Not "mine" but "ours" - 9 August 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Norfolk, Virginia. There have been several significant changes since the last time you heard from me; allow me to share. I finished up my time in Okinawa and hopped on the "Freedom Bird" to bring me back stateside on 23 May; I arrived at my new duty station (for the next two years) of Norfolk, VA, shortly thereafter; on 3 July, I married the love of my life, Mrs. Abigail Haack (Cleveland, formerly); we went on our honeymoon and then moved into our new apartment together; I have started a new job working for a unit called Marine Forces Command. Finally, most of the dust has settled...

The most significant change noted above, obviously, is our marriage - going on 5 weeks now! Accordingly, you will see the language of these updates alter since they are no longer "mine," but rather "ours." Along those lines... Our adjustment to married life has been very smooth (we would actually say it has been nothing short of amazing/incredible/wonderful/you get the idea, but we'll just stick with very smooth for now). This is a testimony to God's grace, which has covered us throughout the entire process - whether it be our long-distance relationship and engagement, to travels to and from Okinawa for special visits, to our wedding plans and the actual ceremony/reception, to our honeymoon and eventual move-in together in a brand new place, and absolutely everything in between. Of course, we are now thrilled to begin this phase of our lives... pursuing Jesus together as ONE, for His purpose and glory alone. Amen. And thankfully, God's grace will be covering us as we enter in to this as well - we wouldn't be able to do it any other way. As such, we are trying to find our niche in Norfolk, between things like finding a solid church in which to serve, finding brothers and sisters in Christ with whom to fellowship, and most importantly, building a solid foundation for our marriage upon our Rock and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.


We love receiving updates from you, so please let us now how you are doing! Also, let us know if you will be in the Norfolk area and would like to stop by - our address is listed below, and our email addresses are in the "To" line. Lastly, I'd like to take this opportunity to advertise our new blog titled, "Thou Shalt Grow" which you can find here http://stevenandabigail.blogspot.com/ We have lots of pictures and posts about our new life together for you to enjoy. The next entry we are looking forward to posting will be titled "The Haack Family is Expanding." This has to do with our two new goldfish... and you thought we were going to start making babies already... yeah right!
Take care and talk to you soon.

In Him who is able to do immeasurably more,
Steve & Abby Haack

New Address...

Steve & Abby Haack
636 Rhode Island Avenue
Norfolk, VA 23508

About that time... - 19 August 2009

Ladies and Gents, it is about that time to transition. Why? Because a lot has happened in my life since I last posted. I have been in the United States for almost three months now, having arrived on 23 May 2009. The significant changes are highlighted in one last post you will see shortly. But before I go I want to share what the last two months of my time in Okinawa was like.

It is hard to remember now, but I believe a few pictures will bring it back pretty quickly. These pictures and descriptions tell of the big four things I wrote about in my last post that I wanted to accomplish before I left. In no particular order, here they are:

(1) travel to historic Iwo Jima (2) complete requirements and testing for my private pilot's license (3) bike around the perimeter of the island over a long weekend (4) SCUBA dive in the Kerama islands off southwest tip of Okinawa, said to be one of the top dive sites in the world according to Jacques Cousteau.

I am very pleased to report that I was able to do all four before I left, and I was able to capture some of the memories.

Atop historic Mt. Suribachi with Iwo Jima landing beach in the background.

Trek around Okinawa. At this point I was about 1/3 of the way around.

I seriously am licensed to fly single-engine planes. Ridiculous, I know, but true.

Beautiful Okinawa from the sky.

And now, on to another chapter, which you can read about in the next post. Pretty sure it will prove to be even better than this one. Amen. Thank you and bless.

In Him who is able to do immeasurably more,
Steven Robert Haack