2 Year Anniversary of living in Paradise

On December 5th we celebrated our 2 year anniversary of living in Paradise. What a wonderful yet challenging 2 years it has been! We have experienced so much joy and so much loss here.

Hawaii is probably the most beautiful place I have ever laid my eyes on. The people are friendly, the food is delicious and the scenery is of course to die for! We were blessed enough to buy our first home here. We had our precious baby boy here (and getting ready to have another). We have made amazing friends and we found a awesome church. The support we have gotten here is unlike any other place we have lived. I am so happy we spent our first deployment here around such a great support system.

With all of this beauty has come challenges and getting adapted to the Aloha way of living. Again, we LOVE it here but there are some negative aspects to living on a tropical island. What are they? Well, we are super far from family to start with. It has been really hard being so far away when a tragedy happens. We lost a dear friend last November and my husbands father in May. Plane tickets are very expensive when you are flying from Hawaii (like over $2,500 last minute). Speaking of expensive... everything is here. Groceries are sky high. Yes, $8 for a gallon of milk is a good example. Real estate is ridiculous. We could have litterally bought a 3,000 sq ft home with a pool, huge backyard and top of the line everything in Texas for what we bought our humble townhouse for out here. Sweet Hagrid isn't a huge fan of not having a backyard to run in.

With that said, one day we will be back on the mainland and missing this gorgeous place we call home. So for now, we will continue to pay over $700 a month in groceries and enjoy our humble home and soak in the sun!