This email was written on March 12th, 2012
It was 1:30 in the morning when my eyes popped open. “What is that smell?!” I thought to myself. “Did something die in the trailer?” I rolled out of bed, checked on our dog, Tucker, to make sure he hadn’t decomposed at an alarming rate, and made my way outside to try and locate the source of the smell. Tucker sleepily followed, seemingly unconcerned with anything happening. But unless food is involved, Tucker is always unconcerned with anything happening.
It was 1:30 in the morning when my eyes popped open. “What is that smell?!” I thought to myself. “Did something die in the trailer?” I rolled out of bed, checked on our dog, Tucker, to make sure he hadn’t decomposed at an alarming rate, and made my way outside to try and locate the source of the smell. Tucker sleepily followed, seemingly unconcerned with anything happening. But unless food is involved, Tucker is always unconcerned with anything happening.
Not finding anything
outside I went back into the trailer and crawled back into bed. Jen
rolled over, “What is that smell?” “I don’t know,” I replied, “but it is
burning my nostrils.” “Is it a gas leak?” “I don’t think so,” I
said.
I had never
encountered a smell that took on physical form. I literally felt like I
could touch it. We tried to get back to sleep but every time we started
dozing off to sleep we would inhale a huge breath through our nose and the
smell would jolt us back awake. This was not the way we wanted to spend
our first night, as we made our way north toward Portland.
The next
morning we hazily rolled out of bed and made our way to the main house.
The smell had gradually subsided to a more manageable level. And we were
just excited to get on the road and continue on our way. You see, we had
traveled to San Luis Obispo from San Diego the day before and needed a place to
crash. A friend of a friend had a trailer on their property that they
offered for us to sleep in. We thought that sounded great. It was
only one night, what could go wrong?
We stumbled
toward the house and the smell that haunted us during the night came back in
full force. We were unsure who the carrier of this most ungodly aroma was
until the family dog came running around the corner. This dog stunk so
bad I wanted to put it to sleep just to put it out of its misery.
Terrible.
We soon
found out that the night before, at around 1:30a, their dog had been sprayed by
a skunk. The smell had kept the family up all night and had worked its
way into our trailer and into our nostrils. Wow, what a way to start a
trip. In the end we laughed about the whole situation, loaded up on
caffeine, and hit the road for what would inevitably stretch into 2 months time
in the Northwest.
We have been
asked by many of you if we either kicked you off our email list or are we not
emailing any more. Did we get a job? The answer to both questions is
no. You are not off our email list, we are still planning on sending out
more emails, and we don’t have a job. What we do have, though, is the
final chapter of our sabbatical written in the rain and clouds of
Portland.
We had
decided in December to house/dog sit for Jen’s brother’s friend who was gone
all of January. Practically speaking we didn’t have a place to stay so we
thought there was no better place to be unemployed than Portland. They
know how to not work really well (if you watch Portlandia you will understand).
There is too
much to share in one email, but we will do our best to give you some highlights
and then fill you in on our current situation.
Highlights
Good drink,
good food, good company: Portland is king
when it comes to the quality of coffee and the amount of coffee shops. We
were in cold, rainy coffee heaven. Also, Portland has more breweries per
capita than anywhere else in the world so we also tasted some delicious
brews. Lastly, Jen’s dad, brother, and sister-in-law all live in Portland
and we had an incredible time living near them for this season. Jen and I
found out we dominate at the game “Settlers of Catan”.
Oregon
Surfing: We had the opportunity to
surf one time while up in the Northwest. We put on the extra thick
wetsuit, the hood, gloves, booties and paddled out into the freezing Oregon
surf. The best part of the experience was the water “escalator” hugging
the cliff. The rip tide was so strong that you could walk over to the
cliff, lay on your board, and without paddling you would get sucked out to the
lineup. It was amazing, especially after our arms tired out
quickly.
Condo for
pizza lovers: The condo we house sat in
Portland had a wood fire pizza oven. We had three pizza parties,
including the Super Bowl, where we made pizzas in the oven. Someday I’m
definitely getting a pizza oven in my house.
Here are a
couple quick videos we shot while we were in Oregon:
Visiting
Multnomah Falls
What happens
when the sun finally shines in Portland
Hiking along
the Oregon Coast
Driving
across a huge bridge in Astoria, heading into Washington
Being back
in San Diego, it has been insightful to look back on these last 6 months and
remember our mindset when we started this sabbatical. We didn’t know
exactly what we were getting into when we decided to go, but we did know that
God was calling us into a season of rest. So when we rolled out of
California for Breckenridge in late August we really had no clue where we would
end up or when this season would end. Both of us were fairly confident
that it might extend at least 3 months, maybe 4, but at the very most 5.
But even 5 months sounded crazy! How can we be unemployed for that
long? By the time we left Portland and started driving back to San Diego
it had been exactly 6 months from when we first started this whole adventure.
Half a year!
We can look
back on these last 6 months and tell you that we have needed every day the Lord
has graciously offered us. When we returned to San Diego in late
November, both of us felt like we were not ready to jump back into a normal
routine. We can’t really explain why, but there was an urgency to
continue this journey. Portland was such an affirming time that there is
absolutely no regrets about our time we spent up there. But, as we slowly
made our way South, through rain and snow, we both had a firm realization that
this season of rest is over. Again, there is no explanation as to why we
sense it is finished. It has nothing to do with length of time or
financial restraints (though both reasons are valid). We just know that
it is done. And it feels great.
So we are
officially done with this journey. But the big adventure has just
begun. We are currently back in Escondido living with Jeff’s parents,
getting our footing and actively seeking employment. We are so grateful
that we have a place to come home to for a bit, though it is a little sobering
to realize we are in our 30s and living with our parents. The only
comfort we have is that nothing we have done these last 6 months makes a ton of
sense. Why change that now? At least my (Jeff) parents are great
roommates and incredibly gracious to have us.
We still
need your support, encouragement and help. If you hear of any job
opportunities, please let us know. We are pursuing work in the church but
in the interim may have to get another job to pay the bills. God has been
faithful to us these last 6 months and we have every reason to believe He will
continue to be faithful as we move forward.
You have
been a huge source of encouragement for us as we feel like we are not
alone. Thanks for your prayers. We will try and send out our next
email a little sooner than this one. But….you never know where the wind
will take us.
Jeff & Jen
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