Halloween in Okinawa

Eric, the kids and I had the opportunity to go to Misato Children's Home here on the island to take some of the children there trick-or-treating here on the base. These children are sort of like orphans. They are not able to live with their families because their families cannot provide for them or the children have been abused and cannot go home. They were all delightful children. I'm so grateful that our children had an opportunity to give back to the community and to have a small understanding of how lucky they are to have parents who love them and who keep them safe. We went early to the children's home and painted the kid's faces and helped them into wigs and costumes. We then all piled into cars and took them to eat American food at the food court. After that it was time for the real fun. We took them to trick-or-treat. We had to practice the phrase a couple of times (none of them spoke English). I thought it was really funny they repeated over and over a word all night long, so I asked my friend, who was with us that night, what the word "kawai" meant. She said it meant "cute". Apparently they thought everything was cute that night. I'm so glad we took them!

I try to make the kids costumes each year (it's just more fun that way). Tasha is her favorite book character, Alice from the book "Twilight" Jordan is a ring-raith from The Lord of the Rings. We had a really fun time.

Tasha with the oldest girl in the group.

Tasha and her group of friends.