I have intended on being more diligent in blogging since moving out here, but honestly my life has been such a whirlwind, I can’t keep up!

After being here a week and a half, I started a job that I love! Apparently HR is the area best suited for me! I love my coworkers, that I can wear jeans to work everyday, and even better, the commute! I can walk if I want and it would take 15 minutes, or take a train and be there in 2!

We have met so many incredible new friends out here. We have been hanging out a lot with the gang from The Journey. Also with our friend Linda, who has been an amazing connector. Our new church planting friends in our neighborhood Ryan Jones, and Andrea & Arlen Farley. And 4 friends from back home are moving out here! I am sooooo excited!

It is crazy how quickly I feel l have connected to the city. I have never felt so acclimated so quickly! We walked around our neighborhood this morning to attend a street festival and I almost teared up because the people of this city, and this city are so beautiful! I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us!

So here are a couple of pics from today. The opened up AT&T Park (Where the Giants play) and we could run around the bases!

Well we have been here for almost a week now. My days are running together, so it is hard to tell what day it is! The apartment is almost completely put together thanks to some trips to IKEA and Target and a lot of hard work! On Tuesday our friend Patrick came down to help us move in boxes and he was a great help! We then ate at a fantastic little Carribean restaurant. I am loving our new apartment, and the neighborhood we are in. Next week we will hopefully start taking the public transportation and seeing other parts of the city outside of the DMV!

I have an interview on Tuesday with a temp agency to hopefully get work soon. I have enjoyed the time off and the opportunity to get everything settled, but I am starting to get cabin fever! Our moving company delivered some items to us damaged and sadly my three go to suits for interviews were ruined as the three jackets each have a hole in the sleeve from where their bag was ripped! Hopefully I get a job with a California Business Casual dress code, because I do not want to have to go out and replace these suits!

I am excited to visit a church in the neighborhood tomorrow. Aaron will be teaching there next weekend, so we want to hang out with everyone. I look forward to meeting some more people in the city. I have met several very friendly people and just love the vibe in this city! There is a lot to get used to as living in a city is quite different from anything I have done before. I will post more about that later.

in the meantime here are a couple of pictures of the view from our apartment!

For the past year, Aaron and I have been preparing for, praying about, and talking to others about the church plant in San Francisco. For the past month we have been packing and in transition. With all of the craziness of preparing to go, I am starting to get nervous for the reality when I arrive at my new home tomorrow and all the talk turns into action. I am excited to see what God has in store, but nervous about it and praying I do not get in the way of what He wants to do! I am still in shock that God chose me to be a part of something so big, but I am thankful for the amazing support system He has supplied with family, friends, and strangers who are lifting this endeavor in prayer. Aaron and I said we wanted to be a part of something that only God could do, so it wasn’t about us, and all about Him. This is definitely the place that will happen!

When we arrive tomorrow I will see our new home for the first time, start painting, and on Tuesday some furniture and our Smartbox arrives. I will begin to put our new home together and then back to looking for work! I am interested to see how God is going to shape me in this, but anxious about the lessons and challenges along the way. I hope in the end, my life story will be something interesting to read and that it is more of God and less of me!

Thursday and Friday we loaded all of our belongings into a Smartbox and the rest in our car, and drove off into the sunset away from our home in Aurora on Saturday.  The stress of moving, paring down everything to fit into a small container and car, finishing my job, looking for new work, and saying goodbye kept me so busy I didn’t get the time to truly appreciate what I was leaving behind until we began to drive away.  My time here was a healing time, and I met and was encouraged by so many amazing people.  I made new friends and ones I hope will stay by my side for a lifetime.  I was stretched in my faith and trust in my Father as I sometimes feel like I am walking off a cliff trusting He will catch me when we arrive in San Francisco.  We always said we felt we needed to go someplace that only God could move, so our own egos couldn’t get in the way, and I know this journey will be just that.  God has humbled us throughout this process so far, and has built us up an amazing support system across the country and in our new city we call home.

We are spending the next week and a half with family and friends, taking it easy, tying up loose ends, and continuing fundraising.  On August 11th we will arrive at our new home and the next part of the journey begins!

When I was a kid, I remember my mom and dad creating a chart with a list of chores and if I got so many stars by a specific time I would get a brand new stereo. I am not one that is good for self discipline, but apparently bribery works. Aaron has been running for a little over a year now and has become an avid runner. I have wanted to start running again for years, and once he started running we talked about running together and entering races. He has been rocking it, and I have not done so well. This weekend Aaron got a cool new pair of shoes and I of course want a cool new pair of shoes. Aaron decided to make a deal with me. If I run 50 miles between now and September 1, I too can get a new pair of shoes. So far over the past two days I have run 1 mile with Aaron and then he goes on to finish his 4 miles. Will the bribery work? 48 miles to go!

