Greetings Family and Friends,
As you may know we finally made it to Northern Idaho! It was almost exactly thirteen years ago that Corey, Esther, and I visited Sandpoint on a vacation and fell in love with the beautiful forest and Lake Pend d'Oreille. At the time it seemed like another lovely vacation spot, but not a reality for our actual permanent residence. We plugged ahead with our everyday lives in the Treasure Valley. We increased our family size, collected various animals, fixed up our home in Nampa, learned new skills, and spent time with all of you.
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Some of our "new skills" that we will now need!
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All those years never shook our memory of Sandpoint, and two years ago we decided to revisit the exact campground on Pend d'Oreille where we first became smitten. We took our five children and our dog and pitched a tent and prayed, "Is this the place where we are supposed to be?". After spending a week swimming, hiking, and exploring we drove back to the valley to figure out how Sandpoint could be our home.
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| Lake Pend d'Oreille at dusk |
We told our family and some of you our idea of relocating. We knew that we needed to find employment for Corey, a home we could afford, and fellowship with other Christians. We prayed, made plans, fixed up our home to sell it, and waited. Slowly but surely our three main concerns have been addressed. Corey was given the opportunity to transfer to a depot in Spokane Valley, our home sold for what we had hoped for in a speedy manner, friends from the Valley moved up here with us, and now we have found the place to make our haven.
My hope is to share with all of you what we are up to here in Northern Idaho. Although we did not end up in Sandpoint, the Lord did bless us with a rustic cottage that sits on two acres of forest, on a mountain, in a small town that is a lot closer to Corey's job. Our house is 97 years old! It is quite unique - complete with dormer windows, wood paneling, a cess pool, a root cellar for a basement, and one bathroom. Oh, and did I mention there is a lot of wood paneling, and not just one kind? In fact if this house has a theme I would say that it is "variations on wood paneling".
You are all welcome to take a peak at our journey in making this wild and crazy place into our Haefen. Our Panhandle Adventure is underway.
