Moved to Portland: New Apartment

We are moved into our apartment. Finally starting to feel settled. It almost doesn't seem real.

About a week and a half ago we packed everything up into carloads and delivered them from our friends' garage to our new townhouse. We found a great deal on a place that we hope to live in until we start having kids. At that point in time we hope to be looking for a house. It's good to remember that we can plan out our future to the best of our abilities and then know that they'll go wrong in one way or another. So we'll see how the coming years pan out.

I just have to mention the weather on our moving days because it has been so strange. Our first weekend moving from Seattle to Portland was super cold with hail and snow. Our second weekend moving, just two weeks later, was super hot with temperatures around 80 degrees. The first move we were worried about our fingers falling off and the second move we were worried about dehydration. Pretty weird, but relatively normal weather for the Pacific Northwest.

Anyway, we are so thankful to have found such a great place to live. We love the neighborhood, which is very ethnically diverse, relatively close to downtown, and just a hop, skip and a jump away from the MAX! My dad and I have already set up times to meet every other week for breakfast that includes me riding the MAX over to Beaverton. So cool.

Jen is excited about getting to live in a townhouse because it's the first place she has ever lived with stairs inside. It is very cute inside with all new appliances. The good things easily outweigh the bad in our place here. There's always going to be little things that we don't like about where we live, but in this case we both felt like God made it clear to us that this was a great opportunity. And it turned out too that we have the best apartment manager ever. She has been amazingly helpful with miscellaneous issues that we have had since moving in (i.e., water heater problems), and certainly put any burdens on her shoulders instead of us having to deal with them. She has been a huge blessing.

All in all, we are really battling financially, but it is good for us. We are very thankful that we thought ahead before our wedding by saving money and wedding gift certificates for this time. We had to go over our budget multiple times before we signed the lease to this apartment. We talked to God and to each other long and hard about this big decision and were both at peace with it.

I really don't know how anybody lives in an unharmonious marriage. It would just tear me up inside. Jen has been so strong through this transition time and I am so proud of her. And I am especially proud of how we have worked hard to keep Christ as the focus of our lives. The mission that we are on right now, how we work together to solve arguments, and how we plan on using our apartment as a ministry to our community, friends and family are all things that we are thrilled about.

I will talk more about our new jobs in my next post. Yep, I got a part-time job! Since we just got hooked up to the internet, I'll be posting more frequently. Stay tuned...