The struggles we've overcome: Moving to WA.

Mochi's version.
I won't get crazy about this series. If you want the nitty gritty angsty stuff, you can visit my dj. LoL. I think I'll actually split it up into a series, with each entry focusing on the major struggles: Moving to WA, Yubo's smoking, Yubo's gaming, communication issues, balancing each other.

I understand that it's during the bad times that we have the opportunity to grow the most. It's just whether we use the bad times to create a positive or not. For the most part, Yubo and I have been able to come out on top of our hardships in the four years we've been together now. I'm especially thankful for the struggles we've faced because I learned from a lot of them, which enables me to pass on my knowledge to others that may be facing similar trials. I've taken communications classes, read books, researched online, watched videos, and sought advice so that our relationship wouldn't end like my past ones. Of course, my past relationships also helped, but that's a whole other thing.

I've made quite a list of the struggles we've faced so far, and not all of them we've overcome yet. A lot of them will be lifelong struggles where we just need to make sure that God is at the center of our relationship, and #1 for both of us.

The first trial for our relationship occurred months before we'd even been official for a year: moving to Washington.

When Yubo first started talking about Seattle, he didn't ask me to come with him. When he finally did ask me, he seemed reluctant. I asked him where I would live if I followed him, and he said that we would find me a place. I'm not sure what word to use to describe just how upset I was by his response. I figured if I did go, I'd be leaving everything that I knew to follow him. How could he even think of sticking me in some apartment on my own without him? There wasn't even any guarantee of us being close neighbors. So after hearing that, I told him that I did not want to hear any talk of Seattle from that point on. Obviously, we did continue to talk about it. He relented to our living together, and I began the process of withdrawing from fall semester at CSUF and getting Yubo over to my house as often as possible to get my parents more acquainted with him.

Yubo won my dad over by fixing our computer. My mom already liked him. When I asked them about moving to WA, it was very tense. We brought it up to my mom first, and my mom was very shocked. But she trusted me to do what I needed to pursue happiness. She helped us arrange a dinner to ask my dad. So Yubo came to dinner, and we got around to asking. My dad actually took it a lot better than I thought. I told him I already withdrew from the next semester in school. He tried to be a hardass about it, just to make sure this was really what we wanted to do. But he also trusted me.

Leaving was so hard for me, especially the experience of seeing my dad cry. Ugh, thinking about it makes me feel like crying all over again.

The drive was crazy. It was a little stressful because Joe expected us to do straight shot, while Yubo's parents wanted to make it a little more of a vacation. It was a reasonable request to spend as much time as possible with us before having to part ways. I think Joe thought work was going to start right away, which it didn't. Anyway... no matter.

Mr. Crumly was driving Yubo's car. Yubo was driving the moving truck. Mrs. Crumly and I were in my car. I tell you, God REALLY loves this woman. She is the scariest driver EVER. I swear I should've died 10 times every hour she was driving. Goodness gracious. I love her to death, but I was just scared out of my mind whenever she was driving.

Anyway, finally arrived in Washington. Already got into an argument with Joe. Living with Joe was troublesome on it's own. We're actually quite alike in some ways, so in that sense we annoy each other and butt heads a lot (though not face to face). I really couldn't explain the why. We just don't really get along, and I think we both don't have a very good impression of each other. I think for Yubo's sake, we try.... but it's tough.

On top of all that, I was really homesick. Yubo found me sobbing in bed after I'd read the card Akemi gave me. It was so tough being so far away from the people I love. So many tear-filled phone calls of "I wish you were here" and "I wish I could be there."

Working at Fry's (the only Fry's here in all of WA) helped take the edge off the loneliness. I managed to make some really cool friends that I didn't even think would still be my friends now. These awesome people became Yubo's friends too. I feel bad that Yubo hasn't really had a chance to make friends of his own, but he says it's fine. The one friend he made on his own was a younger boy that I REALLY did not approve of. And he likes the friends he's made through me. I think he gets along with them really well. ^_^

Finding Wayne Ogimachi's church up here a year after arriving really helped make us feel more at home. We met new people and developed more friendships. We feel we have a church family now, which is really a great feeling. The winters can be tough, but spring and summer really make up for it. We've come to really love it up here.

Yubo's version.
Is he really going to blog?