Adventures in Paradise

Hi everyone...Allison here providing you with more details on our adventures in the paradise called Hawaii. (Check out Abe's post below for a more thoughtful reflection.) Abe and I feel so blessed to be able to go to Hawaii. This trip was an unexpected find at an affordable price. We booked it with the thought that we would have lots of adventures that hey, to be honest, we probably won't have the opportunity to do for a while either based on finances (since we're planning on buying a house next summer) or status of life (i.e. adventures that you can't do with a family). So, here are some of our adventures:

1. Surfing. We took a one-hour surf lesson. Well, actually it was 3 minutes of on-land training (1.5 minutes of that was in Japanese to accomodate our other classmate). Then we headed into the water. Abe calls this experience the scariest hour of his life. I was able to ride a couple of waves while standing (bear in mind that I didn't know how to stop so I almost hit two girls on a raft. Thankfully, they peeled off in different directions so only the raft went barreling through the air.) Surfing, however, was a humbling experience for Abe. He did manage to ride a couple waves, but had the same stopping problem I had (no one told us to stop you have to jump off, but we figured that out eventually.) In the end, I know I would take a surf lesson again, just with a different company. Honestly, I never would have even tried surfing lessons, but it was Abe's idea and, since he's always saying I need to be more adventurous, I was too chicken to tell him I was scared!

2. Snorkeling. We had a much better experience snorkeling than surfing. We saw tons of fish. The only downside was that in order to see the fish you had to swim near coral without trying to touch it since coral is a living organism. However, since we went at low tide, this was tough, especially when the waves started picking up. I have a welt (not a bruise, but a welt) on my leg from getting knocked into coral. In the end, we would definintely do this again. This was Abe's favorite part of the trip.

3. Kayaking (Attempt). This adventure did not go as well. Being midwesterners, we were unaware that doing anything water-based in the late afternoon was a bad idea due to high tide and fiercer waves. (Bear in mind this was why our surfing experience was so bad -- we went surfing at 3:30 p.m.) So, here we were at 3 p.m. trying to put a kayak in at a beach. We flipped over at least 3 times before some locals felt sorry for us and towed us out. But then the tide pushed us to an area of the water we weren't supposed to be in. We got yelled at by some kite-surfers, but were really unable to do anything about it. (We were paddling like crazy, but we were actually making negative progress.) We eventually let nature bring us back to shore before hauling our kayak back to the rental place. Thankfully, there was a great shaved ice place in the same shopping center. And, we took a scenic route back, so it was a good experience in all. We would try this again, just on a less choppy body of water!

Overall, we had a great trip. We did a lot of things we never thought we would ever have the opportunity to do. And even the rough parts of our adventures left us with good memories that we'll never forget.

Thoughts on our trip to Hawaii

Aloha everyone! This is Abe blogging! Allison and I just got back from Hawaii Wednesday night. Allison will come up with a separate blog post shortly, but I thought that I'd just share with everyone what God revealed to me during this trip. In short--our lives are too cluttered with stuff/things that distract us from God and our relationship with Him. For us, those distractions include commuting, work, internet, e-mail, tv and school as examples. I think that it's partially due to city life and partially due to our society as a whole. Society says to us, "You're not busy? What is wrong with you?" So we just keep going and going and going--it wasn't God's design for us to live harried, crazy lives. As a matter of fact, moving too fast actually hinders our relationship with God. We never slow down long enough to hear his voice. It gets so much easier to listen to God once we take away those distractions. Which brings me to our trip to Hawaii....

As you may know, Allie and I try to take a quarterly marriage retreat four times a year--this time is meant for us to connect (or reconnect) with God and each other. After coming back to Chicago, I realized how many things have been distracting us from God in Chicago. When we were in Hawaii, however, all those distractions were gone--no school, work, limited internet access, and no tv (except for the Olympics at times). It was just us, nature, and God (not to mention that we were in Hawaii!) What a perfect setting to have a marriage retreat.

I think that Allison and I really enjoyed ourselves (heck, we went surfing, hiking and snorkeling!), but, more importantly, God revealed some things to us that we need to work on as a couple. It was very humbling when God revealed this stuff to us.

Anyways, I think that the book that I have started to read has helped me to unclutter my mind a bit. One of my favorite authors is John Eldredge (author of "Wild at Heart"), so I started reading his newest book "Walking with God." I've learned from personal experience that life is so much easier when you walk with God and ask God for direction, as opposed to doing your own thing--it's when I haven't asked God about a decision where I've gotten into trouble.

