The day has finally come! We’re leaving tomorrow to celebrate the marriage of my wonderful sister Christie and her fiancé Ken in Jamaica. We’ll be Here for the next week. So long folks!
Month: October 2009
Uncle Gunner
Hey guys!!
Josh and I met up with a sweet lady today named Sarah who breeds German Shorthaired Pointers, and I would like to introduce you to the…how do I say this…”future uncle of a puppy that could be ours in the Spring/Summer months”! Haha let that soak in a second.
This is Gunner, the brother of the dog she’ll be breeding soon. We absolutely can’t wait for a a puppy. There’s too many fun parks around here not to have a dog!! (And we secretly miss our hell-raising Barkley) 🙂
He was sweet and cuddly and energetic and behaved and just wanted you to love on him. Barkley was only one of those things. Can you guess which??
My husband has become pretty awesome at photography, as I said in my last post. He just finished editing a couple pictures from Vancouver. Click HERE to see the rest. They’re pretty beautiful.
We’ve been blown away lately at how God’s moving around us. Most of our encouragement comes from our friends Brad and Mirela Watson who moved here a couple months before we did. They have come alongside us with words and prayers that have really helped Josh and I re-focus on why we are here every day.
We’ve spent hours and hours this week discussing how to attain authentic, biblical community within our house church and beyond. Although all in all, I’ve been feeling very ill-equipped to reach the people of Portland, our time together has reminded me of how big our God is and how much good a little faith can do for a lost city.
This season of life is so different than any I’ve ever experienced. We knew God had us move here for many reasons. We’re pretty sure one of the main reasons was to help us become risk-takers and to put us in a situation where we have to rely on Him for things we’ve taken for granted all these years, like friends, money, community, etc. I am also happy to report that He has totally come through for us. It is difficult every day to wake up in a city that doesn’t feel like home, in a house that is shared by people we hardly know, and work in a restaurant where no one cares where I’m from or who I am. But the miracle is that amid the temptations for self-pity and loneliness there is a great sense of hope. I am so blessed to be called an ambassador for Christ, and to have been placed out of my comfort zone to learn and grow.
Welp, fall is now upon us, and I will leave you with a few pictures from when us and the Watsons walked to Laurelhurst Park to gawk at the beautiful leaves…and then it started pouring rain.
Goofy guys and their pipes
Mirela and myself
aaaaand the monsoon.
Autumn Bliss
WOW Fall is here. And unlike in some parts of the world, Portland actually HAS this season.
The weather has been mild, for the most part, and the leaves are amazing. I’m also enjoying every last minute of sunshine I can before the 8 months straight of rain comes and sucks the fun out of life. We’ve still been doing quite a bit of exploring in our spare time. I miraculously had 2 days off of work in a row, so we bit the bullet and made the 5 hour trip north to Canada for a night. I’m so glad we did, considering it became Josh’s new favorite city, and we got to enjoy it on probably the last cloudless day of the year.
80 bucks for a corner room with a view at the Marriot. Thank you Priceline.com!!!!
Josh has really become quite the photographer... but I still manage to stick my face into some of his pictures and ruin them. Sorry Boo!
Oh and did I mention that right by the Washington/Canada, there is a CHICK-FIL-A?! We were two happy Georgians that day.
We’ve also been enjoying where we live. About 15 minutes from our house there is a park called Mount Tabor, and Josh and I went hiking around a few days ago and shot some cool pictures of the Portland skyline and Mount Hood. Here’s a picture of the mountain, and yes, be jealous that we get to see this beaut every day.
Mount Hood
God’s been blessing us so much with friends and work and joy…We are just overflowing. Although I won’t lie about getting quite homesick from time to time. I’m so grateful for the influence He’s giving us and the support He’s placed in our lives, and how much He’s teaching us. Thank you thank you thank you Jesus!
Missing all you Georgia folks and loving getting to know you Portlanders 🙂
CHICK-FIL-A AGAIN IN T-MINUS-11 DAYS!!!
Swing a things.
Yeps I am proud to announce that after a long and hard month of doing….um…nothing, I am employed again. (If anyone asks though, I call the past month the “settling in” and submitting application time.)
I am currently in training to be a hostess at a restaurant here in Vancouver, Washington, just down the highway from our apartment. Hooray for short commutes and small income taxes compared to the state of Oregon.
While management demands much more from me than at previous jobs, I really feel like I’m adjusting well. It certainly is a change of scenery for me. And it helps TREMENDOUSLY to know without a doubt that the Lord’s fingerprints are all over this opportunity, and I know He placed me here in this season for a very specific purpose. There are roughly 20 times more people working at the restaurant than there were at the bank I used to work at, and they have all been so sweet and willing to help me however they can. I cannot wait to show God’s love to these people and hopefully gain some friends in the process 🙂
Other than being busy training, I’ve been busy with a couple other things…Namely:
Food carts. (see http://www.foodcartsportland.com for an idea, in case these are foreign to you)
Walks with my wonderful, supportive husband.
And further exploring our surroundings. Of course I’ll leave you with a taste…
Here’s a fountain made of recycled junk we found a few blocks from home.
Kenny & Zukes is a delicious deli we discovered in downtown Portland. Josh, of course, appreciated the menu design.
And of course I had to share with everyone what a handsome young man I make in my work uniform 🙂
“therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Cor. 4:16-18
Ordinary Awe 