This week I finally felt a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. I finally turned in my notice at work, so as of July 24 I will be unemployed. I have started putting out applications, and history says I don’t have much luck at finding jobs, but I have to believe that all that I have been through the past two years, including the blessing of the great job I have had, were all a part of God’s preparing us for the journey to San Francisco. I just have to trust that He is going to take my skills, abilities, and passions to give me the opportunity to find a job I love and through the relationships help people find their way back to God.

Aaron and I have decided that we are getting rid of almost everything and starting over again when we get out there. Thankfully we had a long weekend and we have spent the last two days organizing, purging and packing. All in all a pretty productive weekend. We are both very excited and anxious to get out there. We have so many people out there waiting for our arrival which is exciting and Aaron met with several people when out there securing our apartment that I hope will be life long friends, mentors, and ministry partners. I am so excited!

Over the next month we will be speaking at a couple of church’s in Southern Illinois for fundraising. Please keep these trips in your prayers as we have made great strides in our fundraising, but still have a long way to go!

The countdown to San Francisco has begun.  We secured an apartment this past week and have set a move date and itinerary for the move.  I am excited for the move, but dreading everything that comes with it.

We are giving almost everything away with the move and starting over again.  We aren’t renting a U-Haul this time around we are renting a fantastic thing called a Smartbox which should make this move much more pleasant.

That being said, giving so much away means we have to go through EVERYTHING. A daunting task that I am not looking forward to. My last day of work will be July 24 and we move July 26. So on top of working 8 hours a day, and purging and packing, I also will be trying to spend as much time as possible with all my dear dear friends while also trying to squeeze all the other normal day to day things in life. It is important to finish well, I just pray God continues to grant me the strength the balance it all!

This week begins one step closer to the big move!  Aaron will be going out to hopefully secure housing this week.  We decided to save money on airfare and I would select the apartments and Aaron would scope them out and select.  It will be great to finally have a move date set.  Being the planner type a lot of things are hinging on that information and then it will all start falling in to place!

Life has moved from a hurried state to a holding pattern phase.  I still have several fun things planned, like a reunion with my dear friends from my old job in Decatur this weekend.  I miss those girls so much.  Our little email conversations every few days really gets me through the tough days at work.

Speaking of work.  It is getting harder and harder to go in every week.  This has been a difficult work experience.  My job isn’t stressful, it has its moments, but my co-workers can make for a negative experience.  We have an open office with no cubicles so there is no privacy.  I usually am able to stay quiet in my corner, but on occasion I am selected as the target of one particular coworkers negativity.  Just a few more weeks….

Aaron leaves in a week to search for housing.  We decided to send only one of us so we can save money towards the down payment instead of on two plane tickets.  I am picking all the places out, and then he will look and share his assessments with me so we can make a decision.  The market is really competitive, we had to make resumes for the dogs including letters of recommendation!  Soon we should finally have a moving date.  That will be so comforting to have.  Now I just need to find a job out there!

I have always been a bit of a tomboy.  I have enjoyed sports, don’t really know how to wear makeup, or do my hair, or even dress (Aaron often has to correct me on my poor color coordination skills).  I just bought my first pair of heels about 3 years ago, and I own three dresses (two have never been worn). On occasion though I do go out and do something totally girly.

On Friday night I traveled to Bloomington for the ultimate girls night, the “Sex and the City” premiere.  Usually on Fridays I go into the office with a hoodie or pullover, and my hair in a ponytail.  Since I was going straight from work I put a little more effort into it and put on a cute top and jeans, curled my hair, did my makeup and even attempted to accessorize.  

Nothing prepared me for what I saw at the theater.  Women were literally in dresses and high heels dressed to the nines like they were going to a club, but it was A MOVIE THEATER IN BLOOMINGTON ILLINOIS!!!!  Seriously!  There were about 400 women in the theater and three men (Aaron says they traded in their man cards to attend the movie!)  There was even a police officer in the theater to keep order (just in case some lady got upset about a seat and decided to take an eye out with her spike heel!)

I enjoyed the movie and had a lot of fun catching up with my old roommate.  When the movie ended and I was trapped in a theater with that many women I couldn’t get out of their fast enough!  While many women went to a local bar to sip “cosmos” my friend and I enjoyed the golden arches. I waded into the waters of girly-ness, but I am sure not ready to move over to the deep end!