This post is probably going to be sappy and drawn out and a little over-indulgent. But I want to write it down now, when I remember it, when I'm still overwhelmed in the best way and still in awe of what all happened.

So, if you aren't into those things, I don't blame you, you can click clack away.

Buuuuuut if you are into those things, please make yourself comfy.

John and I were blessed to spend the whole week before our wedding to be with our families, finish final details, and sleep in. It was awesome.

Hannah threw a perfect Bachelorette party which included wine, underwear, fries, brownies, popcorn, and a mouse. Perfect.

The rehearsal was Friday and apparently we picked readings that weren't actually approved...whoops. We thought we pulled them from a Catholic website but we were wrong. But, our priest, Fr. Holdren, called the chancery and got them okay-ed...so there you go.

Besides that, there were no snags, no problems, no issues. Unless there were and I just didn't hear about them. And then we got married.

our teammates, Maya and Leanne

old farts reading by a vineyard

Mendocino coast

Mendocino coast

redwoods

Sacramento Cathedral

Wine tasting at Duckhorn

 We had a wine tasting and it made me realize that I know nothing about wine. Just that I like it and I like it red.

The Oh Hello's in Sacramento

 The Oh Hello's are potentially my favorite band and we saw them live in Sacramentooooo. It was such a gift. In October we saw that they were doing a West Coast tour and we thought, there's no way we would be able to see them. But, oh, we did. And they were amazing. You know when you go and see a band you really love and you are so nervous they are going to be terrible live, or they won't sound good, or they will be jerks and snobs, or they will sound different?

None of that was true. They were humble and gracious and crazy talented.

we got new books for ourselves before our flight out

Inn-N-Out is my favorite

Every experience we had was amazing and we wanted to call it quits because how could it get better? But it always got better. We are so blessed. Then we drove home on Saturday night and when we got home our apartment was arranged, unpacked, and beautifully decorated. Our teammates (and some students) had a key, let themselves in, and spent the day organizing a-TLC-Hoarders-episode level of chaos into HGTV level beauty.

I cried like a baby. It's amazing and such a beautiful gift.

Anyway, that's what happened. It was so great. Let me gush a little bit more.
But not right now.

Thanks for reading, y'all.

I knew there would be a lot of perks to moving to Berkeley and being a missionary here.

1. I would be with John. That's the main one.
2. Berkeley is a cool place.
3. Our offsite retreats and planning weekends take place in Napa Valley.

Game changer.

It takes a lot of get FOCUS onto a campus, but it takes even more effort to get it into a diocese or a state that's new. Getting FOCUS to CA took literally 15 years. One of the main reasons why there are even missionaries out here is because of Judy Barrett.

Judy and her late husband Jim own a winery called Chateau Montelena. In 1976 there was a wine tasting in Paris, now called "The Judgement of Paris" and no American wine had ever won the competition, or taken seriously, but the Barrett's entered their chardonnay and it won a blind taste test and won the whole dang thing. They basically put Napa on the map. Also there is a movie about it, which is grossly fictionalized says Judy.

Anyway, they are amazing people. They love FOCUS and Judy is our Berkeley Mom. She has a sweatshirt to prove it.


She just loves us. And we are so grateful since we don't know a lot of people out here and we are desperately missing our family and friends. It was such a gift to be in a home and not a barely unpacked apartment.

She gave us strength for the journey and I am so grateful.