We are all settling in to the new home in Colorado and somehow adjusting to the cold weather. Snow has been on the ground since we arrived with temperatures between 18 and the low 50’s. It snows every several days, which have given us opportunities to build snowmen (if the dry snow would only stick together!), have snowball fights, sled, shovel snow, practice driving on snow and ice, and wear our gloves and cold weather gear more in one month than all the 16 years we spent in Dallas combined. Yesterday, David and I, along with Josiah, had to do some errands. It made me think, “It is 20 degrees outside. This is crazy to get our newborn out in this coldness, yet if we don’t, little will get accomplished.” So we bundle up and stay outside as little as possible. I do have to say that the cold here is greatly more tolerable than the Texas cold.

Our home overlooks the spectacular view of the southern front of the Rocky Mountain Range with Pike’s Peak to the west and Long’s Peak in Estes Park to the East. Another amazing piece of God’s creation He has set our eyes to gaze upon. As David and I returned yesterday from the errands, we were enjoying a thoughtful conversation. I asked, “Are you taking in the incredible view before us.” He shared, “Yes. I never want this beauty to be a common place with me.”

Many similar thoughts were exchanged in Uganda between all the individuals of our family. We were nestled in one of Africa’s most beautiful settings, yet among the poverty and dilapidated post Imperial age of the Bantu society. Visitors shared over and over again how they thought Jinja to be one of the loveliest of all the cities they had traveled to in Africa. The Nile River began from Lake Victoria near our back yard, which allowed us to experience an amazing ecological system daily, from the tiniest bee we have ever seen to remarkable bird life, monitor lizards, monkeys, cobras, ants and their queens, termites and their queens, not to mention the exquisite flora that surrounded us and sparked so much creativity and excitement in myself-a gardener’s and naturalist’s dream.