Anyways, mahalo (this means thank you in Hawaiian!) for reading! We'll have another post up shortly!

My Driving Philosophy/Why I Love the Olympic Opening Ceremony

So here are some of my (Allison's) random thoughts, if you're interested:

Driving here in Chicago is so interesting. People here do really crazy, agressive and downright stupid moves. If you allow more than 2 feet between you and the car in front of you (no matter the speed), someone will try to fit into that space. While people are by and large driving slower on the freeways to save gas, there are still the people who zoom-zoom between cars like it's a video game. While I could try to either drive that fast or be agressive so that I block other people, etc., I've realized that it's not worth stressing over, so if people want to pass me, they can do so. Because with the price of gas being $4 a gallon or more, driving faster or being more agressive is actually costing me more money. Even if it took 1/4 gallon of gas to be more agressive, that's a $1 out of my pocket. No offense, but the other drivers of Chicago aren't worth my money.

On another topic, I've been watching the Olympic opening ceremony tonight. I love the opening ceremonies. (Some of you attended my opening ceremony party for the 2006 Olympics.) Here's what I love:
--the crazy artsy stuff that's usually pretty freaky no matter the host country
--watching the parade of nations. This year I decided to cheer for countries in which I have been in or in which I know someone from. (I said a special cheer for Hong Kong!) :)

Anyway, I just love seeing all of humanity coming together in all its diversity. It's fun to root for countries just because I've met someone from there in my time of being in Chicago, like Ecuador, or a country I've been to since the last Olympics, like the Dominican Republic. Diversity is God's design, so it's awesome to see so much diversity in one place. Yea Olympics!

Abe's Thoughts on the first year of marriage

Hi all,

This is Abe here. I figured that I would post my thoughts on our first year of marriage since Allison just did. In short, WOW--what a ride. Marriage is unlike anything that I have ever experienced. You really learn how selfish you can be. Actually, marriage and your faith go hand in head. Scripture calls us to die to self and to look out for others' interest first--building a marriage is no different. You have to look for your wife's interests first, and put them above your own. I'll be the first one to admit that I have failed in this area at times. It is truly humbling to realize that someone loves you just for who you are, even though you have disappointed that person from time to time--but God sets the perfect example for us on how to love others (see John 3:16).

I look back at how much we've accomplished in our first year marriage, and all I can say is--WOW--totally a God thing. From a personal standpoint, we've made it through our first year of marriage and have adjusted rather nicely to each other and to marriage. I'll be the first one to admit that it hasn't always been smooth sailing, but we've been able to work through our challenges. From a professional standpoint, Allison found a nice Public Relations job and has been able to travel with her job (albeit begrudgingly at times). I have been promoted twice in the past year and have been able to do pretty well in my MBA classes--I'm about at the halfway point of my program. I am truly humbled by how much God has blessed us. It has all been a God thing, and I would give all the glory to God-without Him there is no way we could have accomplished so much in a year.

In any case, we will be on our way to Hawaii in about a week or so, so stay tuned for updates! I doubt that we will blog from there, but stay tuned for lots of pictures and stories from the trip.

Have a good one everyone!

Thoughts on One Year

Allison here...Today marks our first wedding anniversary. It seems really odd that we've been married a year already. We're still adjusting to each other and our life in Chicago. Heck, we're still trying to use up the saran wrap we each had in our separate households.

But I'd be lying if I said that life has been all wine and roses, although I did receive some beautiful roses today. But that's not real marriage. Real marriage is when you are being a brat and the other person is being a brat and yet you work through things. You love each other. You are committed. And you receive being loved and cared for by someone who's there no matter what. Someone who forgives you. Who loves you for all your good and bad. No hiding who we really are, huh?

Anyway, I know that some of those who are reading this blog are single and I want to show them that while marriage is awesome, it's hard. Marriage is a living organism, and thankfully, my husband and I know that we have to protect our marriage and come together in agreement in everything.

We've had such great times to celebrate. We've traveled so much in the past year. We're getting ready to welcome in our new sister-in-law into the family. And, praise God that our family has been healthy.

It's fun to see how God has worked in our lives (and in your lives, too) in the past year. God has crazy plans for all of our lives. I would have never thought this is what my life would be like, but it's better than I ever could have imagined.