The YC

I thought I would introduce you all to The Youth Connection, better known just as The YC. This is what brought Vince and I up to Olympia, WA earlier this month. The YC is a local nonprofit in downtown Olympia that works with at-risk teens, providing a safe place for youth from the city to hang out, find food and clothing, get connected with resources and have positive role models. The ultimate goal is to help these kids develop the confidence and skills they need for a productive future. The YC has been open just under a year now and part of Vince's role here is to start up support groups for the youth, make connections with the local high schools, and start new programs for the constant needs that are uncovered every week. At the moment, I have the privilege of offering some administrative support to The YC while I am looking for a job. After I find a job I'm excited about continue to volunteer time in the evenings working with the youth.

The staff, volunteers and youth at The YC are an amazing group and we are so excited at the opportunity that was given us to work with them. Vince and I have been praying and dreaming about a position like this and at just the right moment God opened the doors, we couldn't have planned this better ourselves.

Here is the link the The YC website so you can learn more about what we are up to.

The Family Visit!

There is nothing quite so nice as moving to a new state and having the chance for your family to come out to visit (it also helps motivate you to finish unpacking all your boxes and get the house set up). The Quiz family had already planned a visit to the Seattle area to visit my grandparents but since we had just moved into town we got to see them too.

On Thursday Vince and I drove up to Bainbridge Island and met up with our family before taking the ferry across to Seattle. Once we made it across the Puget Sound we visited to the Seattle Aquarium, Pike Place Market and the Space Needle. The best part of the day had to be Anna realizing that her ice cream cone from Pike Place had been melting all over her clothes for the past couple of blocks on our way to the Space Needle.

All in all it was a nice couple of days, after the Seattle visit we all drove up to have dinner with Gramma and Grampa Quisenberry and then on Saturday the family drove down and stayed in Olympia for the night and we got to show them around our new neighborhood. Let's just say that the tour of Olympia was considerably quicker than the tour of Seattle a few days before.

Welcome to Washington

Vince and I made it safely to Washington and to our new home. This is the view I had all the way through California, Oregon and on into the beautiful (and rainy) state of Washington. Needless to say, I am glad to be out of the car!

We moved up earlier this month and right now are working on getting out new apartment set up and unpacked. For those of you who haven't heard, Vince took a job working at The Youth Connection in downtown Olympia. The YC is a new non-profit that works with at risk teens. We couldn't be more excited about the work we get to do here, but more about that later.