We found a place to rent!

So it's official we signed a lease and we've found a place to rent. PHEW! It's in Birch Bay Village which is a gated community. The speed limit is 20 mph and strictly enforced. So the kids and I can actually take a walk without fear of getting run over by an 18 wheeler. There is a bit of a front yard and then the there are sliding doors that open to the back yard. First order of business ..bird seed! The entry way is beautiful and off to the side is a small bedroom. For now it will be set up for a guest room, and if we are still there when the baby is older it will be hers (we keep the babies with us for a long time). Next is a hallway with two huge closets and the first bathroom. At the end of the hall is the boys room. From the entry way into the main house is the living room. It has very high ceilings, a huge window for lots of light and it opens up into the dinning area. From there is the kitchen. AHHH the kitchen. So many cabinets and counter space what's a girl to do? Off the kitchen is the laundry room with another two walls of cabinets. The mater bedroom and bath is off the living room. It's huge. We could fit our bed, the treadmill, ALL the baby stuff and still have room to dance! LOL.

So today is moving in day. Not sure how much we'll get done but I slept 10 hours last night so I am ready to go. Here are some pics.

The boys at the front door.

Here's the kitchen. I can not wait to cook our first meal. 2 weeks of eating out, yeah sounds good but not. Kids requested my homemade pizza.

The living room/dinning area

Living room with the fireplace.

Outside of the house.

Update on finding a house.

So we think we have settled on a house. It's beautiful. We are going to sign the lease this morning if all goes well we'll be out of the hotel by the weekend. I'll take some pictures today and post later. Things are moving along. All of us will be happy to settled in and we can have a normal routine...as normal as we can anyway. The weather here is so beautiful. I am wondering if we'll ever see rain. Thank you for all the prayers and your friendship across the miles.

Greetings from the Pacific Ocean.

So we keep hearing it rains a lot here...but so far we haven't seen even a dark cloud in the sky. It was so beautiful yesterday. We drove to the "Fairhaven" part of Bellingham. This is where to ferry to Alaska comes in. We told the boys they could dip their feet in the water since we didn't bring a change of clothes. HA it took Elijah about 10 minuets to get knocked down and he was completely wet. So we just let them go for it and Peter went back to get dry clothes. They had so much fun.
After their dip we walked through downtown Fairhaven that has the cutest little shops. One store we went in called "wild blueberries" had cute one of a kind type of toys. We hit a book store in search of a book that features birds of Washington. We found one, by the same author who did the birds of Maine book we have. The boys keep talking about setting up bird feeders and discovering new birds. We've already seen a few.
We got an ice cream from a stand that was a bus that was converted into a little place that sells ice cream and fried foods. The ice cream was soft serve but they had every flavor you could imagine. Isaiah and Peter got chocolate, Elijah got orange, and I got cheesecake. They were so good.
We ended the day with dinner and then took the kids to see "Up". I must be super hormonal. I cried like 6 times during this movie. I highly recommend it. It is such a sweet love story, which probably went over my kids heads but I appreciated it.
Today we look at a few more houses and will most likely make a decision today.



The Pacific ocean. It was so beautiful this day.

The boys wet head to toe.

The waves were pretty good.

Excuse the man, he wouldn't move. But this is the little bus/icecream place.

First Sunday in Washington

We headed to church Sunday morning. There are two CC's within a 20 min drive or so, but we decided to try CC Lynden first. The church reminded us a lot of our church in Lincoln. It was an old service building transformed into a church. It was about the same size as the church in Lincoln and maybe a few more people. Everyone was super friendly and very welcoming. They all wanted to know what brought us all the way from Maine. We felt at ease bringing the kids to children's ministry. The classes were divided into age groups of 2. So Elijah was with the 4-5 and Isaiah with the 2nd -3rd graders. They had separate smaller buildings for children's ministry so Isaiah was in one small building and Elijah in another. The worship was wonderful, singing many of the same songs we know and the teaching was really great. (the pastor was away but the guy who filled in was really good) The boy came out of children's ministry beaming. They loved it. They both met some kids and shared with us what they had learned. We asked if they wanted to go back and they both answered with a "YES" That was very comforting because it's so important for us to be in a fellowship that values children and teaching them they way we feel we are called to by the Lord. So we are excited to go back and meet more people and get to know them better.





After church we had lunch at a Jack in the Box...I loved it. =)





Then we went to look at house in Ferndale...which is North of Bellingham, west of Lynden and East of Birch Bay. This house was HUGE, a redone farm house. The downstairs was so big I honestly don't know what I would do with all the space. Surrounding the property is farmland. It was beautiful. Literally next to the house is a horse stable and the horse come right up to the fence. In the back is the most amazing view of Mt. Baker. It's so hard to decide on where to live. We have more to look at today.





After dinner we went back to Watcom Falls Park and this time I took pictures. I'll let them do the talking for me.








This is the town of Lynden where church is. It is a huge Dutch community. This is the windmill right in town.

This is the view from the backyard of the property we looked it. Seriously I never get tired of this mountain. It's just so beautiful. It stays snow covered all year round.

