Three letter word: J O B S !!!!

While we obviously haven't been working hard on our blogs lately, we are working hard; as we are now both officialy gainfully employed! (cue cheering and applause)

With just a few weeks of being stateside under our belts, we have both landed jobs that we are really excited about.

Holly is working at Catholic Charities, and is a Care Coordinator for the Bridges to Care program. Basically, she helps uninsured patients get connected with clinics and doctors who will bill on a sliding scale. It's a great program and Catholic Charities has an amazing track record for service to underserved communities. She is working in a mostly hispanic area of town, where she gets to use her Spanish all the time. Perfect, huh?

I (TJ) have been hired as the Young Adult and Spiritual Development Minister at the Otter Creek Church. Basically, I'll be working with our College, Singles, and Young Married's groups.I am really passionate about getting people connected to a church body during these three key transitional times. We are also really excited to be working for OtterCreek, where we were members before we left,and one of the churches that supported us so well while we were in the Dominican.

Life is still pretty topsy-turvy, as we get used to being in the flow of American style worklife, and look for a place to live (rent? buy? pitch a tent?). We miss our friends (the little and the big ones) in the Dominican, and we haven't gotten used to the cold weather, but we love being near our Nashville friends, and are already looking forward to our first Thanksgiving with family in two years!

Nashville

I guess the first thing we can say in our first Stateside blog is...
Where do you people in America find time to blog?!!

We have been in the States now for almost two weeks, and while it has been wonderful to see everyone, we are feeling a little dizzy from all the newness and hustle. We flew into DFW and met with Missions Rescource Network to do some exit counseling and re-entry training. It was great, and will surely pay off in the coming months to have a better understanding of the things we can expect. Another added bonus to being in DFW was seeing some great friends. We got the chance to catch up with the Cookes (Holly's college roommate),the Pinsons and the soon-to-be Cox's (TJs college roomates), as well as our Guatemala friend Blair (who is not Guatemalan... long story).

Next stop was Tulsa, where we had the chance to see both sets of parents and say thank you to one of our supporting churches, Park Plaza, for their amazing care and encouragement of us over the last two years.

Now, we are in Nashville, and making baby steps at settling back into life here. It already feels like Fall, and we realized the other day that we haven't seen a Fall in two years! We raided our friends' houses to find all of our warmer clothing and are now unpacked (mostly) and staying with the Srygleys (an elder and his wife at Otter Creek) for a month or two.

We are also hitting the job front hard, with both of us interviewing this week for positions. Hopefully we will know more about the outcomes this week!

We are starting to feel a little funny- Saturday we didnt have much to do and it really hit us that we actually are planning to LIVE here... not just visit for a few weeks. We find ourselves missing friends and little brown faces from the DR, but are also so glad to be surrounded by our Otter Creek family and friends. I think we are getting used to driving again in the States, but Kroger was a little intimidating... buying groceries in the States again for the first time in two years.The sheer volume of choice leaves us a little dazzled(How many kinds of salad dressing does one person need?!). Surely this bewilderment will wear off (which is sad to realize, as well) but hopefully we have forever been changed in some deep ways by our Dominican experience- ways that will pay spiritual dividends in the years to come.

Thanks for your continued care and prayer-
TJ and Holly