My Sister's Visit!

Jen here. My sister Sarah decided to come visit us for a week. She got permission from my parents and paid for the tickets on her own. Wow, she loves us. :)

She split her time between Roy and me, and my brother and his wife. I was able to take a day off work (my last week of work until the fall!) so Sarah and I could be tourists. I stayed up late deciding what to do and early in the morn we headed out.

The plan: kayak Lake Union, stay clam at Ivar's, Space Needle and possibly the Underground Tour. Tourists in Seattle. :)

Roy and I kayaked through NWOC the summer before we left for Hong Kong, so I decided to rent our kayaks from the same place. We arrived at 9:30am and they opened at 10am, so we had plenty of time to get ready. :)

Our double kayak served us well. If one of us was tired, the other could paddle and keep us going. And boy, we both got tired so fast! In looking through Sarah's pictures (I didn't take my camera for fear of ruining it) it appears that I paddled most of the time and Sarah just took pictures of us. Haha...it is somewhat true.

The house boats (is that what they are called?) interested us right away. They literally are houses floating on the water. Wow. NWOC asked us to stay at least 20 feet away from the house boats so as to respect the privacy of the "house boat dwellers" (they sound kind of scary to me). It's so hard to stay 20 feet away when one wants to see the houses and also is being moved by the waves. :) Sarah kept reminding me to steer away from the boats (my kayak seat had steering pedals connected to an udder). It was fascinating how there were little neighborhoods of house boats. Similar to in a city, the houses were next to each other with space between for a boat dock (driveway) and were in rows separated by larger stretches of water (roads).

Our kayak journey began in Lake Union, a small lake in Seattle with a view of the Seattle skyline (see photo--the space needle is just to the left of Sarah's head). We paddled west through Portage Bay to Union Bay which is just off Lake Washington near to the University of Washington. We saw several sea planes take off and land, the duck boat tours go by multiple times and artists perched on the shore painting landscapes.

Sarah had a blast and took many pictures. My face got fried because I did not bring sunscreen or a hat! And both of our arms were so tired. Once we made it to Union Bay I seriously wanted to ask one of the leisure boaters if they could tow us back to NWOC. Ha! We stuck it out and paddled back. All in all we spent about 2 or 3 hours on the water. Sweet!

The Troll

Jen here. So I've been posting more often than usual, but my posts are shorter. Why? Roy put a blogging app on my phone so now I can take a photo and immediately write a quick blog about it and post it. Hooray!

Yesterday Roy, Dale and I went to sushi with some friends in Fremont, which is in Seattle. Our friends are moving to Chicago in one month so it was a sort of farewell dinner although we will see them a bit before they leave. It was a good time with good food at a restaurant called Chiso.

Each time we go into Seattle we talk of going more often. A tourist has probably been to Seattle and knows more about its different areas than we do. Maybe we will plan some outings... René and Patrick mentioned something about a giant cement troll under a bridge nearby. Cool, we thought, maybe we will come back to Fremont to see it. And off we went. It just so happened that we drove right by the troll!

Check out the picture! He is huge...and is holding a VW Beetle. Pretty cool :)

Hospitality of Friends :)

Jen here. God is so gracious and generous. I am continually blown away by His provision, protection and blessing. We arrived in Seattle in the end of July and began searching for housing. Two friends from Mars Hill Church graciously offered their guest bedroom and opened their home to us. It was a huge blessing to be in a home with familiar faces and loving hearts. We treasured time getting to know Mike and Courtney more and LOVED seeing their 11-month old Judson crawl, cruise and learn to walk. Here's Courtney, but this darling baby isn't hers(you'll see a photo of Judson later). This is Eowyn, my niece!! Courtney and Mike are date night babysitters for Dan and Christie, so we got to see our little niece more than planned. She is adorable...and I love spending time with her.Roy and I looked for housing, met up with old friends and continued going to our old church Mars Hill Church | Shoreline. It was a blast to be back and to see our church family again. Oh how we missed them! When we walked into Schirmer Auditorium for the first time, we felt so loved, so cherished. Hugs and tears abounded. :) After leaving the service, Roy and I looked at each other and said, "Can't we just live up here, go to church here and commute to work?Do we really want to do church in the same city where we work?" :)
MHC | Shoreline had their annual BBQ Beach Baptism in the beginning of August and we attended. Pastor Steve preached a great message and several people decided to be baptized. It was a great time of rejoicing! I LOVE Washington's beaches, water and mountains all in one. It is good to be back in Seattle. For a while we double-dipped in regard to church. We attended our old Community Group from Shoreline during the week and on Sundays attended the MH campus near our work (and house to-be) in the morning and our old MHC | Shoreline campus in the evenings. We began searching for a community group at our new church in Bellevue.

Our housing search was long. Long before we left Hong Kong, we were told of a house for rent owned by a former Chess4Life employee who just recently found a job in Washington DC. He and his family were preparing to move there and wanted to rent their house to fellow Christians...they wanted their house to be used for God. We were in contact with them and planned to check out the house. We did and it was awesome. It is a rambler (whatever that means...) 3 bedroom 2 bathroom. The living room, dining room and kitchen are open and spacious. Beautiful. Clean. Spacious. Perfect for entertaining.

To be wise, we continued looking at other places, but none of them compared. Our hearts were set on this house. We prayed for God to provide housemates to share the cost and live in community. Roy began working in the beginning of August and we decided to rent the house.
Courtney did an amazing job taking care of Judson; I was blessed to talk with her and see her interact with Judson. He is so adorable. Roy and I laughed with him, crawled with him, played peek-a-boo with him. He was a true joy to see every morning, so smiley. :) BTW, he was born about a week before we moved to Hong Kong...and he celebrated his first birthday while we were staying with Mike and Courtney. :)

What a blessing our friends and church family are to us. Mike and Courtney's gift of hospitality was vital in a peaceful transition to life in Seattle once again. Thank you!! And praise Jesus for His people!