I Love the Mountains: Advancing in Adventure

Dear family and dear friends,

The bishop said it would be okay to consider checking in and updating a once a month. Today makes a month, so here goes! Two weeks ago, Sunday, the 7^th of August, I arrived to our little pew on the front row with a glimmer of hope I might hear something of the Young Women camp. Sure enough, three young women bore testimony of the blessing of being together. I want to say there was hiking and rain, testimonies and bonding. Leaders for the camp were Sister Walter, Sister Rhoades, Sister Allen. Maren Eaton shared a “test of faith” where leaders walked them blindfolded to a beautiful lake.

Reading Romans this morning, I like being reminded that one of the reasons for life

is to learn to walk without seeing everything.

Two young men, Thomas Rhoades and a son in the Wood family

(who recently moved into our good friends, the Davies’, home--I want to say it was the older son Jake) rang my doorbell later that day, answering with energy and enthusiasm about the experience the young men had a few weeks earlier on their young men camping adventure at Marsh Lake:

apparently kayaking, and other activities helped in bonding and explained why Brother Johnson was yawning on the stand the Sunday following.

Val and I have had a joyful experience, responding to a daughter’s call

to shepherd and enjoy her five-year-old twin daughters

upon the birth of their little sister in New Mexico.

A week ago, Tuesday, we drove to Cortez, Colorado

thinking it might be fun and interesting to stop enroute at a National Park.

Twenty minutes west of Cortez is a historic sight, Mesa Verde,

with rock homes carved on the ledge of cliffs, dated nearly 1200 A.D.

On the way, descending an overlook, a kind traveler offered to take our picture. When we mentioned having family near their Washington home, we learned that the man worked with my sister’s husband in Woodinville. On the way down that very hill, I viewed a text from Valarie Wood, (mother to the above young man who visited our home the previous Sunday) to learn that Valarie knew our daughter Brianne in high school. Her twin sisters have been best friends to Brianne for years. Sometimes, when changes happen in our lives, is it not a blessing to have connections and friends to help ease the transitions?

Transitions--the most glorious of which we can count--in a blessed addition, (and marked transition to a couple of five-year-olds

and parents) in the arrival of an 8-pound 9-ounce, 21-inch dark haired wonder

to a little Alamogordo, New Mexico family last Thursday.

After worrisome hours where baby and father were sent to a neonatal intensive care unit (an hour away), at last, mom and baby were reunited, numbers stabilized, lungs cleared, and all released to a joyful circle of ready arms, lullaby music, open hearts.

Heaven has responded to heartfelt pleas, with gratitude and goodness in their wake. Mirroring Alamogordo’s evening cloudbursts, our “cups runneth over.” God is good.

We pray regularly for and believe our family and neighborhood missionaries may be included in the “watched over” number. We are glad to hear of support and love directed toward our neighbor Annette Bitner and her family, mourning the recent loss of husband and father, Bruce, instructor to neighborhood youth in ceramics, and a driver’s education instructor at the nearby high school. Transitions bring pause, helping each of us to examine our days. What will I do today, to appreciate, bless, and fulfill the “test of faith” that is mine—and express a grateful heart to those who offer their gifts to make it a bit easier?