Two weeks ago we arrived in Portland - our new home! Portland even threw us an "Okie Welcome" by hosting record high temps in the high 90's the two days we moved in before lowering back into the 60's and 70's. We were honored, of course. However, without air conditioning (most people don't have it up here), it got a little toasty in our apartment.

When we first arrived, there had been a miscommunication amongst our apartment managers and they were surprised (to say the least) by our arrival. We were hurried out of the office with keys in hand to go find our apartment. We opened the door to building 0 - 109 to find that the apartment itself wasn't prepared for our arrival either. I won't go into details, but just understand - it was dirty. Christian went back to the office to find out what could be done... ten minutes later he came back with keys to our recently updated apartment with more windows and space than the previous one. God gave us an upgrade and we aren't paying a penny more than the initial apartment! Yay!

Our boxes are semi-mostly unpacked at this point, we found a couch and table on CraigsList and are feeling more "at home" in our new place, though I do keep going to the wrong drawer for silverware and haven't figured out where in the world to put my purse when I get home. It always seems to be those small things that you have to think about after moving that take a while to get used to - and remind you that you aren't in Norman anymore.

We have jumped into things at The Door but are still taking it slow as we get to know the city. We just went to a training by City Team (organization in Portland) in how to do Discovery Bible Studies that was incredible. We loved it and are hoping to utilize DBS's  here. Yesterday, Christian and I shared our story about getting to Portland during service. That was fun and good to feel a little more known by the Church here.

This week we will be going to Barberry Apartments to do an outreach with several of our leaders. We will be praying for healing, playing with kids, and meeting practical needs of the community. Please agree with us for salvations, miracles, and new relationships. We are believing for a long-term discipleship movement to come from these apartments.

Keep in contact!
D

Reality Sets In

We are home from Portland and have only six weeks before we leave Norman and eight before we arrive in Portland as new residents to the state of Oregon. What a journey it has been since last fall when we began praying about moving! Time sure does fly.


Now, we are six weeks out and reality has set in. Garage sale preparation must begin, painting just has to get done, the boxes need to get packed and we need to make some administrative moving decisions. Do we go with U-Haul, ABF, some other company? Do we take it or leave it? Do we really leave from ICON/Lake City or do we come home and leave a week later? What insurance company do we go with? Decisions, decisions, decisions - good thing we both hear God clearly! I mean it. Aside from the PEACE of God in Christian and I, the clarity of His voice, and the fruit of Him in us... we would just be two gigantic stress balls - one frantic - one checked out. Thank you God for You're nature!


Good thing God loves for us to and intends for us to live in REST and despite all those things up there in that paragraph needing to be done - all we've done is rest since we got home from our trip. Rest in inward state - not outward. I mean, you can be laying on the couch stressing yourself into an anxious melt-down or multi-tasking ten things entirely calm on the inside. In this case, it was both inward and physical for us. Both of us came home excited and blessed from our trip. We both came home with colds though too. So, we've been drinking lots of water and tea and physically resting. It has been good. So much for all my ambitions of painting today - they needed to be laid down.


We mentioned that we would be looking for somewhere to live while on our trip. We absolutely looked. We found beautiful homes and apartments, cool parks, the best pizza we've ever had (American Dream). Though we didn't sign a lease due to the timing between now and actually arriving in Portland permanently, we know the neighborhoods much better and feel more knowledgable as we search online between now and then. 


Overall, we had a blast. Our new team feels like family - we love them! And, they love us! It's great. We are thrilled to get to do life with them in Portland.


However, with all the excitement regarding moving comes a sadness as we look toward those we are leaving in Oklahoma. It sure is hard having all these happy, thrilled, exciting emotions mixed with sadness, mourning, and overall sense of bummer you won't be with us feelings.  We do realize though that these are all part of the process and totally normal. We just haven't had them before so its all new! 

Moving Along

Though neither Christian or I are "bloggers" at present, we are making every effort to become that so that you can peer into our life from afar now and when we move to Portland. Here we begin our attempt. 


This week has been filled with, well, boxes - lots of boxes. Though we are not in all-out packing mode, we are definitely in a sort through everything and prepare for garage sale mode. Our hope is to have a garage sale in mid June to raise more funds to help cover the cost of moving in August. We are also in paint the whole house mode which adds an interesting smell and dynamic to the whole, prepare for the garage sale thing. We've laughed a lot, sorted through tons of stuff, remembered much as we've found old pictures and overall made progress toward making this whole thing more simple. I've been working on creating an update email for everyone using mail chimp. If you would like to receive these updates please sign up here: http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=95a0b6367b2b771dab4c6d45f&id=9ec8ee1098.


Next week we will be journeying to Portland to get time with the team and look for somewhere to live. Pray for favor as we look for a house and for friendships to be built as we get to know the team better!