From Cherry Blossoms to Cherry Point?

 

Yep, you guessed it. We are moving from beautiful Okinawa Japan to Cherry Point NC.

 From Cherry Blossoms to Cherry Point, we are so excited!

 

Approximately 105 days to do the following:

pack the house, search for more seaglass, go on a mission trip, recover from another shoulder surgery, eat sushi, terriyaki,and Arashi, complete 2 BSA Eagle Projects & have a ceremony, buy another kokeshi doll or two, sell 2 cars, find a HUGE set of Shisa-dogs, celebrate birthdays, find 20 more geocaches, go ziplining, clean house, find more slide parks, color Easter eggs, finish school and finally rack up some more air miles! 

 

 

 

 We are anticipating our arrival on or around May 26, 2013.

Update on the Christmas Jar

 If you've been keeping up with my blog you know that first off Junior and I are headed to Nome Alaska in just 6 short weeks! I wanted to take a moment to give a HUGE SHOUT OUT of THANKS to the person/family who gave us the Christmas Jar. Inside the jar was enough Yen and Dollar to pay for a round trip plane ticket from Anchorage to Nome! They gave us over 25,386 in Yen and 27.65 in Dollar. That comes out to approximately $306.62!

I am floored, we truly cannot say THANK YOU loud enough!

 

It took Junior, Mark and myself several hours to sort, roll and count the jar! What a great treat on a Sunday afternoon watching football.

 

It's not too late to support our trip!

 If you are able to help us get to Nome you can send us a check or contact us directly for more options!

 

The natives of Nome and the musher sub-culture: are you ready? Because we sure are getting ready! We have been working, praying and preparing for this trip for over 4 months; we can't wait to see, experience and be part of such an amazing group of people.

 

 

Please send checks or money orders to:

Colleen Francis

PSC 80 Box 22186

APO, AP 96367

Christmas Jar

So two Sunday's ago Katie and I arrive at Koza (church) ready to worship and sign families up for Parents Night Out. Much to our surprise on our registration table was this beautiful jar filled with Yen and American coins (a few bills too!)  I had to do a bit of research to see what the Christmas Jar was all about, what a beautiful story. If you'd like to read about it click here ... Christmas Jar!

 

As we continue to pray and prepare for Alaska I ask that you consider sponsoring us. We are working hard at raising funds and are about 1/2 of the way to our goal. Katie and I have talked and we don't want to just cover our expenses on the trip but would also LOVE to bless the ministries in Nome with a Love Offering. With your help we can bless them abundantly.

 

If you are able to donate, please send a check or money order to:

Colleen Francis

PSC 80 Box 22186

APO, AP 96367

 

If you would like your donation to be a tax deduction please make your check out to Koza Baptist Church.

 

And as one of my favorite Pastor's once said... "You spell thousand T-H-O-U-S-A-N-D and million M-I-L-L-I-O-N!" (Pastor Rick Osborne!)

Caching Challenge

 

So Mark presented me with this challenge. To find at least 1 cache yesterday, so it could count toward our Christmas find. You see what had happened was...we went caching on Christmas (to torment our sweet kids who were dying to get home and play their new BOX!) We didn't realize you could change the time on the geocaching clock! Meaning, we found about 3 caches on December 25, but it registered as Christmas Eve. Our clock wasn't set right; who knew? Now Mark really wanted one on our file for Christmas day.

So being the obedient wife that I am (excuse me while I clear my throat), on my way to pick up Seth from swim team I thought I'd find at least one! Drove to the first one.. NOPE couldn't find the stupid thing. Went to another one... NOPE couldn't find that one either. Now I was late to pick up Seth. Frustrated I gave up!

 

Fast forward a few hours, Mark gets home from work early and we drag all the kids away from their Xbox out to find these caches! I drive straight to the first one, Mark found it in about 5 minutes! Drove to the second one from my wildly unsuccessful morning trip. Caleb got out of the car walked right up to it and put his hand on it. In less than 5 seconds that stinkin' kid found it. (He wasn't allowed to eat dinner last night!)

 

We were on a roll, so off we went. We found a total of 6 last night in less than 75 minutes. Each of us found 1, but I ...YES... I found 2! They were all fast find and it was a very successful fun evening. I didn't want to quit but someone, I won't mention any names (Mr. Sexy Pants) got hungry. And if you know him at all when he's hungry he's whiny. So home we went!

All in all a GREAT caching day, but apparently I'm only effective when my family is with me!

