The Call and a Longing

Dear Friends and Family,

I purposed this blog to share with you our new home, new life, and new adventures in Northeastern Washington. It is my hope that you will see our experiences as we see them, that you will enjoy our stories and photos, and that you will continue to be a part of our life even though we are apart. I also hope that you will want to come visit! Please feel free to comment on the posts...we would love to hear from you. As always, we hope to see you all soon!

Blessings and love,
Lindy

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The Beginning (July 2009): I don't think I will ever forget the day we got "the call". I was on my way home from work for lunch and David called my cell (as he often does) and asked me, "So, how would you feel if we were offered Curlew?" I thought about it for a second...his question sounded, at first, like any number of questions we had asked ourselves in normal conversation over the past weeks...and then I realized the tone in David's voice was his "trying to fool you" voice. I quickly replied, "Is that what were offered?!?!?", "Did we get the call?!?!?" David then spilled the beans (he is terrible at lying, keeping secrets, and trying to pull a fast one on me) that he had just come home to find a message on our answering machine offering us a move to Washington State. We were thrilled and apprehensive and eager and unnerved all at once. We talked things over and within minutes concurred....we would accept the offer and move from our home in South Texas to the mountains of Northeast Washington.

Why would we want to leave our home in south Texas to move all the way across the country? The answer is simple, we have always wanted to call the mountains home. It is as if we were called to do it, not by some employer but by something greater than ourselves. Since early on in my childhood, my father instilled in me a love of mountains, pine trees, pristine streams and lakes brimming with trout, fresh air scented with evergreen perfume, and mountain recreation...biking, fishing, hiking, camping....you name it, I love it! When I married David, he too had a love for these things, having grown up in a mountainous region, but his love of the mountains deepened due to our travel and adventures in the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico....the mountains that are dearest to my heart. How could we not accept an opportunity to finally realize our dreams of mountain life? Not life in the mountains for a week or two on vacation, but full-time, whole-hearted mountain living....yes, LIVING. We would call the mountains our home!-David in a month and I, in two months. We were able to visit the area we would soon call home to look for a house. We were enthralled and overwhelmed by the beauty and by the gravity of our situation. Knowing we had to, in a month's time, find a new place to live, sell our house in Del Rio, pack and move across the country with 7 animals in tow, and leave behind many things and people we loved. No pressure, right!?!

Well, all I can say is that God has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams. He not only got our house under contract within a week of being on the market and sold before our departure date, but he got all of us, including my parents, to Washington without illness, injury, nervous breakdown, or even a flat tire! He also hand-delivered an amazing place to rent while we find a home of our own...a place that can hold all 9 of us (3 horses, 3 dogs, 1 cat, and the 2 of us)...more to come on that. His greatness never ceases to amaze me!

So, for starters, I want to share with you a few pics from our visit to Washington. I hope you enjoy the scenery and want to come check it out firsthand. Our door is always open to our loved ones! I will be blogging a lot in the next few days to catch up on the past month: our cross-country moving adventure, our new home, fun stuff we've already done, and much more. Stay tuned!

Curlew Lake looking south from the north end

Coyote on the Kettle River between Curlew, WA and Midway, BC

Kettle River looking northwest toward Midway, BC

Kettle River at Curlew

Strange being this close to Canada...

Helicopter siphoning water from the Kettle River to extinguish a nearby forest fire....REAL mountain living!

David on the bridge over the Columbia River at Lake Roosevelt

We took a day trip out of Spokane on our visit...this was taken on that trip at our first stop in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho

Lake Pend Oreille near Sandpoint, Idaho

We were also bumped from our flight home in Denver and got a chance to spend the day in Colorado...this was on a day trip we took to Estes Park/Rocky Mtn. National Park. We made the best of things. :)