Thursday, July 15, 2010

WE ARE HERE!

Greetings from Portland, OR!

Phew!

We arrived here on Saturday July 10th around 12:30pm, after driving 20 hours over two days from Denver, CO. The first leg of the trip took us 13 hours and had us stopping and sleeping in Boise, ID. We hit the road again on Saturday around 5:00am and within thirty minutes we crossed the border into our home state, OREGON! The next six and a half hours were spent driving through some of the most beautiful country. We joined up with the Columbia River for the last section of our trip, and followed the gorge it has created in Northern Oregon until we arrived in Portland.

Beth, Oliver, and I stood on the front porch of our new home and waited for one of our new landlords to answer our knocking. Matt answered the door and walked us through our new apartment. Within hours the apartment would be filled with boxes.

Thanks to the folks at West Hills Friends (where I will be the Youth Pastor starting this Sunday July, 18) we had plenty of hands to help us unpack the 16ft moving truck. We felt so welcomed and blessed by these folks! Everyone brought us food and house warming gifts! Beth and I are so thankful to be a part of this amazing community.

The following morning we attended our first meeting at West Hills Friends and were greeted with a lovely sign...


How awesome is that? 

In the days that followed Beth and I unpacked dozens and dozens of boxes. Our apartment is just now taking shape, and we are excited to have room to move around and to relax. 

We have spent some of our evenings exploring our neighborhood. We had no clue when we picked this neighborhood back in the spring that it was such a happening place. Just a few blocks down is Hawthorne Blvd. a lovely street packed full of cafe's, restaurants, stores, etc. Across the street is Laurelhurst Park, a park that makes you forget that you are minutes from the center of a major city. We are excited about this neighborhood, and all the fun places yet to discover. 

Most importantly we feel like we are home. This has been our dream for a long time, and it is finally happening. As we walked down Hawthorne the other day I said to Beth, "I love this place..." Beth responded, "Yea I know, and we actually live here, we aren't on vacation." 

Thanks for checking in! More to Come!

3 comments:

  1. Fantastic! Congratulations! :)

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  2. I just bought my plane ticket to Oregon yesterday! It's finally official! I'm off to the OE for real.

    I hope you guys come visit while I'm there, I would love to see you again. Or maybe I will be ab;e to make a trek up to Portland sometime (post-semester?) I really want to experience Portland some!!

    anyway, all that to say, congratulations on your new apartment and community. It sounds like a good place to be.

    -Bekah

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  3. I am SO happy for the three of you.
    Oliver is such a little grown up pup now!

    Looking forward to more pictures and updates.

    !! Congratulations on everything finally going the way you've been so patiently waiting for it to go.

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