“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let the Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be STRONG & COURAGEOUS. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:7-9

This was a pivotal verse for me when making the (huge) decision to sell our house and move to Portland. It was very easy to get discouraged, terrified, or weak along the way. Sure we had various obstacles challenge us in the months leading up to our big move. We could have cowered and given into fear and lies that evil brings, but we chose to be strong and press in to the Lord. If you’d like, you can read my post when I announced our big move.  Did I cry when we pulled our cars away from our house in Dallas? Sure. (Actually, I drove around White Rock Lake one last time, tears streaming down my face. Probably blaring “Bittersweet Symphony” by The Verve. Jk.) Was it terrifying not knowing what the future held?  YES.  Were we going to miss family? OF course! But, with each big (and little) decision we brought it to God and said “God, if you’re willing, please guide us this direction and if not, protect us and guide us elsewhere.” And God kept leading us towards Portland.  Just as our (Dallas) pastor, Matt Chandler, once said he and his wife prayed that prayer when they packed up and moved across the state when they weren’t 100% sure what the Lord’s will was for them, but they just kept taking it a step at a time and continued to pray that prayer  and now it’s really cool to look back and see where their journey of faith has brought them so far!

In my prayer journal , it’s really neat to look back and see what I wrote down each month leading up to where we are now. There are very specific things I wrote down that have been answered by the Lord and only the Lord. Down to specifics about selling real estate in Dallas at certain prices/timing so that we could make this move, specifics about our (new) current home,  new and existing  relationships, our new church, and Brady’s new preschool. I’ll share in detail about one crazy thing that happened… I had been “house hunting” (a rental) for months prior to our move with little luck and in April I found a Craigslist ad for THE house.  I thought it had to be fake or something.  I stepped outside my comfort zone and texted a girl (fellow Dallasite that had just moved to PDX – we didn’t know each other) I’d connected with on Facebook and asked (begged) her to go see the house. Y’all, she not only strapped her baby to her and also drug her preschooler through the house, but she Facetimed with me and showed me the entire house/yard. Then, she went back through and took videos so I’d have something to reference.  Come to find out the owners of the house are a nice Christian family and the wife is a PHOTOGRAPHER and ran her studio from the back addition/studio. WHAT! If that wasn’t a sign from God saying “Here ya go… I’m blessing you with all this” – then I don’t know is?! Later they informed us how competitive the house showings were and the large amount of applications they received, but yet we still got the house! AND we saved money by not needing to make a trip to PDX to find a place to live! The land lord is also friends with the creator of the Pursuit 31 conference I’d attended in Georgia in the Fall of 2014.  How crazy, huh?  I could keep going with weird/awesome connections we made even before arriving in Portland, but I won’t bore you.

The Lord is so good sometimes it’s hard to believe.   I’ve been posting photos on Instagram about how wonderful of a time we’ve been having since moving to Portland, but of course we’ve had a couple challenges here and there (Brian’s employment is still uncertain after this month, more costly car repairs, etc…), however, we are reminded to turn and praise God for the amazing things he’s done for us and let that carry us through the difficult and challenging times (the seasons of growth) – go read PSALM 103. There have also been times where we needed an exact amount of money for something and the Lord provides it in the weirdest but most timely manner. For example, we wrote a donation check for some kids to go to Young Life camp (that wasn’t totally in our budget at the moment) and later that afternoon Brian unexpectedly received a check for almost the same amount from a past job that was nearly a year prior. (Thanks, God!)

SO, back to #TheAllensQuestToTheWildWest….. We didn’t make a lot of “touristy” or site seeing stops until we hit Idaho. I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of Idaho. When I was little I thought Oregon was a dusty desert and really disliked it for some odd reason. Well, clearly I was wrong. The Goonies was the first to prove me wrong.  Who knew that my FAVORITE childhood movie would one day lead me to vacation in Oregon and then a few years later move there?! Thanks, Steven Spielberg, truly.  These first few photos below are from Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, Idaho. We would have had NO IDEA this even existed had a friend not mentioned it to us. Even as your driving nearby it just seems like you’re in a small town with surrounding farms and then BAM – there’s a huge canyon filled with water!  Nature is awesome. We bought Brady his first tomahawk (hand crafted from wood and feathers) at the little nearby shop.