Step by step..

My husband is amazing. Seriously. Here's a couple pictures of his first Scott Firefighter's Stair Climb in Seattle. He climbed 69 flights of stairs with 75lbs of gear on, while breathing with his mask and tank. He said the experience (shared with over 1500 other firefighters from around the country) was like none other. They had the first floor lined with bagpipers. Chris finished first in his department, second in Lower Deschutes County, and finished among the first 350 out of all 1500 firefighters. His time was 18:22. I love him and his drive to push himself!

Life As We Know It

At times I feel inept at blogging. You know, there's people out there that consider themselves "bloggers". They have this certain gift for transporting the reader into anything from their latest appetizer recipe to their deepest struggles with a crippling illness. I, on the other hand, just have a blog. To be a "blogger" I guess would mean that I'd have to quit waiting to post a blog entry until we have some sort of fantastic adventure to impress with. And, I'd have to quit thinking about blogging in terms of "what will they think of me if I'm really honest". And, I'd really use it for the tool I intended this blog to be - a snapshot into our lives as they really are. Now, I'll admit it's much more fun to post the pictures of us scaling mountains and tell you that WE DID IT! And, it's much more impressive to announce milestones like CHRIS IS A FIREFIGHTER NOW and I GOT A NEW JOB! But, what we all really need is community. Love. Prayer. Laugh with us. Cry with us. Life is messy and true community knows and understands that. I don't have to weigh our triumphs against the triumphs of others and hope they still look really cool. And, I don't have to shy from posting our struggles, even though I ache with those of you who struggle at deep levels with health or tragedy that we have never known. According to Solomon, (my own paraphrase) He who compares with another is a total fool. How much precious energy is wasted in comparison.

Chris and I find ourselves in such an interesting place in life right now. We are both embarking into careers we truly enjoy and we both are learning SO much right now in both those arenas. Completely eating it up, in fact! We are being challenged more than ever before financially, as much of our country is right now, especially since Chris has more school and more training to go before he's really "in" his job making a living. We are sensing that starting a family is in the near future and we both desire for children, although we don't really know what God's timing on that looks like. And, we're living in a house with another married couple (who have a baby on the way) and a single woman working for World Relief. Nearly all of our belongings have been in storage since October. Indeed, interesting.

Of all the scripts I would have picked to be written of our life, I never would have thought this one would fit. Yet, here we are. And, every day God's overwhelming faithfulness astounds me. I find that with every fantastic turn of the page, and every surprising change of plot, the capacity to see God expands. He's always been there, yet now I get to see him differently. I am getting to know facets of this journey with Him that I never thought possible.

We will climb other mountains and have more great adventures right around the bend, I'm sure. And, I'll post the pictures for you to see. Perhaps along the way I'll also share the lessons we're learning and the snapshots of God's heart we're seeing. That's what I'd want to know about you, anyway. And, if we're all in this together than there's something to be learned through it all.

Climb Every Mountain

Ahh! I'm so behind on my blog posting! Last post - July. This post - October. In that time period we have harvested our garden to completion, participated in an adventure tri, climbed two mountains, Chris has run a half marathon, Chris has started full-time as an EMT student while also working 2days on/4days off at the station, I have spent a week in Orlando for a Chiropractic conference, bought a new car (after 4 deadend trips to Portland and various places to look), and we have begun to pack up our house to move next weekend. Our lives have seemed a bit full-tilt lately. And, yet somehow God has woven this blessed theme of growth and change throughout and things are not just shifting in the circumstantial, but very much so within us. I can say honestly that this has been one of the biggest years of personal challenge and growth for both Chris and I individually and for our marriage. In the midst of it all, how grateful I am for the solid rock of my husband and the unshifting faithfulness of our God. There have been some big wins this year, even when we thought the deck was stacked against us. Our next big change begins in 6 days (pending I can actually put the wine and computer down and get this house packed up). We will put most of our belongings in storage and will be renting a room in our friend's home and living with them for a year. We feel it's a golden opportunity to get some financial things straightened out and to experience truly living in "community" with other people. We'll be diving into live with other people on a very deep level, but we're also excited about how intentional this will make us to be creative with our time together as a couple. Not to mention the fact that Oliver will be stripped of his only child status and have to learn to live with another dog who likes to steal the show. Next blog posting I'll capture the move. Until then, here are some pictures of some moments since the last posting!

Happy 4th!

Being that Chris is on duty this weekend, Kerri, Aaron, Tucker and I went to visit him at the Sunriver FireFighter's Picnic. (After the Bend Pet Parade, of course!) It's pretty impressive to see him and the guys all geared up and the trucks out and ready to go. It's midnight on the 4th as I write this and I got a text message from him a little bit ago and so far it's been a pretty busy night for those guys. It brings home how fortunate we are as a country to have so many who give their lives in service for our benefit. For all those in uniform in every way, for the military and the public servants, we are deeply grateful for the service and the sacrifice.

Travelers From the East!

Chris's family came to celebrate his graduation from the academy and we got to show Franmamma, Aunt Sandy, and Natalie, as well as John and Jean, around our wonderful town! So great to have family here and to rejoice together in what God is doing in our life and in Chris's career. They rented a big house in the Old Mill and we had such a wonderful time! We got to do alot, but the highlight for sure was getting the station tour of the Sunriver Fire Department from Chris and the guys at the station. So amazing to see him in action, to ride in the ladder truck, and to see him race out on the medic when they got a call while we were there. We were all left standing in the bay as the trucks raced out. I'm pretty sure we were all swelling with pride to know there goes our boy!

3 Years

We are now officially working on year four of our marriage. Hard to believe! We are so blessed to have one another in this adventure, so blessed to have a partner, so blessed to be loved and to love the way we are. Christ has been our glue. Family and friends our support. Grace and forgiveness our remedy. Laughter and adventure what keeps us sane.

We took the weekend and drove up the coast to Cape Disappointment. We had a good laugh that that was our anniversary destination....but my history buff husband could not wait to see the spot where Luis and Clark first thought they saw they Pacific Ocean. We camped and grilled out and the next day drove south to Cannon Beach. Breathtakingly beautiful!

Wild Canyon Games

I set out a few weeks ago for the craziest, most fun and challenging adventure race with my dear friend, Lori! We had a blast and our team of 7 placed really well when all was said and done. Wild Canyon Games is in Antelope, Oregon - basically, God's Country. It's utterly amazing and breathtaking. Three of our guys did the olympic tri while the other four split into two teams and headed out into 66,000 acres of wild land to geocashe. Geocashing is basically like treasure hunting. Or crazy hard hiking/running in this case. With a time limit. While running into rattlesnakes. I'm not joking....we ran into two on our excursion. We hunted for different cashes pinpointed with our GPS and had to find as many as we could for points in a four hour period. Lori and I had so much fun! The latter part of the day was then filled with ropes courses, oversized swings, swimming, ziplining, and exploring. The following day we had a team relay which consisted of a sprint. cyclocross, obstacle course, run, swim, and a sprint up an enormous hill. Probably the most fun I've had in years!