A little tour of Seattle

I feel a little like I’ve been caught in a time warp the past few weeks. I can hardly believe it’s December already! Tim and I have barely had time to catch our breath since the start of November. He began his job at Blue Nile a month ago and I’ve since traveled back to Wheaton where I met my dad who drove up from North Carolina with our wedding gifts. With my brother’s help, we packed up all the things Tim and I had to leave with friends in Illinois and we thanked them profusely for allowing us to fill their garage with our stuff since graduation in May. With U-Haul in tow, Dad and I set out for Seattle, not knowing what the trip was to hold for us (more on that in a post coming soon!) I began training at Starbucks just before Thanksgiving and haven’t slowed down since. I’m finding myself being more appreciative of the quiet moments when I can contemplate things other than how many shots of espresso go into a Grande Americano as opposed to a Grande Skinny Vanilla Soy Latte. Anyway….on to what this post is really about…

A couple weekends ago Tim and I enjoyed seeing a few good friends. Amy, Leslie, Tim and I all worked at Honeyrock together two summers ago and I’d say that we have a deeper understanding of each other than what comes from just leading campers in ridiculous songs and dressing up as characters from another time and place. That summer we grew together in leadership, we rejoiced together at all the work God did in and through those around us, and we grieved together at the loss of one of our own. I couldn’t be more thankful for who God placed around me that summer.

Jeremy is a new friend to Tim and I – he visited Amy a few times when we were at Honeyrock and the two of them got married just six days before we did :) They’ve been a huge encouragement to us as we’ve been searching for jobs because they’re in such a similar situation – newly married, newly moved to the Pacific Northwest, and also searching for employment to support themselves. We’re definitely thankful to know we have friends who are only a couple hours away!

Leslie was up from Colorado visiting them in Portland for a few days before we traded off and she spent the rest of the weekend with us in Seattle. That Saturday we drove halfway to Portland while Amy, Jeremy, and Leslie drove halfway to Seattle, and we met in the middle for coffee. We found a tiny café that had just closed to prepare for a wedding the next day, but we looked pretty pitiful, so they let us in from the rain. Leslie spent the rest of the weekend with us and we showed her a few of the Seattle sights – even some that were new to us! This girl is so precious to me. We spent three summers during college together and she is my foreign-travel buddy of choice. During the summer we lived in Costa Rica together, she taught me so much about the language, about being fearless in scary circumstances, and about prayer and trusting in the Lord when I couldn’t be with my dad while he was in the hospital so much during those months. All that to say, it was SO good to spend time with Leslie and I look forward to the day when Tim and I live in the same Latin American country as her…