The Next Step

We finally know the next step in our lives: We are moving to Gresham, Oregon! Justin has just been named the new band director at Gresham High School - which is a huge answer to prayer. Gresham High School will be a wonderful new challenge for Justin and offers things such as no marching band commitment (major blessing and time saver), slightly higher pay scale (uh, yeah!), and a ton of kids in the program who are excited to be in band. What more could we ask for! We are also SO excited to live closer to Portland. 

Have we been planning this? No! We really thought Justin would be teaching somewhere else next year, but when that didn't work out - we assumed we would be back in Salem. The theme in our lives the past three years has been to lose control and put our ultimate trust in God: hence the decision to join the National Guard, our move to Florida, my resigning from Whiteaker, our pregnancy, and now this. Never could we have planned this on our own, but you know what - it would never have worked out as well as it has if we had tried! 

We are both sad to leave our Salem community. We have such a wonderful group of friends in both our church and work communities and it will be sad not to live as close to them anymore. But, we will be living a heck of a lot closer than we are right now!! :) And, figuring gas prices - we plan on visiting and definitely maintaining those relationships. 

So now we move to Gresham, Oregon! Well....soon, at least! In 4 weeks from today (yes, still counting!), we fly home to buy a house. Praise God that we know which town to look in now! On July 7th, Justin returns to Florida to finish things up here. We still have no idea what his time frame is. That is really hard for both of us, but we are continuing to trust. Hopefully, he will be able to return to Oregon within a month after he returns to Florida (if not sooner). August will now be devoted to moving and getting Justin set up at the new school. With no marching band commitment, this will be MUCH easier than before. Don't get me wrong, we both really enjoyed marching band. However, it is such a MAJOR (and I can't stress that enough) time commitment. Without it, Justin will now be able to spend more time at home with our new daughter as well as fulfill his National Guard commitment (one weekend per month) without much hassle. Such a relief!

Until then, we just get to dream of our upcoming life and search endlessly for houses online. :) What an exciting time in our lives!! :)