Nature Therapy

This week we received some difficult news. The beautiful little girl in Ethiopia that we had been told would be ours will not be. The orphanage said that they made a mistake and gave her to two families with two different agencies, ours and one in Italy. We were totally sideswiped by this, to us she was our daughter and we loved her so much already. Thankfully and oddly enough Greg was home and took both calls, first last Tuesday letting us know the situation and then this Tuesday saying the orphanage claimed that the Italian family was the first to pursue this child. It was a difficult week of uncertainty but we feel peace now that we have our sad answer. We trust that God has his hand on our lives and on our adoption and that He will bring into our lives the child that is meant to be ours, in the mean time we wait...
My good friend and old college roommate Christina was visiting from New Hampshire this week. Christina lives to be outdoors and is always good at pulling me into beautiful hikes in even the most inclement weather. It was great to have her here!

On Monday we hiked in the Chuckanut Mountains just south of Bellingham. The hike totally kicked my butt! It was very steep and I was sore for 2 days. The view on the way up was of the Islands (San Juans, Lumi, Victoria BC.) and the Olympic mountains beyond.









On Wed we did a beautiful hike but it was pouring out so I didn't bring my camera. On Thur it snowed for the first time since Christmas so we went for a walk to Whatcom Falls park and lake Whatcom.

A weekend in Bellingham

The weekend before Greg left for Nigeria was cold but sunny and if the sun is shinning in Bellingham people get outdoors. On Saturday we hiked up to Fragrance Lake right here in town.
The tree without a trunk

Unfortunately Ella did not do much hiking, she cried, we caved and poor Greg carried her most of the 5 mile hike
The fog


The fog blocked our view of the ocean.





Ice on Fragrance Lake

On Sunday afternoon we took a 1.5 mile bike ride down the trail from our house to Whatcom Falls Park.