Adventure Is Out There!!!! (in Seattle)

"Adventure is out there!" is one of my favorite quotes from the movie Up!. It's such an awesome outlook on life...adventure around every corner. Who cares if you spend a few hours chasing nonexistent snipes, if you look for adventure you're sure to get caught up in one. Our little dog, Stogie, thinks like I do. When we walk outside, many times he will stop, completely poised and peering in one direction. Sometimes he realizes there is no adventure and moves on....other times he peels off in hot pursuit of the adventure until his mom or dad call him back concerned for his safety.

Curtis and I are on the cusp of adventure. It's terribly exciting. I can't think of any other way to describe it. It is exciting, so much packing and preparation to do, moving to a brand new city, meeting new people, starting new lives. But it is terrible as well. Scary. I'm 23 years old and I still don't know how to make friends. Leaving behind all the friends here in Austin that I worked so hard for makes me sad. Thinking about trying to make friends all over again makes me weep. But, adventure isn't all happy-go-lucky...it's not all princesses and beautiful, picturesqe landscapes. Anyone who's watched LOTR knows that.

But to the important stuff. You're asking "Why in the world are you and your husband moving 2100 miles away to Seattle of all places?"

Maybe you've met my husband. Maybe you haven't, and I'm the only one in this family unit that you know. I'll pretend like no one has met him and start from there.

My husband is awesome. We're talking rockstar, taught himself piano and guitar, beautiful singing voice awesome.

Click here to see how my awesome husband proposed to me.

He has a band here in Austin called Cities of Enemies, a post-hardcore band, as well as a solo project that is folksy/bluesy called Ire Straits. People have asked me since I started dating Curtis if I liked his music and my response always is "I wouldn't have married him if he sucked." It always gets a chuckle, but I'm serious. I would not have been attracted to my husband if he wasn't good at what he does. Not only is he good at it, he has a purpose to it. Unlike most rockstars who are all about the music, sex, drugs and don't think it through farther than that, my husband loves Jesus with all his heart. That's where his purpose lies. He plays music because he's good at it, because he enjoys it, because it releases those feelings inside like nothing else can but most importantly because he wants to reach people.

Curtis and I live understanding the gospel (sometimes I'm just begging to understand) and Curtis wants to reach people with it. He is a missionary but not in the traditional sense. Here in Austin, he is the lead singer and lyricist of his band. As he's told people many times, Cities of Enemies is not a Christian band because none of his other band members are Christian. One band member is atheist. His band doesn't play at Christian venues, festivals, or play worship songs. Curtis gets to interact with and reach people that are tired of the proselytizing, that may have no real understanding of the gospel, who may have grown up with religion but rejected it once out of the house. His lyrics are full of gospel messages, the music is great, and he wants to reach people through that...start conversations that may never have started before.

Behind everything that Curtis believes in musically is a man, Dustin Kensrue. Up until a few months ago, Dustin was the lead singer of the band Thrice. Maybe you have heard of them, maybe you haven't. They've been playing for years and have done international as well as national tours. Dustin is a Christian, lead singer, and lyricist of Thrice. Dustin loads his songs with gospel tones, messages, ideas, influences. Dustin's been reaching a people dynamic for years that the church has missed. Sound familiar to anyone? This is my husband's hero. This is who my husband has listened to for years. This is who has influenced my husband the most.

Dustin started leading worship at Mars Hill OC last year. Curtis came across an article about it and was pleasantly surprised. He's known that Dustin is a Christian, but it was nice to see him participating in his local church especially since he's very well-known in OC. Then in May, Curtis came across an article explaining that Dustin was moving to Bellevue, WA (right next to Seattle) to become the Worship Director. In between both of these articles, Thrice did their last tour before breaking up indefinitely. Curtis and I got to go to their last show in Austin. After the show, Curtis said "The Thrice mantle has been laid down. It's time for someone to pick it back up again."

So Dustin's in Seattle now. He needs interns. One of those interns is Director-in-training. Working side by side with Dustin, learning to do what he does. The description for this intern fit Curtis like a glove. I started crying when I read about it because I KNEW this was my husband Dustin was looking for.

I'll skip the details from here, but Curtis applied for the internship. I applied for an assistant internship as well. We had initial interviews, second interviews, and finally got the word that Curtis got his internship with Dustin and I was offered another internship with Brad House working with community groups.

So that's the story. We're going and we're terrified and excited all at the same time.

How can you help?

Prayer. Curtis and I have only been married 8 months. We are still learning how to be married, how to love each other and love God, how to speak to each other, how to fight, all that good stuff. The stress of moving and of being in a new place could tear us apart. We don't want that to happen.  We need prayer that we are leaning on Christ more than ever as we get ready to move and when we arrive in Seattle.

Also, these internships are unpaid. I have been job searching but restaurants don't tend to hire a month or so in advance...they take the best person who walks through their door and can start immediately. We will have an apartment to move into, thankfully, but will need to find jobs immediately when we get there.

Finally, we need prayer for the trip. It's 36 hours, three 12 hour drives which will really be longer with stopping for gas and potty breaks. Curtis hates road trips and I dread 36 hours cooped up in one seat. We will both need lots of grace for each other on this trip!

Boxes. We are moving and we need boxes! We leave August 28th and will be loading up our truck August 27th. Any boxes we can get before than would be very helpful! And we could also use help on the 27th loading up our truck!

[We are covered box-wise! My parents have given us a lot and our friends, the Herberts, just moved into their new house and so they will be helping us with the rest of our box needs. We still need help loading up our truck though!]

Food. We've recently discovered that I have celiac, meaning my body can't have gluten. I don't know if you've noticed, but everything store-bought has gluten! Anyway, we'll be making food to bring with us on the trip because of my gluten issue. We need help with two things...I need someone to take all the gluteny foods we have left over before we move off our hands and also we need a cooler to hold the food we will take with us on the trip. I'm sure I can find someone to take free food, most of it can be donated to a food bank...what I am most worried about is finding a cooler.

[Thank you to all the people who have offered coolers to us! We are overwhelmed at the response. We are now fully furnished with a huge cooler that we hope to use many times over the next several years. Thanks to Curtis' Aunt and Uncle for gifting us with it! If you still want to help, we are in need of some kitchen things that have to do with my celiac. Considering that we don't have jobs yet, we anticipate it being a long time before we are able to purchase them which will continue to make cooking GF meals a chore.]

Say Goodbye. We only have a few weeks before we leave. I have to work until the 25th to try and get as much money saved up as I can before we move. This means I don't have as much free time as I'd like to say goodbye to everyone. So please, seek Curtis and I out to say goodbye. Really, this will mean more to me than anything else.We will miss everyone and I want to have good memories to take with me.