Update!

We're in the middle of our huge birthday celebration extravaganza, but I wanted to give an update to all of you that are likely bored with our lack of posting.  Sorry :)

The house is painted and it looks AMAZING!  We repainted our dining room and kitchen, our bedroom, the bathroom, and one of Owen's walls.  I will post some photos once we get some good light to actually, um, take some photos.  I'm especially excited to share Owen's room once we have it all re-decorated.  I've been brewing some fantastic ideas for lighting and art, both for his room and our bedroom.  I can't wait to show it off!

Today is unexpectedly rainy, so we are skipping Sunday Parkways and Green Sprouts.  Sad, I know!  But, we have church tonight and we are SUPER excited about it.

Yes, we found a church and we love it.

Kraig had contacted a coordinator for Emergent Village and asked if he knew of any churches we may be interested in here in Portland.  He messaged back with three options, and after perusing their respective websites we decided to try one that was in our neighborhood, literally less than half a mile away.  We had walked by the building countless times and had no idea that it was a church- let alone one we may be interested in.

Attending a church in our community is a HUGE priority for us- that is what the church is supposed to be, after all.  So it just didn't make sense to drive 10 minutes (or more!) to a church in a *different* community.  "Community" is literally a group of people living in a local area, so if the Church's goal is "community" it doesn't make any sense (at all) to try to "create" community where it simply isn't.  Does that make sense?  It just feels natural and "right" that our pastor lives a quarter of a mile from our house and we walk by it regularly.  It feels perfect that one of the communal living houses for the church is at the end of our street.  The fact that a church member works at the coffee cart a block away- the one that we frequent- seems normal.  We're living life with these people, which is what many churches strive for when they talk about community but often don't attain it since the church's members only see each other on Sunday, or maybe once during the week at a Bible Study.

(Stepping off soap box).

We visited last Sunday and really felt welcomed.  Everyone wanted to talk with us, and not in the usual forced, let's-meet-the-new-people kind of way.  Owen was free to stay in the service- another HUGE issue for us.  In fact, people seemed to enjoy that he was in the "sanctuary" with us, which is not always the sentiment received as parents of a toddler in a church service.

I say "sanctuary" because the church meets in a local building that functions as a coffee shop during the week.  Hence why we walked by it and never knew it was a church!  It isn't that they are "hiding" that they are a church in order to bait people, either (yeah, we hate when churches do that, too).  People in Sellwood know about Adsideo because- get this- they are involved in nearly EVERYTHING that goes on in the community.  They host events, volunteer at local stuff, and really serve the community.  (See why living in the church "community" is so important to us?)  So, they welcome the public into their space every day of the week.  We love that.

We met with the pastor last week and, long story short, we loved talking with him.  He and Kraig read some of the same books, know some of the same people, and seem like they would really enjoy talking about the same things.  Some connections that Kraig had made 3 years ago at an Emergent Philosophical gathering are some of the pastor's close friends.  A person that Kraig met on the other side of the world 5 years ago is the pastor's best friend.  Craziness, right?!  Indeed.

We walked away from the meeting so excited and so relieved.  We weren't sure that we would find a church that we liked going to, but thought we might just need to "settle" or even not go to a church but rather find other sources of Christian community outside of that structure.  It was awesome to know that we not only found a church that we feel is perfect for us, but also feel that Kraig will be able to have someone else to talk to about theology (besides me) and he can also follow up with some of those connections and maybe do some really awesome things here in Portland.

So, I hope that all makes sense without really getting into the nitty-gritty of it.  We're really stoked for this new community.


And, speaking of community, how awesome are our neighbors??!!!??!?  Seriously, so awesome.  We attended a birthday party for a neighbor kid on Friday.  When Owen saw some of our neighbors he ran up to them with arms in the air so they would pick him up.  Melt. My. Heart.  We love living in such a close-knit community where we share things, do favors for each other, and gather regularly.  It's awesome.  We couldn't be happier to be living where we do and with the people that we live alongside.  It's perfect!

So, that is the excitement from our 'hood.  It's been a pretty awesome week :)