Why hello Long Beach

So here we go! Off to a brand new adventure neither one of us has any idea how to manage. We are so much more than happy to be married and moved to a new city, ready to see God work in our lives here.
Through a few day trips and God's grace, we found a perfect little apartment in a great area of town. Our living room is really quite spacious and we just found a cheap coffee table at a thrift store (like two blocks away!). Our kitchen is well-fitted out with all our wedding registry gifts that we absolutely love! We may have a card table for a dining table but man do we have the fanciest appliances you've ever seen! We also have a little bathroom and bedroom with "his and hers" closets. We have discovered a Vons, video rental, donut shop, laundromat, and weekly farmers market (though nothing like SLO Farmers...) all within a mile of us! We have made friends with our apartment complex handyman as well as the mailman. However our neighbors are pretty much conspicuous on their comings and goings, so we have not really met them officially. Also I think Long Beach people are not just like San Luis people :P But we really do like it here!
We were blessed to have a friend set Greg up with a job even before we moved, so he has been working as a valet parker since we arrived. The hours are hard - especially for me - as he leaves at 5 in the evening four nights a week. But it really makes those other three dinner nights all the more special to us.
I had been job searching since we moved and was sincerely discouraged after two weeks of no luck. However God is good and as I was in the middle of distressing over it I got a call from a restaurant who wanted to hire me as a hostess. Not only was this an awesome opportunity for work, but it is also located in the plaza that Greg valets for. So much more than we could ask for! I got trained last week and start official work in the next week.
All summer Greg and I had also been praying that the Lord would lead us to a church in Long Beach. Three weeks ago we attended Bethany Church and have gone every Sunday since. We joined a young marrieds group, in which we've met a dozen couples who are in a similar life stage as us. They provide a variety of opportunities to get involved within the church body as well as reaching out to the community. Bethany seems to be a place where we can develop our relationship with the Lord, encourage and be encouraged by other believers, and live missionally in our new home city.

We have honestly seen God provide in tangible ways more than once in these last few weeks. We love being married and are discovering the challenges along with the joys that come with marriage. Please keep us in your prayers and we will do our best to keep you updated on our new life together. Blessings!