Overwhelmed. Excited. Exhausted. Worried. Frantic… and Hopeful.
These feelings raced through my body as we moved overseas. Again. It was our third back-to-back overseas tour and I just wasn’t sure I could do it again. Navigating a new base and system of bureaucracy is hard enough every three years, but adding cultural differences and driving on the other side of the road was about to put me over the top!
And then… a light shone out of the darkness to illuminate my path!! Okinawa Hai. A website started by another nervous and overwhelmed military spouse just a few months earlier. A website I would come to rely on for new places to go, things to experience and tastes to try. Through this website, I also found a place to write and share my voice and my own fumbling steps to make this strange, overseas place truly home.
Today, Okinawa Hai has been joined by sister sites Germany Ja, Korea Ye and Turkey Tamam, under the larger umbrella of Overseas Yes! Our goal is to turn the panic and worries of moving overseas to true joy and excitement by walking our military servicemen and women and their families through the process of living overseas. To virtually hold your hand as you navigate all that is new and different and amazing in your overseas home.
Over the last months, we have had numerous requests to start MORE new sites around the world. We would love to. But as a small business that is growing quickly without much greater increase in income, we just can’t afford it.
That’s where you come in. If you or a loved one has benefited from the information provided by our Overseas Yes network of sites, we ask you to donate to help us continue growing. If you love our military families, if you hope to someday move overseas, or if you like the color red, we ask you to donate to help us continue growing. We have new managers just chomping at the bit in Bahrain, mainland Japan, Guam and Europe to start up new sites for us.
Our first goal is to raise $5000 on Kickstarter to start a site in Bahrain where our servicemen and women and their families find it especially hard to negotiate the cultural differences and have the nerve to get off base to enjoy that historic country. We can truly make a difference in the lives of those families. We know we can, because we’ve done it in Okinawa and Germany and Korea and Turkey… Help us help them.
Here’s the link to our Overseas Yes Kickstarter Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1611356592/overseas-yes-military-family-support-websites
And please share this information through social media or emails with everyone you’ve ever met. No really, everyone.
Thanks.