 
 

 
 



Christmas Day 2012

This is a picture of my 3 beautiful children on Christmas Eve opening up their traditional pajamas. I love Christmas, I love the HOLYdays! I love family time and everything Christmas. The shopping, the decorating, the baking, the wrapping, the smells of Christmas, the friends, family, trips and shows... seriously I love it all. I won't lie. This Christmas season has been different. I don't ever recall in my life a year that I was baa humbug, until this year. I miss my mom, the states, and all sorts of Christmas traditions that we can't find or do here. It's just different. I'm 41 years old and I miss my family. I'm looking forward to holidays stateside. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Labor Day, Memorial Day, even the Marine Corps Birthday has a different feel in the states. This time next year I'll be in a different house, on a different continent, eating at a different table, with different friends and prayerfully our stateside family!

I've enjoyed my time here in Okinawa. We are blessed to have met some amazing families and developed life long friends here. We've experienced more here that I ever dreamt of, and will see and experience many more new and exciting things before we leave. There are many things I will miss about Okinawa... CoCo Curry (which was introduced to me by a favorite Buckeye Amy Krieg), Arashi (also introduced to us by amazing friends the Peters), Koza Baptist, Geo caching (something tells me it's totally different when you aren't driving on teeny tiny goat roads having to pull your mirrors in because you will knock them off as you turn the tight corners!). We will also miss curfews, crappy TV reception, so looking forward to high speed internet and cell phones that work everywhere! I will personally miss the schools within walking distance of the house and of course the kids friends.

So in my tiny rant, I just miss 'home' at Christmas. I wish I was rich and could fly my family home for the HOLYdays or even fly my family out to spend the time with us. Then I feel guilty, because this season isn't about me and my family. It's about Christ, it's HIS birthday. And as I reflect I realize I'm doing exactly what HE wants me to do, serve HIS Marines, love on the people of Okinawa, and spread HIS joy and love to others. I'm also doing it with a smile on my face and peace in my heart for I know the God I serve and I know the future I hold in him.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!

Alaska Mission Trip 2013

Alaska Mission Trip 2013

K80 & I will be going on a jet plane in March for our very first Mother/Daughter Mission Trip (March 11-23). Iditarod Outreach: Finish Line Nome Alaska. We both fell in love with Alaska in the summer of 2011. K80’s youth group leader, Gretchen, shared this trip with us, & of course we had to go! We will be ministering to the mushers of the Iditarod, caring for the race dogs, working the Bible-in-a-Bucket campaign & loving on village elders. We seriously cannot contain our excitement for this trip! K80 & I have been working very hard for the last couple of months raising money this trip. Junior has saved well over $325 from babysitting. I have almost $500 from working the Japanese students.  K80 and I have also started a Parent’s Night Out (PNO) event at our church, Koza Baptist. In November we watched over 65 kids with the help of 20+ volunteers earning approximately $980.    We have another PNO scheduled for December, January and tentatively for February. Our goal is to earn $6,000 to cover our airfare, mission fees, and a love offering to Alaska Missions.

 

We are almost a third of our way to our goal! We would like for you to join us by praying for a successful outreach in Alaska. K80 & I would also like for you to prayerfully consider supporting us financially.

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this letter and considering being part of the work God is doing in our lives as we prepare for this experience. Please contact us if you have any questions. We are extremely excited to see what all God has planned for us on the “Adventure of a Lifetime!”

 

In His Grip,

Colleen & K80 Francis

Page 1 of The Francis 5 2012 Newsletter

2012 has proven yet again if you feed your kids vegetables

and 3 squares with approximately 5 snacks a day they will

grow and grow and grow. The boys are like bean stocks and

K80 is not far behind. I’m telling you I had to get a part

time job just to keep clothes on these teenagers! Yeppers,

I said teenagers, can you believe it? Mark and I are frightfully

proud parents of teenagers, typing this makes my heart weak!

I can’t even think about high school yet, I’m still enjoying 7^th

& 8^th grade right now. As of Thanksgiving the boys are taller

than Colleen but seem to be mere millimeters away from

surpassing Mark! (that’s over 6 foot!)

 

Seth & Junior learned to surf. Caleb digs golfing. Junior loves volleyball. Seth is definitely a back-stroker like his dad. Colleen is still cancer free. Caleb hates texting. K80 & Seth text in their sleep.  Mark misses shooting. The kids think their parents are weird. Caleb & Seth are now Life Scouts. K80 is in NJHS. Colleen lives with 4 gamers. We all miss the States. Mark never answers his cell phone. We are getting a dog when we get home & we shall name him Brutus. We believe we have the best kids in the world.

I certainly do not want to rehash the last year for you.

Most info is on my blog or Facebook. So you are well

aware of the wild crazy and amazing life we lead! We are

blissfully happy and blessed by God. We just want to say

thank you. Thank you for being part of our family; thru

photos, prayers, emails and Facebook updates.

We love sharing life with you!

Thank you very much!

Dōmo arigatōgozaimashita!

どうもありがとうございました