Five Months On...

Dear Readers,

If you're still out there.... I owe you a very sincere apology for not keeping you updated on our adventures and God's mighty hand in our lives. Here's the rough sketch. Besides some miraculous rearranging that God did to get us on our flights home, our trip back to the states was fairly uneventful. God had also worked out for us to move in with a gentleman from our church in Christiansburg who had a fully furnished basement apartment - meaning we could leave all of our stuff in storage while we basked in the Virginia sunshine and waited on the Lord for next steps. Not to mention that with the way God worked out all of our travel, Josh was able to go right back to work at Tuck without even taking a day off!! I have a very dedicated man here...

While we were applying to things and waiting to hear where our next assignment would be, I ended up working full time on a temporary assignment for VT, building out a website. If you're curious, you can see some of my handiwork here: http://liberalarts.vt.edu/beyond-the-classroom/study-abroad.html. As usual, God's fingerprints were all over this season even though it was really something of a holding pattern. I ended up working with two wonderful believers who were a real encouragement and provided a tremendous amount of support, a positive work environment, and some great wisdom during that time.

In October I got a call saying that Oregon Tech, on of the schools I had applied to back when we were still in Cambridge wanted to do a phone interview. A few weeks later, when I was pretty sure I hadn't made the cut, I got an email apologizing for the delay and saying they wanted to do an on-campus interview - for which they were going to fly me out, put me up, and rent me a car (!!!). Josh and I decided to go for it, even though we weren't entirely sure that we had heard right about the Portland thing - I'm not sure if I mentioned that we had felt, when we were praying one night, that the Lord had put Portland on our hearts. I also ought to mention that I had the privilege of worshipping with a congregation in Portland over the three days I was there for my interview. A couple around my parents' age locked on to me almost as soon as they walked in the door and invited me to sit with them, introduced me to a bunch of people, and even prayed for my interview before I left!

The interview went really well and we decided to wait and see what the Lord was going to do. We had applied to some other places, so we were really just looking for open doors. About four weeks later I got a call from one of the ladies that had been on the hiring committee offering me the job. After a little negotiation (and with a lot of grace from the Lord), we made the decision to go for it, trusting that since this was what we had heard originally and this was the door that the Lord seemed to be opening, He had something in store for us in Oregon.

We enjoyed a wonderful time with our families between Bekah's beautiful wedding and Christmas - it was so sweet; even knowing we were going to have thousands of miles between us in less than a month we were able to really soak up and enjoy the time we spent together.

Bekah and Marcel on their big day

Then, on January 1st, Josh said goodbye to the wonderful team he had worked with for three and a half years at Tuck and we started preparing in earnest to make the trip cross country. We knew my start date and our first two stops along the way, but not much else. That weekend, our families both came down to help us pack up the last of our things at our little apartment and put everything we owned in a U-haul truck. I can't say enough really about how blessed we are to have parents and siblings that love us deeply and unconditionally. I am profoundly moved by their continued kindness and generosity toward us. On January 3rd we headed west.

Papa helping pack the truck

Peace out Virginia!

That night we stayed with friends from our hometown who live in Tennessee now. They were super gracious to invite us to stay and they started us off strong with wonderful home-cooked meals, fellowship, and words of encouragement. So grateful for the Yates!

The Yates family in Spring Hill, TN - Stop #1

Josh on a Chi Alpha conference call between TN and OK

Then we struck out for Oklahoma and my "grandparents'" home. Grandma and Grandpa Bryan hold a very dear place in Josh and I's hearts as they have served as a beautiful example of sacrificial, enduring love in marriage. They loved on us, fed us, and gave us a super comfy suite for our much-too-short stay with them.

We finally saw our first snow! Can't remember though if it was in TX or OK

The next morning we got back on I-40 and headed to Albuquerque. Here is probably a good place to mention that we had amazing weather most of our trip for the time of year and unpredictability of the mountainous terrain we crossed. Every day when we checked the weather app we had the best weather predicted for the whole week wherever we were. A lovely couple that were friends of some dear friends in Cburg had graciously offered to let us stay with them in Albuquerque and even blessed us with a real taste of New Mexico - treating us at one of their favorite restaurants! We felt super spoiled!

In the Desert of Moab...
Unfortunately it was super foggy, so we didn't see much.

From Albuquerque we finally headed north, striking out for Salt Lake City where we stayed with a lovely couple we had contacted through couchsurfing.com. They (and their beautiful Great Dane puppy) were very kind and accommodating and if Josh hadn't come down with something, we would have gone out with them for a taste of something local. Unfortunately, my hubby was feeling pretty low with a fever and a cough that night.






The next day we took it easy and stopped for breakfast since Josh still wasn't feeling well and then we headed to Boise, where we had gotten in touch with another Foursquare church and requested a little church family hospitality. They were super sweet and a family there offered to host us, but somehow I missed the email, so we ended up staying in a hotel in Ontario, Oregon. It was probably for the best though, because Josh was still feeling very ill - in fact, on our way through Idaho, I stopped and insisted he go to a quick care to be seen. They declared it a viral, non-flu infection and sent us on our way with instructions to drink water and rest as much as possible.

Idaho was BEAUTIFUL, the
pictures can't do it justice.

The Columbia Gorge

When we woke up in Ontario, Portland was finally within reach and we decided we were going to try to get there in time to tour some apartments since our original living arrangements had fallen through a few days before. We passed through the beautiful Columbia Gorge area (where we saw 15 bald eagles in a matter of about 45 minutes!!) and made it to the first leasing office by 4:15pm. God was obviously going before us because the agent gave us the keys to tour through the three apartments they had available and we decided on one and signed the lease that evening. Crazy! That night we had already planned to stay in a lovely hotel - the same one that Oregon Tech had put me up in when I was here for the interview - so we headed there to drop our bags and go grab dinner.

A sweet surprise

When we checked in, we were amazed to find that we had (unbeknownst to either of us) been upgraded to a jacuzzi suite! It was a wonderful, sweet surprise that made our arrival in Portland that much more memorable. Early the next morning, I texted the ladies I had met at the church (and had kept in touch with over the last two months) and our new brother-in-law's brother and told them that we had finally arrived and would be SUPER grateful for a little moving help since we had a couch that I was pretty sure a just recovering husband and I couldn't move up three flights of stairs on our own. That was at 7am. At 10am four gracious people, a couple and a young man from the church and our brother-in-law's brother, Chris, showed up and helped us move everything we owned into our new apartment in just over an hour!! Talk about help! We couldn't believe how generous they were with their Saturday morning!

I found it hilarious that we ended up with an Oregon U-haul

Everything finally unpacked!

The view from the front door of our apartment 

Our 1st night in the new place

My "first day of school" as Josh likes to say

Since then, I have been training for work and have finally been cut loose to help students out with admissions and financial aid questions. Josh has gotten our entire apartment in order, found internet, etc. etc. etc. AND has had a bunch of interviews. And we have started getting involved with the church I visited. God has been so kind to us - such a good reminder as I type this that He is never far from His children and is always aware of what we need. We serve such a good God.

If you're ever near Portland, please let us know so we can shape up our guest room (the only one that's not totally set up yet). We'd love to have you!

With love from Portland, J2