First Visit to Newport WA

(Newport, WA: 31 July - 4 Aug) My step-mom Nancy has lived in northeastern Washington State for 10 years. Until now we had never been able to visit. The story is worth telling of how she came to be here. When my Dad was alive they retired from the Navy and moved to Snohomish, WA. My next door neighbor in the dorm at Bible College had taken a church in Maltby WA a few miles from where Dad and Nancy lived. They ended up visiting the church and meeting Dan and Deb Peterson and became regulars. Dan and Deb are our age and ended up also having 3 daughters nearly the same ages as ours. Dad and Nancy sort of adopted the Peterson family or the Peterson's adopted Dad and Nancy. Whatever it was God was in it. They all grew in their walk with the Lord and became a support for each other as God would have it. My Dad died in 1994. About a year later Dan and Deb moved with their girls to Newport, WA. Dan and Deb invited Nancy to move near them, but it took some time before she was ready. About 4-5 years later Nancy moved there too.
We were able to go to church with Nancy; a church where the Peterson's were one of the founding families. It was fun to put faces with names of people Nancy has spoken of and have been a big part of her life the past 10 years. The church body takes seriously the scriptural admonitions to take care of widows so Nancy has been well looked-out for. Monday night we had a dinner with Dan and Deb and the two oldest girls, Mishael and Melanie, and their families. (Youngest daughter Kelly works as a nanny in Chicago). The girls married guys from the fellowship and we enjoyed getting to know Zach Miller, Mishael's husband, and her daughter Morgyn. Melanie is pregnant and not feeling well, so we enjoyed watching Josh, her husband wait on her hand and foot. Daughters Abigail and Anna were full of energy but also helped Mom. Joy had the special blessing of holding Mishael and Zach's newest addition, Philip Emery, the baby boy taking my Dad's name as his middle name.
It was a good time and good to know, now that we're on the left coast, it won't be 10 years before we visit Nancy and our friends in Newport again!