Thanks for all the prays and support.  We feel so loved!!