Our first hike of the season!

Josh and I both love to hike, and this weekend's amazing forecast was practically begging us to go...so we did:-) We decided to check out a spot I had read about in a magazine called Cherry Orchard Trail. It was definitely not the easiest hike to start off the season with, but it was worth EVERY step. You basically climb 1500 feet, and the higher you go, the more amazing the views of the Columbia Gorge become!!! Here are a couple examples:

And believe me, it was even better in person. This is a hike that is best done during the spring, when everything is green and fresh like this; by summer time, it really gets too hot and dry. Luckily, yesterday was a perfect temperature for hiking! We were good and put on strong sunscreen, but I proved that I am still terrible at applying it by getting many small random spots of sunburn:-) Anyway...here we are at the top! In the first picture, Josh is not snarling on purpose...I think he may have been squinting. But it makes me laugh:-)



Once you reach the top, you can hike about a mile further, and you end up in a giant meadow lined with some old cherry trees. I thought we would be too late to see the blossoms, but we were actually (ironically) too early, probably because of the higher elevation. But the meadow was still gorgeous and a perfect place to stop for food, rest, and random pictures:-)

The meadow:

The view from the meadow:

Josh being heroic:-)

Megan not knowing what to do with her hands

If you would like more info on this hike, definitely let us know! It's a keeper for sure. You would need to set aside a good chunk of time (probably a Saturday or day off) because the trail is out about 12 miles past Hood River, so it's a little over an hour drive each way. But as you know, the drive alone is beautiful!

And finally, no blog would be complete without a barge picture:-) At some point during our hike back down, a giant barge decided to float by and create a very picturesque wake...

A new family member!

I know that I just blogged about a little "waiting game" that Josh and I are involved in right now over a h0use. Well, we have some family members that are in the the middle of a MUCH bigger and more important waiting game, and it is now VERY close to coming to fruition and we couldn't be more excited for them. My cousin David and his wife Rosalie (who is just as much like a cousin to me:-)) are in the process of adopting a baby boy from Taiwan. And the process is...well...long. And since WE have been so anxious to meet this little guy, I can't even imagine how long the wait has felt to them!

Adam was born on Sept. 15th, 2008. They received a referral to adopt him on November 14th, which was when we were able to see his first picture:

Well, as you can imagine, it was love at first sight for all of us! And I must say, he gets the prize for the most hair I have ever seen on an infant, but he wears it well:-) Anyway, they decided to name him Adam Kuan-Chung Wachsmuth. Kuan Chung is his given Taiwanese name when he was born, so they are keeping that as his middle name. Their big news, along with this first picture, marked the beginning of a long and tedious process to enable them to fly to Taiwan and bring Adam home.

Here is picture of him at about 4.5 months. As you can see, his hair is more wild and crazy than ever before...I love it! However, just to warn you before you see the next picture, they DID end up giving him a hair cut...perhaps it was getting in his eyes or something:-) But hair or no hair...he is SO CUTE!

This process has had MANY steps, which include insane amounts of paperwork and signatures, a hearing in Taiwan (in which they they had a power of attorney who appeared on their behalf to represent their case), a first ruling (which the judge usually doesn't give until about a month after the hearing), and the final ruling, which typically comes 4-6 weeks after that. As you can imagine, when you are wondering about whether or not this child will be yours, that is a LOT of waiting. They have handled it beautifully though, and the Lord has truly honored their patience and trusting in Him, because they finally received the final ruling last week, and now it is just a matter of a week or two before they get to fly to Taiwan and pick him up!!! There are a few more steps involved with that as well (they will probably be in Taiwan for at least a week, finalizing all the details) so prayers that everything will go as smoothly and in their favor as possible are much appreciated. I will keep you posted as their amazing adventure continues to unfold. But for now...go ahead and continue to admire the cuteness that is Adam:-)

A house...maybe...hopefully!!!

Josh and I have been heavy into the house-hunting process for the last couple of months. Just last Saturday, we found a house in Sherwood that we absolutely loved. Even our realtor, who is very particular (that's a good thing:-), said that it suited us very well and is very fairly priced. So...we decided to go for it and put an offer down. It was so exciting! I could barely sit still while we were signing the papers. Once the offer was submitted, however, we found out that it was actually a short sale and that the seller's agent hadn't put that into the original listing (it had literally just gone on the market the day before we looked at it). I'm not entirely sure how long short sales have been around, but they are becoming more common recently because of the economy and housing market, so if you know what they are, you can skip the next few sentences:-)

Basically, they are something that the bank decides to do for home owners who, for whatever reason, have gotten in over their heads with their house payments and want to get out with as little damage as possible to their credit. The bank allows them to sell the house for less than what their loan was (they basically have to since housing prices have dropped) so they can get out of their debt and the bank only takes a small loss. It's basically a slightly better alternative to a foreclosure; it costs the bank less money and doesn't damage the owner's credit as badly as a foreclosure would. The good thing about short sales for the buyer (AKA, us) is that they can often get a pretty good deal (which explains why this house was priced so well in the first place), but the not-so-good thing is that it can be a MUCH longer wait because after the seller approves the offer (which has just happened for us, so that's good) the BANK has to approve it and that can be a much trickier ball game.

