The good ol' Northwest!

We made it up to Seattle a few weeks ago. I came first with Hannah and Emmett and Rees followed a few days later. It was so sad to leave Portland - still doesn't seem real - but we are really enjoying ourselves in Seattle. It's been so wonderful to be so close to family and really good friends. I have so many friends with small kids who don't work outside the home and it's been so fun to get to hang out with them during the week. One of my best friends, Molly, lives 5 minutes from Rees' parents' house (where we're living). She's been living between Seattle and Cyprus (the island in the Mediterranean) for the last few years and it's great to be so close for at least a few months. I'm looking forward to going for walks and enjoying some good NW coffee with her while we're still here. We have been extra thankful for our wonderful Pacific NW summer this year as next year we will be living in a country with a much more severe summer - temps up to 120 degrees - Yikes! I've also enjoyed each cup of coffee (and I've been drinking lots of them!) as we will be switching to Nescafe and lots of tea in T-stan. There are A LOT of things I'm really savoring here as leaving for T-stan comes into view. There's definitely part of me that is dreading all the change we will be experiencing. Let's face it - moving from a very developed country and all that that entails to a developing country is going to be rough to say the least. I find myself looking forward to the long-term changes that we'll experience - ie: our appreciation for life, the character we'll grow, living more in tune with natural seasons and rhythms of life, the worldview our children will develop, learning a language, new understanding of who God is and lots of other things. The only problem with all that is that it takes a long time to develop and means difficult times in the meanwhile. We trust God to help us make the most of the time we have in the NW and help us all transition to Central Asia. Let us know if you are in Seattle and would like to get together. My cell is: 503-459-6104 and Rees' is 503-459-6102. We are in Chelan until Sept 5th and will be back in Portland Sept 17-20(ish) but are otherwise at Rees' parents' house in Kirkland. By the way, many people have asked us how it is living with Rees' parents and I can say a whole-hearted "wonderful!" Hannah loves having grandparents so close all the time and they are only 10min from my family as well.

These are our last days living in Portland . . . At least for now

We have been BUSY. Trying to pack up our house, find renters, sort through what things to keep - but mostly what to get rid of and where to rid it to, trying to connect with friends and family here in Portland and still maintain some consistency and fun in our kids' lives. Emmett occasionally sleeps a 6 or 7 hour stretch at night (probably once a week or so) and for that I am sooo thankful. Of course I'll enjoy when that becomes more consistent even more, but I know better than to hold my breath for that :) It happens when it happens.

We have been able to visit with a lot of different people. We had multiple dinners with friends and family last week: the Holladays, the Myers, our Thursday night prayer group, Laurel Nordlund. Reed & Nan spent an evening with us on the front end of their road trip too - generous and helpful as always - Reed helping Rees get our backyard back in order after our garage sale, Nan doing many loads of laundry for me. We all got to have dinner with Kim & Bern (Reed's cousin) and then my siblings (minus Jackie) came down from Seattle for the weekend. They helped me go through a bunch of my cupboards and took a car-full of stuff back to Seattle while also keeping Hannah occupied and Emmett happy so I could get some more things done. Shannon is coming back this Saturday morning to drive up to Seattle with me with the two kiddos. In the midst of this, Jeannette Cook and I and our two babies got to get away to Bonneville Hot Springs Resort while Mike and Rees and all the kids came to our house and had a slumber party. Jeannette and I enjoyed the ability to sit at a coffee shop for three hours talking, taking walks, and eating some great food very slowly (something I used to be good at before having kids). It was soooooooo wonderful to get to have uninterrupted conversation and get caught up on life. Rees, Mike and the kids had water fights, McDonald's, ice cream for breakfast and went fishing. Dads are so much fun. Yesterday Hannah, Emmett and I went to visit Reed's dad's cousin, Rosemary Wiles, and his cousin Kim at Rosemary's retirement place. She lives super close to us and is our last connection to Rees' grandpa's generation and all that history. I love hearing about life and the family's history through her perspective and appreciate her enthusiasm and curiosity about life. Hannah loved exploring her apartment and eating an ice cream cone outside in the courtyard and playing in the water fountain. I always say that this particular side of the family was a wonderful bonus for me marrying into the family. Shout out to the Ross/Duffy/Wiles clans! We love you! Kathryn Myer came over one evening until midnight and then again this morning and helped me pack up kitchen stuff and make some trash and Goodwill piles - thanks Kathryn! Such a gift of love. The highlight of our week so far was hearing from Troy & Jenny via Skype last night. I can't describe the good that did for my heart to hear their voices and see their faces. Myles is getting so big and by some miracle is even cuter - how could that be when he's already so cute? They are out of their village home-stay and back at Jonathan & Laura's house in the city and very happy to be there. They have demonstrated amazing perseverance through the heat, giardia, tough times relating to their host family and living in a developing country. We are ever thankful for their going ahead of us and "paving the way" for us to join them in early October. Troy is still having stomach issues so please pray for him and please pray that they will continue to excel at language learning and that they'll start to develop a rhythm of life there. They will be looking at areas to potentially live and then move to their own place around the time we come. That is when Jonathan & Laura (our team leaders) will be home from conferences and vacation. You could pray for them too as it will probably be stressful for them coming back into town trying to settle two families while getting their 5 kids back into the swing of things after having been out of town. It's always difficult to be dependent on other people and feel so needy, but that's exactly where we'll be. I hope that there will be some way in which we will eventually be a blessing to them.

For now, the plan is for me to move up to Seattle with Hannah & Emmett this Saturday. We'll move into Rees' parents' basement and live there until we leave for T-stan. Rees will follow within a few days of us. I'm going up on Saturday so that I can have lunch with some of my dearest childhood friends, Malaika, Meela and Rhea on Sunday. We will be going to Trout Lake Aug. 16th-20th to spend time with Mike & Jeannette and the kids. We also plan to come back to Portland for at least one (probably two) long weekends before we leave as well. Rees will most likely come back a few more times to wrap up business. We are sad to leave Portland as it has been such a great place to live these last 7 years and we love so many people here. But we are also excited to be up in Seattle and to be able to spend time with family and friends on a more regular basis than we have been able to