My friends, it has been a crazy year. Millions of gallons of oil have spilled in the sea. Haiti and Chile have had catastophic earthquakes. The Butler Bulldogs and Indianapolis Colts made it to their respective title games and lost in heartwrenching fashion. Spain won the World Cup. The Prince has married a commoner. The Reddens now live on the other side of the country.
Since we live on the other side of the country, I felt it my duty to give you a recap of how we found ourselves here and what has happened since our move.
First, we have been saving to move ever since we tied the knot in August 2008. Originally, we thought it would be for my grad school, but after submitting applications to schools in Paris, Boston, and San Diego, I was turned down. We reevaluated life, Nathan Traylor moved in with us, and Hannah started looking at cosmetology schools in North Carolina.
In the meantime, we met a lovely couple named Taylor and Marissa, and we became dear friends.
We brainstormed life together, started studying Romans, and began praying about what to do. Everything seemed to be coming together to make a trip down to an island in the Caribbean called St. Kitts. Things fell through, but another couple, the Graysons, decided to make the trip and will be leaving in January.
At this point, with three sets of plans falling through, we reevaluated again. We still knew we were supposed to move, but we weren’t sure where. We helped my cousin detox for two weeks, then we began researching places to live on the west coast. Portland came to the surface because standard of living looked comparable to Indy and the city looked like a place where we might find our niche. It was artsy, green (in both senses of the word), temperatures were slightly warmer, and it had a church that was making a difference in the world (Imago Dei).
I prayed about school again and felt an inclination to check out seminary. There was a school in Portland that would accept my Bible college degree and it had a few professors that I knew of. I applied, and Hannah and I packed up our car with whatever fit, giving the rest away. We visited each of our parents, saw her extended family in Ohio, and it was there, that I learned I was actually accepted to the seminary. We rejoiced, celebrated our one year anniversary as well, and a few days later, left for Portland, with our car packed to the max and our new dog in the front seat with us.
The trip across the country was stunnishing–but it was also taxing. We slept at rest stops in the car, set up our tent at National Parks, and our dog threw up in our car one night.
It was memorable in the highs and the lows, and a full week later, we arrived in Portland. We lived in a hotel for a week, starting freaking out a bit, and then a couple from the seminary came to the rescue, offering us a place to live. The four of us (and each of our dogs) liked the living set-up so much, we decided to make it an indefinite stay.
Now that Hannah is pregnant, we have found another place to live and will be moving in January. Plenty of things have happened in between (which you might find in a book someday), but until then–Cheers!
Omer Redden 
