This was an email that was sent on 12/18/12
Dear Friends and Family,
There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. As I am writing this email, Jen and I are currently sitting at a
coffee shop called, “The Pannikin” in Encinitas, CA. It is one of our favorite places to hang out, not only because
it has great coffee but also because it is just down the street from our
“December” house, and sits about 3 blocks from the beach. But
before we get into how we got here, we’ve provided a quick, fun list of places
we’ve been and things we’ve learned during the past 6 weeks (otherwise this
email would turn into a novel).
Beds
we’ve slept in since leaving Denver on November 10th:
1. Grand Junction, CO: We spent a night with 2 of Jen’s close
friends. It was fun, cold
and way too short.
2. Phoenix, AZ: We dropped off our dog, Tucker, with Jen’s brother
and future sister-in-law as they agreed to take him for the week while we
embarked on another adventure to……
3. Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point), MX: A family at Daybreak gave us the gift of one week on the beach
in Rocky Point. We
celebrated Jen’s birthday. Amazing week (more info below).
4. Phoenix, AZ Part 2 (same house, different bed): Birthday weekend
with Jen’s family and also an engagement dinner party for Jen’s brother and
future sister-in-law!!!
5. Escondido, CA: Back home in So Cal with Jeff’s parents for
Thanksgiving week full of wonderful food and family.
6. San Luis Obispo, CA (aka SLO): We spent an extended weekend with Jeff’s entire family in one of
our favorite places in the world. We also celebrated our 5-year
anniversary there!
7. Escondido, CA Part 2: We were still looking for a place to live for the month of
December.
8. Encinitas, CA: We found our home for most of December and it is
a great story (see below).
Things
we’ve learned along the way:
1. We really love our community of friends in
Denver and can’t wait for all of them to finally move to warmer So Cal (because
three snow storms in October seriously affected our desire to live in a snowy
climate).
2. Being on a sabbatical means getting to
celebrate many birthdays, in person! Happy Birthday once again to Mom, Aunt Judy, Trisha, Dan, Dave,
Jen and Jeff. Whew.
3. Ya know the saying, “I’ve gained the
freshman fifteen”? Well,
we’ve just coined the phrase, “sabbatical seven”. No more birthday cake.
4. Going to Phoenix to celebrate your younger
brother’s 30th birthday
and engagement dinner means lots of cacti, paintball with your mom, meeting Charles Barkley, and feeling really old.
5. Rocky Point, Mexico (located on the Sea of
Cortez), is a great place to celebrate an “off-season” birthday. It means 75 degrees, perfect blue skies, having heated infinity
pools by the ocean all to yourself, eating fresh fish that costs next to
nothing, a lost-in-translation birthday cake with your name spelled wrong on it
(hilarious), and something called a tequila-popper.
6. Flat tires are better experienced 3 miles from the Mexican
border as opposed to 3 miles on the other side (true story).
7. We’ve slept in 13 different beds since Aug. 28th, and the verdict still
rules that there’s no bed more comfortable than your own (although the bed in
Encinitas came to a close 2nd. Thank you again, Stone and Shelby).
8. You're never too old to spend your birthday at Disneyland.
9. Without the generosity of so many
incredible people, we wouldn’t be writing any of this. We are completely blown away by the Lord’s provision in this
way.
10. We serve a God who loves to surprise us. We had the hardest time finding the right place to live during
December. We thought we had a
place nailed down, but at the last minute it fell through. While staying in Escondido (part 2), we went to the beach to
check the surf and ran into a couple friends coming out of the water. After explaining that we were still looking for a place to live,
one of our friends said that we should live at their place for the month. They have a little 2-bedroom duplex near the beach, which we
immediately thought would have been great but we weren’t ready to live in that
small of a place with another couple. When we told them this, they clarified and said they were going
to be gone all of December and had actually been looking for someone to live in
their house! We
couldn’t believe it. In
an hour we saw one place fall through only to be replaced by a 2-bedroom house
3 blocks from the beach. Swwweeeeeet!
Where
we are presently:
We have actually begun job searching and
trying to figure out what God has for us (if you have any ideas for us, please
let us know). It
has been an encouraging and discouraging process, which I’m sure most of you
have experienced. We
are holding onto the hope that God has something for us, and looking back on
these last months we have no doubt that He has been with us each step of the
way. Thank you for your prayers and support. This journey is by no means over, and in reality the
faith-testing time is just beginning. We would appreciate your continued prayers and support and will
keep you up to speed on the future.
Romans
8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love
him, who have
been called according to his purpose.
Where
we are headed:
In a few short days we will be celebrating Christmas with Jeff’s family back in Escondido. Then we’re off to Phoenix again to bring in the New Year at
Jen’s brother’s wedding, which Jeff is officiating!!!
Straight from there we’re traveling up to
Portland, OR for the month of January. We can’t wait for rainy days filled with incredible coffee, food
and fellowship with Jen’s family (and of course at least one freezing surf
session on the Oregon coast).
After Portland, we’re planning on returning to
So Cal (to live where????) for some much needed sunshine!
Thanks for being a part of this wacky and
crazy journey we have been on. We love you all.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Jeff and Jen
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