Welcome to the Umpqua Valley! Here we have the beautiful mountains surrounding us, but if you drive in one direction you will find yourself in the Oregon “High Desert”, in another and you will see the majestic Pacific Ocean, and yet in a different direction and you will encounter the the Northwest “Rainforest” (when it decides to rain). No matter where you turn, the view is breathtaking, and the air is so refreshingly clean you will want to bottle it up to send back to the family and friends behind.
We left Michigan with everything we could take in our little van and journeyed west. We knew when we made the journey that we had nothing waiting for us when we got there and that we would have to hustle to get working and find a home. But we also knew that it was time for us to make the journey. It was time for us to experience the true hardships we knew we would be facing and to learn, grow, laugh, cry, pray, and cling together as we moved through each day. Through these life-tests we will grow as individuals and as a couple. For as long as there has been written messages leaving behind one’s story, people have been sharing their journeys through life. Some have shared their travels around the globe; some have shared their triumph over difficult hurdles in their lives. We started this blog to share our story of our journey west. But there is always more to the story. There is always the “what happened after” part. And so, in the words of Paul Harvey, “now, for the rest of the story…”
Dispatches from the Willamette Valley 