Luckily, this particular seller has hired a short sale negotiator, which is someone who specifically specializes in working with the banks to get short sales moving as quickly as possible. Our realtor told us this is a very rare but good thing; oftentimes the buyer has to pay for a negotiator themselves if they want to move the process along faster, but this seller and their agent clearly want to get this house sold as quickly as possible. Plus we were the first (and so far, the only ones) to get our offer in and according to the negotiator, the offer is not hugely less than what the loan was; sometimes in short sales, it's HUGE difference, which makes the banks hem and haw even more because they don't want to lose too much money.

So, that is where we are right now. It's kind of ironic because we were trying to avoid short sales because we heard about what a pain they can be, but now we've walked right into one without realizing it:-) But we really love this house and are willing to wait it out for awhile and see what happens. Luckily, we are contractually able to pull out at any time without any financial responsibilty before the bank makes their decision, in case we find another house we like even better. But...I must admit, I REALLY like this one:-)

We will definitely keep you posted about this exciting and interesting time. We are hoping that it works out in our favor, but we also aren't sweating it because we know that the Lord has us and this entire situation in the palm of His hand and that He is taking care of us. No matter what happens, it won't be a surprise to God and we know it will be for the best. Praise Him for that!

Here we are!

Well, here is our new blog! It obviously looks very much like my old one and all my previous posts are on here, but now it will just be better because hopefully we will BOTH be posting and you will be receiving updates on us both individually and as a family...because that's what we are now...a team!:-) I like having my blog this way much better. I will probably be deleting my other one soon, so make sure you change your URLs to reflect this one so we don't lose you! I hope you all have wonderful weekends!

~Megan

Knocked for a loop

It's funny how, no matter how busy we as human beings can get, that there are certain things that have the power to stop us in our tracks.

One is snow, and because of the random snowstorm in Oregon last December, MANY of us were stopped cold from our schedules during the busiest season of all and left twiddling our thumbs wondering what to do with ourselves. Suddenly, nothing on our crazy agendas mattered or applied anymore, because we simply could not do them.

Another...the FLU. I have been experiencing this ever since Wednesday. Now, colds are one thing. You can typically work your way through most of your "agenda" with a cold, especially with the aid of many over-the-counter medications available. But the flu...no. Kudos to those who actually attempt to carry on with their lives with the flu. I simply cannot do it. Call me a wimp, but the flu has the power to send me straight to bed and to cancel any and everything on my agenda, including MT clients, without a second thought. It also has the power to make me not care in the slightest that dishes are piling up in the sink, the laundry basket is overflowing, and used drinking glasses are being left in random places in the apartment (typcial pet peeves of mine). Even though I may not like what's on TV, reaching for the remote and changing channels requires far too much effort, so I'll just roll over and try to ignore it. The sun is out, you say? Who cares....the sun is bright and would only make my headache worse. Stupid sun..............you get the drift. The flu has a way of making you not care about much. It's evil.

I am finally over the worst, which is a good feeling. I like the sun again. Yay sun! But anyway, it really is funny (and also a bit comforting) that the busiest or most powerful of human beings are still oh-so-vulnerable to things like frozen crystals falling from the sky or an influenza virus tinier than the eye can see.

Perfect quote...truly.

Our pastor gave us a quote by Jerry Bridges today that I have no intention of every forgetting:

"Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace."

I plan on going back to this whenever I am feeling heavily burdened with shame...which happens more than I care to admit sometimes... or if I ever become CLOSE to thinking that I am more worthy than another of God's grace. I am what I am SOLEY by the grace of God, and that is all. Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 15.

Quick side note: Our pastor has been going through the book of 1 Corinthians with us for over a year now. It's been awesome:-)

So anyway, back to Paul. Paul is someone I could honestly see as "ruffling a lot of feathers" back then. He was bold, stright to the point, and really seemed to always say exactly what he thought, with tact not necessarily a priority. Had I known him personally, I could see myself being very intimidated by him, since I am a person who can't stand even the idea of someone being angry with me. In other words, confronation of any kind makes me nervous:-)

That being said...even Paul, in the midst of a VERY bold and confrontational letter to the Christians of Corinth (read it, seriously. He reams them on a number of issues:-), quickly admitted to his sins and to who he was before he met Christ, as well as admitting he was NOTHING without the grace of God. Thanks Paul:-) Maybe you're not so scary after all! J/K.

I pray that I continue holding this belief close to my heart...as well as continuing to believe that God's grace IS enough for me.

Fun times

A word of advice...perhaps from personal experience:

When you go to the grocery store and are loading up your car with groceries...make sure you remove any items (like, say, a carton of milk) that you may have temporarily placed on the top of your vehicle before driving away. If you don't do this, you may just have to get out of your car at a stoplight to retrieve it with an audience of about 20 people watching you from their cars.

Just saying....