I teach. I’m a teacher. Or at least, that’s what I’ve always been.

Right out of college, I taught high school religion, and then later 5th graders with learning difficulties, and at our last posting – junior college psychology and yoga. But really, all those jobs were just different aspects of the same thing. Teaching.

Then two things happened:

1. I became pregnant with my second child, and
2. We found out we were moving to Okinawa.

It might be terrible to say that my first child didn’t rock my world in some of the ways I’d expected. After he was born, I continued to teach yoga during evenings when my husband was home and after my maternity leave (6 glorious months in the UK) I continued at the junior college because it was only a day & a half a week and a neighbor stayed with Jake at my house – it was perfect. Though lots had changed with the advent of motherhood, my work life stayed pretty much the same.

But when we found out we were expecting a second boy and that he would be born in a country whose language was more than just a little foreign to me, I realized things would need to change. For several reasons:

1. Childcare costs for one is a lot, for two it became silly when yoga teaching isn’t really the big bucks job you might expect!
2. Teaching in a school setting would mean full-time work which personally I’ve decided to take a break from until the kids get a bit older.

So, what I decided to do was to look for things that would fit into this new multi-child overseas-posting life of ours. And two things happened:

1. I found a way to tweak things I was already skilled/trained at to have as part time work, and
2. I fell, tripping and tumbling into two paid jobs which up to this point had been merely hobbies.

More about #1: I knew I loved teaching yoga so decided to check into areas of yoga where my kids could participate or come along – and happily found trainings offered for yoga teachers who wanted to specialize in teaching children. I took one of those courses in between duty stations and after my second was born, I went to the Kadena Youth Center and gave them a proposal for children’s yoga classes. Wonderfully, they jumped at the idea. I suspect it has something to do with the incredible length of waiting lists for many of their classes! More classes by qualified teachers are usually welcome.

And #2: My mother and grandfather are both writers, but I’d only ever done it for fun. But shortly before we moved here my mom suggested I check into a writing job she was doing for a Christian devotional website based in the US. I did and it has worked great. I write when I can (naps & after bedtime) and if I do, I get paid. If I can’t, I don’t get fired, I just don’t get paid.

Second part of #2: I have become hippie-er and hippie-er over the last 5 years and have tried valiantly to change my families eating habits in the directions of local and organic food. I happened to befriend Melody when she arrived and the idea for Fresh In Oki seemed so right to me that I suddenly found myself an employee of this fun hatchling.

I’m not making as much as I used to working full-time, but I’m truly enjoying having my hands in several different pots and being home with my kids all but a few hours each week.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Stay tuned next week for another story of working in paradise...