Unemployed and Homeless

I suppose I should start at the beginning. Earlier this year, both Emily and I began talking about how we felt unsatisfied with the way our life was headed. At the age of 24, we had begun on full-time careers (engineering and teaching) and were on our way 401K's and 2 pets and 2.5 kids and all that jazz. That sounds great for the long run, but we have our whole lives for that. We can settle down whenever we want, why start now?

To add to all this, we were living in Tualatin and each driving 45 minutes in opposite directions to get to work everyday. I sat at a computer all day, and when we'd get home we were in bad moods and tired. What was the point?

So as we thought and talked and prayed, we remembered how much we had enjoyed working at summer camp together. In college, we spent the summer between our junior and senior years working at Camp Redwood Glen near Santa Cruz, CA. The camp is run by the Salvation Army and caters primarily to inner-city kids from the San Francisco area and the whole of the central California area. It's goal is to give kids a chance to go to camp that otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it. We loved working there, loved the idea of working together, and loved the idea of serving a good cause.

So finally we decided to call the camp director and find out if they had any positions open for us. It turned out that they did have a couple of summer staff positions for us and would be looking for a full-time program director at the end of summer. Really a pretty ideal situation for us. So after more talking and thinking and praying, Emily decided not to renew her contract with the school she was teaching in and I gave my boss a 1 month notice that I'd be leaving.
In case you haven't experienced it for yourself, quiting two well-paying, steady jobs and moving out of state without any guarantee of full-time work down the road is a little nerve racking. We new that we had two months of work (in which we would make less money than our moving costs would include), but that was about it. It was definitely an exercise in faith. Just praying that God would continue to take care of us.

So we packed up our little two bedroom apartment and managed somehow to fit it all in a 10'x10' storage unit. Basically whatever didn't fit in the storage unit we decided to take with us. So we headed off into the unknown and spent our summer (mid June to mid August) working as the head counselors at camp. (This could all be expanded upon, but it would take a long time to fill in the details, and this posting is supposed to explain why we are unemployed and homeless.)

To make a long story short, over the summer the camp went through some structural changes and the program director position we were hoping to apply for went by the wayside. Instead, the camp looked to hire a Camp Director who would take on the responsibilities of the Program Director as well. You can imagine our surprise at this. Well, we applied anyway, about half way through the summer. At the same time, I received an e-mail from Twin Rock Friends Camp saying that they were looking to hire an Assistant Facilities Manager and would I be interested in applying for it? So I applied for that position as well.


So that almost brings us to where we are now. As the summer camping season came to a close, no interviews had taken place yet for either position. But we couldn't stay in California because we had to get-togethers/reunions to attend in Washington and Oregon. So we packed up our car again knowing that we would interview sometime in the next couple of weeks and knowing only that for two weekends we had reunion groups to stay with and on August 17th, we became officially unemployed and homeless!
For about the past two weeks, we have lived out of our suitcases, but a good 2,000 miles on our car and stayed no more than 3 consecutive nights in the same place. It really is a new experience. All we can do is continue to look over our options and trust that god has something great in store for us!

I should also add as a footnote here, that we have so many wonderful family members and friends that have offered us rooms and encouragement that it really doesn't feel like we're homeless at all. It just feels like an extended vacation! I recommend that you all should try it someday. ;)