Kindness

My brother was our first visitor to our new home here in Hawaii.  He was here for 10 days, and we explored so much of the island in that time.  We wanted to make his first trip to Hawaii memorable, and it certainly was.  [I will blog more about his visit later.]

Towards the end of his visit, he and I met up with a new friend to go stand-up paddle boarding at Kailua Beach Park.  [Side note: It is so much harder than it looks!] 

Shortly after we paddled out, I noticed Jon's sunglasses were missing.  They had fallen off his head and consequently, were now at the bottom of the ocean.  He didn't seem to mind, though, since they were just a cheap pair he had bought for the trip.  However, when I noticed the missing sunglasses, I had a brief moment of panic because Jon was also carrying our underwater camera (the one that Dan had just bought...see the last blog post) and I feared it had the same fate at his sunglasses.  So I called out to make sure he still had the camera.  He did.  We were good.  

Time passed.  We paddled pretty far out.  We fell on and off the boards.  It was a great morning.

  

Until... 

Jon realized what I had initially feared = the camera was no longer in his pocket. 

My heart sank.  I could have cared less about the camera.  It's a material possession.  It can be replaced. I was more concerned about all of the pictures we had taken from his trip to Hawaii that could not be replaced.  

So Jon, our new friend, and I tried to quickly devise a plan.  Jon was going to stay put in the ocean.  He believed that the camera had just fallen out of his pocket, so it couldn't have been far from his current spot.  Our new friend was a very good swimmer and could open her eyes underwater, so she began to look around beneath the surface.  I paddled back to the shore to try and find someone who would perhaps let us borrow their snorkel gear so we could better see underwater and possibly find the camera.   The first few people I asked spoke very little English and/or they did not have any goggles.  I was getting discouraged, but I continued to walk along the beach.  I finally came across a couple who was willing to help. They were headed out to snorkel anyway, and they gladly responded to my request to help us look for the camera.  What a blessing! 

From there, the couple met my brother out in the ocean and they all began to search for the camera.  I sat on the beach with the paddle boards.  And as I sat, I prayed.  I knew it was a "trivial" prayer request, but I prayed that somehow we would be able to save our pictures.  

Time passed.  More time passed.  They swam out pretty far and everyone made a valiant effort to find our camera.  But to no avail.  It was nowhere to be found. 

RIP Camera

Obviously, my brother felt horrible.  And I was sad. But I tried to encourage him. I wasn't mad at him at all.  It was an accident! And I totally understood that.  It could have easily happened to me if I were the one carrying the camera.  Even though we had lost several pictures from his trip, we were thankful for the memories and opportunity to experience all we had done in the first place.  Plus, we had several other pictures from other cameras to document his trip. Nonetheless, my brother insisted upon buying us a new underwater camera, which was extremely generous of him.  

This all happened about 2-3 weeks ago.  

Fast forward to this week.  Dan texts me from work telling me to call him ASAP, which I now realize is a horrible thing to text someone! See, Dan typically doesn't get cell service at work, so I had gotten used to not hearing from him throughout the day.  So a text of this nature immediately sent me into panic mode, thinking something was wrong.  Thankfully, nothing was wrong, but he was calling to share a very strange voicemail he had just received.  It was from an unknown number. The woman left a message saying she thought she had found our underwater camera! What in the world?! We both were shocked.  Even if this were true, we were baffled at the thought of someone not only finding the camera, but also how they would have tracked us down.  Our name wasn't on the camera.  And even if it was, certainly our contact info wasn't.  We were so confused.  So Dan passed on the number and suggested I call to inquire.  

I called the number and a pleasant voice answered.  I explained how we received her message about the camera.  She was so excited I had called back!  Her husband had been snorkeling at Kailua Beach, and he found the camera.  He took it home and dried it out and they were able to view the pictures! Apparently, they had looked through the pictures and seen a picture of Dan in his Army uniform.  Then  they noticed a stethoscope in another picture.  From there, they somehow found Dan!! 

While on the phone, we made a plan to meet up at a local grocery store so she could return the camera.  And she ended the conversation, by saying, "And don't worry, I know what you look like so I'll be able to find you..." Totally weird slash creepy, but I met her yesterday morning, and got our camera back! (I took a friend with me to meet her just. in. case.) 

I'm still not exactly sure how they found us (and if it wasn't such a random act of kindness, I would have been way more freaked out), but I was certain God had answered my "trivial" request.  Of course, His timing was different than mine, but He heard me and He answered me.  He cares about even the smallest details! 

Here are two underwater pictures that were rescued (so thankful!):

Yes, that's a real shark. More on that story later!

Cute, lone sea turtle just swimming along.

Keep Smiling...

A Day at the North Shore

A lot has happened since my crazy blogging streak of early July.  Most noteworthy: we're finally getting settled into our apartment! I'll post about the move-in process soon, but first up, a few posts I started but never finished. 

When we first arrived in Hawaii, we decided that we wanted to invest in two things:

1. An underwater camera

2. Snorkel gear

Within our first couple weeks here, Dan surprised me and came home with an underwater camera one day.  He said it was my "thanks-for-moving-to-Hawaii" present.  We had obviously talked about getting one, but I didn't expect one so soon. What a guy, right?! Shortly thereafter, we got the snorkel gear at none other than Snorkel Bob's, so we were set for some adventures! 

At the end of June (before Dan officially started and had time off) we decided to try out our gear at the North Shore.  Our first stop was Shark's Cove for some snorkeling.  I took a few pictures, but all the good ones get credited to Dan. 

After snorkeling, we continued up the North Shore to the infamous shrimp farms we had heard so much about.  We passed several farms each with their own truck selling shrimp, but we ended up stopping the "original" shrimp farm (or at least that's how they advertised themselves...) for a delicious lunch. We figured the long line was a good indicator of the quality food.  And it paid off. 

After lunch, we drove back down the shore and stopped at Sunset Beach.  We stayed for a little while, but then it started to pour so we headed out.  Actually watching the sunset at Sunset Beach is still on my to-do list!

The next few pictures were taken from the car.  You can kind of tell it's raining in the first one, but then the sky cleared.  That's one thing I love about the rain in Hawaii.  It may "pour" for a little while, but then be sunny and clear ten minutes later. 

Since we were out that way, we had to stop in Haleiwa again for some shave ice. Plus, since our first visit, we learned that the second Patagonia store on the island was also in the town...so of course, we had to stop.   

The North Shore has quickly become one of our favorite spots on the island, and we can't wait to take family and friends when they come to visit! [hint hint]

Keep Smiling...