Missing Portland

Tucson is a desert. However, it's a strange kind of desert. I always thought Phoenix was a desert but I discovered that it's really just a concrete island IN the desert. I like Phoenix but now that we live in Tucson, I don't know if I'd ever go back.

Tucson is a giant cacti garden (that's the plural form of "cactus" for those non-desert dwellers). It's a rather big city but it's spread out. There are patches of untouched desert all over the place and in these patches millions of all types of cacti flourish. I think Phoenix decorates with the cacti that grow down here in Tucson.

We are slowly falling in love with Tucson. Amazing sunsets, great weather, and at night I get dizzy looking up at the stars. Tucson has a light ordinance so there are very few street lights. The stars glow like blue and white neon. I don't know if we'll embrace the whole "cowboy" culture but I do own a pair of cowboy boots now and find myself increasingly interested in western novels and movies.

We do find ourselves missing Portland, though. What a great city. The weather is tough to handle but we miss our friends and our neighborhood. I don't understand how God works. We had a good thing going in Portland and then we were uprooted. Of course we can say God works through all that stuff but it still hurts. The last few months have been the hardest we've faced. The girls were depressed, we were depressed, and our life was in chaos. It's smoothing out now but often we are reminded of what we had in Portland and we miss it deeply.

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