The waterfall at Watcom Falls park.

Flowers are everywhere in the park. They are so bright.

From the trail that wraps around the park. It's all woods and the best part is NO BLACK FLIES.

They are just too cute. They are having so much fun exploring.

Looking for a place to live

Yesterday we looked at two potential house to rent. One was definitely a possibility. It is located in a gated community in Birch Bay which is right on the water. It's beautiful. Inside the community there are many little parks with playgrounds, tennis court, pool and a golf course. The house was modest but had tons of space even a potential "homeschool" room. The views were amazing. AND...the day was bright sunny and warm and there were no BUGS. I am not kidding, no black flies. We couldn't believe it. We could actually stand outside and enjoy it without hosing each other down in bug spray. It was a real treat.

We also ran some errands, picked up our po box key, went to the grocery store, washed the car and drove around trying to get a better sense of the area. It's still overwhelming to me.

We went to Watcom Falls park. It is beautiful and I didn't take any pictures...so we'll have to go back. This is one of the many parks in Bellingham. This one has a path for biking,walking, running that takes you down to a beautiful waterfall. The boys said "look it's like Niagara Falls" and it did look like a mini one. There were playgrounds for the kids, which you would think my kids wouldn't see as anything special but living out in the sticks going to a playground was a real treat. So they really enjoyed themselves.

We walked downtown Bellingham in the evening for some ice cream for dinner. We are all french fried and burgered out and thought ice cream for dinner sounded good and it was. The downtown area has a lot of local shops and restaurants. It's fairly clean and reminded me a bit of the Old Port. I didn't take pictures of that either. I guess maybe I didn't want to look like an outsider. LOL

Oh a funny story. I called a guy to make an appointment to see a property. He kept asking me to repeat myself, it was kind of annoying. Then he asked "well where are you from you have a heavy accent' I said "from Maine" and he said "well that explains it." I almost died. I don't have an accent. But who knows maybe I do.

Today we are going to check out one of the local Calvary's. I am glad to be around some Christians and to feel more at home. Yesterday at breakfast we were explaining the kids that we were going to a new church with new friends. And Elijah got very quiet (not like him for those of you who know him well) and I asked what was wrong. He would tell me. I pressed him harder and he said he was "nervous" about going to a new church. I realized that I had been so focused on how this move has made me feel, I took for granted the boys were doing just fine with it. But Elijah reminded me that they are processing this whole thing to. I reassured him that he is such an awesome kid, nice, funny, and everyone will just love him when we go to church. But I told him if for any reason he wants me I will come and get him out of children's ministry. Isaiah is just desperate to meet some kids his age. He said he's not nervous. He is ready to settle down I think. He was planning out who was staying in each room at the house we looked at and where we would put the tv.

I'll take pictures today.

Home Sweet Home??

I can not believe we are finally here. We arrived in Bellingham around 2:30 our time, for my East Coast buddies that's 5:30 your time. Today's drive wasn't as long, but it was very overwhelming. My heart is in Maine and I don't know how long it will take to have this new place feel like home. I miss everyone so much. And seeing signs for Bellingham just made everyone seem so far.

For the next few weeks we are calling the Best Western our "home". We have a lot of properties we are interested in looking at so we'll be very busy this up coming week looking and praying about where to live.

The area that we've seen so far is ...well beautiful. It really is, even though somewhere deep down I wanted it to be so ugly that we would rush back home asap. I am excited to check out more of the are. Tonight we hit the mall...it's HUGE. We got a new cell phone, and hit Target (which is attached to the mall very convenient) Then we headed down to the water front. I almost forgot that we were looking at the Pacific Ocean until Peter mentioned it. WOW I never thought I'd see it.

I am clinging to promises the Lord has given me as we make this huge transition. I honestly don't know how people go through huge life changes without Him. He is constant, He never changes, He never leaves you, He is faithful, and I am learning in a HUGE way that He can be trusted.

Here are some pictures from today.




Mount Rainier the tallest mountain in Washington

Can't see it all that well but this sign says something like 14 miles to Bellingham

This is where we took our after dinner walk. This "bridge" is for walkers, runners, and bikers. It is absolutely amazing.

Anther shot

The boys...Elijah is DONE. He's super tired

The "bridge" Check out the mountains in the back, they are everywhere!

Mountains

As I type I can barely keep my eyes open. I am really tired. I think all the driving is catching up with me. I just want to reach our destination. We did another long day today over 500 miles. Right now we are in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. (For you bible scholars you might know this a Chuck Mislers headquarters.)

The drive today was much more scenic than yesterday. I was very thankful for that. The mountains are amazing. Living in Topsfield and driving to Lincoln you get some pretty views of Mt Katahdin. The boys call it snowy mountain. What we saw today was many snowy mountains. I kept thinking of the song "mighty to save" the line that says "Savior He can move the mountains, my God is mighty to save" I kept thinking "wow God could really move those mountains"

So we're hoping to reach Bellingham,Washington tomorrow. Thanks for all the prayers.