Home again home again...

After more than 30 hours in the car (that's a total of over 100 hours of car time for me this summer) we are back in Seattle! It is good to be back. We have both missed the beautiful city, and our friends and family. Our time in Texas was short, but very sweet. As anticipated our time there went extremely fast, and as much as we wish we could have spent time more time with our family and friends in the South, we were able to get a lot of wedding planning done in a short amount of time, and had a lot of fun catching up with and being loved on by everyone in San Antonio/Dallas.

We hit the ground running so to speak as soon as we arrived. Right after driving in, we semi-unloaded the car, threw a mattress down on the ground for me to sleep on, and went to our respective houses to get some much needed rest. After a series of unfortunate events JD had to sleep in his car the first night, and I am currently subletting a room out at a friend's house filled with all of our boxes. It has been chaotic to say the least. I jumped right into work the next day, and we are anxiously awaiting to close on the condo we will be renting from JD's parents to move all of our stuff in. God faithfully continues to show his provision and grace to us by providing us both with a place to live for the time being, and very loving and gracious friends to stay with on the long drive up to the Northwest.

I am continually reminded of God's faithful pursuit of my heart as I have struggled to adjust to the craziness of this season, but continue to feel his peace and experience the blessing of loving community as we move towards marriage. We have had the opportunity to catch up with a lot of people since we have been back, and it is good to be reminded that we are surrounded by people who love and support us, both near and far.

JD is in the process right now of looking for a full-time job, on top of doing a wonderful job at supporting and loving me through this time in limbo. I am working a short term summer tutoring job until the end of August, and then am hoping to continue tutoring when high schools in the area start school back up again in early September. We are also still doing some wedding planning from afar, and will be starting our marriage counseling class in October. I start school September 27th and am getting geared up for that. Fall quarter will be crazy busy to say the least, but we are both looking forward to what God has in store for us in the season of preparation for marriage. We were able to buy my parents car from them before we left, which has been a huge blessing and it has been so fun to have a car in the city. We have also had the blessing of enjoying the summer months in Seattle and hang out around town in the beautiful sunny weather.

Reflecting on all of the chaos today I was extremely encouraged by a verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 4: "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you."

Christ has done such an awesome work in both JD, and I, and in our relationship, and we are encouraged by the change that has already taken place, and excited about the transformation to come.