Merry Christmas 2020!

 Merry Christmas, friends near and far!  

It’s been a long time since I’ve done this, so it’s probably high time.… Here’s a little update on Team Ganson:

Ben (who turned the big 4-0 this year!) is still full-time at Carroll Financial as a financial planner and he absolutely loves it.  He and his boss (our “South Carolina Dad/Grandpa”, Mike Jette) have begun transitioning roles a bit more to open the way for Mike to eventually retire.  Carroll Financial opened an office in Rock Hill in February, so that means much less driving to Charlotte, AND his office has the best view of downtown Rock Hill!  (He often comes home and says, “I have the best job in the world!”) Pastoring is the “fun side gig” he gets to do, and our little church family is a lot of joy to us, especially during COVID.  Ben also remains on the board of directors for Pathways, which serves as a single-point-of-entry facility for those facing homelessness.  Basically, life, work, and ministry are all mushed together, and Ben gets to do a LOT of things he’s passionate about every day.  What a blessing!

Picture: The kids visiting Ben at work in his new Rock Hill office. 

Micah (age 14) has changed so much this year!  He’s gained several inches and dropped at least one octave.  He ran cross-country this year for the first time with the Trailblazers, a homeschool team, and loved it!  Everything for him is about being around people as much as possible.  (Which, obviously, was a little harder to do in 2020, poor guy.)  He’s in 8th grade, enjoys our Wednesday homeschool group (again with the people!), and still loves all things math-related.  Formal Logic this year has been a new favorite subject, and during the time that Ben worked at home during COVID, Micah sat in on as many financial planning webinars as he could. :)  He keeps up with his lawn-mowing business and has fun tracking his own stocks.

Pictures: Playing keyboard for outdoor church in our backyard and running a cross-country race

Caleb (age 11) remains our overly-imaginative goof-ball!  His goal in life is basically to have as much fun as possible and make everyone around him laugh.  He’s in 5th grade this year and usually has his nose in a book.  “Caleb’s Cookies” is still a big success!  (A few financial planners at Carroll Financial pay him to send cookies to their clients on their birthdays.  As a result, he’s often asked to do cookie platters too.)  He gave soccer a try this fall, but wasn’t too horribly disappointed when he had to miss the last game of the season. :)  

Pictures: Sweaty after a soccer game and enjoying Pawleys Island in August on a quick weekend trip.

Abby (turning 9 in less than a month) is all girl!  She loves anything sparkly, pretty, or cute.  She is in 3rd grade and has quite the crew of little giggly friends.  For someone who used to be so shy, she is a total social butterfly now!  Abby’s been taking dance classes (ballet and jazz) which she loves.  Animals and babies have a special spot in Abby’s heart… she’s either going to have a houseful of kids or a houseful of cats someday!  (Or both!)

 Pictures: Abby was the flower girl in her cousin Kelsey’s wedding in June; making gingerbread houses at Grandma Bender’s house in November.

I (Janelle)... (Age undisclosed, but I’m not too far behind Ben :)) still love being home with the kids and (most days) love homeschooling!  Maybe it’s because the kids are older and can do more work by themselves, or maybe it’s because I just love figuring out routines and schedules and to-do lists, but the last two years I feel like we’ve found a bit of a “sweet spot” in our daily school-life rhythm.  I stepped down from directing our Classical Conversations homeschool group this past summer so that I could take on more administrative work for our church, but I am still very active in our group and enjoy teaching an afternoon class on writing and English grammar.

The Haiti Kids - YES, we ARE still adopting from Haiti!  We started this process in March 2015, and Haiti has had our paperwork for almost 5 years now.  We have officially won the award for the longest wait our adoption agency has ever seen!  (Not the award we were hoping for!)  We knew going into it that it would most likely be at least 4 years, so the wait is not a surprise, but rioting in 2019 and COVID in 2020 has really slowed the process down even more.  Although we’ve asked for two siblings ages 5 and under at time of referral, we’ve been told we may end up getting a referral for just one child since orphanages in Haiti have such a hard time getting files ready.  Twice now we know of files for kids that we were being considered for, but they ended up being referred to another family.  The (hopefully) good news that we received just a couple of weeks ago is that there is a file Haiti has supposedly “unofficially” matched us with, and our adoption agency thought we might even get the official referral before 2020 closes out.  That’s all we know, so we will just wait and pray... and, knowing the track record of international adoption, especially through Haiti, I’ll believe it when I see it!  We’re still very much at peace with whatever timing the Lord has for our adoption.
BIG UPDATE!!!!  I wrote those words on Thursday evening… and today (Friday morning), we actually received our referral!!!!  Because we cannot share anything publicly for another couple weeks until Haiti receives our “official yes” paperwork, that’s about all I can say for now.  I CAN say that it is a referral for TWO kids, and they are little. :)  It will probably be close to a year before they can come home. Can’t wait to share more with all of you!

Vineyard Church of Rock Hill - Our sweet little church is so precious to us!  One thing we really had going for us as we entered 2020 is that we know how to be flexible!  We felt the Lord lead us to a house church-like model back in the summer of 2018 (meeting in 3 different fluid locations each Sunday for 3 weeks out of the month, with the 4th Sunday being one big corporate gathering again.)  With the onset of COVID this year, we have done a combination of Zoom and in-person gathering, sometimes outside, sometimes indoors spread out in a larger space.  Everyone studies the Scripture during the week to bring their part to our “group sermon” which Ben generally leads, and we’re experimenting with different ways we can each lead out in worship too.  It’s different than any other model I’ve ever been a part of it, and it may change again once COVID dies down, but it’s actually been a really sweet, soul-filling time!  We’ve had some new, awesome friends join us this year, and we also lost one of our dearest friends, Robby, to a sudden heart attack.  Through it all, the Lord has been faithful, and really, really good!  (Like he always is!)

Picture: some breakout prayer groups during backyard church.

I hope this holiday season is blessed for each of you, my friends!  As we say so long (and good riddance!) to 2020, may your new year be full of the Lord’s presence!

Love, 

Janelle (for Ben, Micah, Caleb, and Abby too)

Christmas "letter" 2016!

Herein lies the Christmas card-turned-letter-turned-email that I am sharing with our family and friends this year:

Merry Christmas, friends!!

I’ve had “order Christmas cards” on my list for a few weeks now... and since that didn’t get done, it turned into “write Christmas letter” ... and now with Christmas a few days away, it’s looking a little more like “Here’s your Happy Holiday Email!” We have so many dear friends and family spread out over so many states that I really do want to keep in touch; we’re just frankly pretty bad at it. :) But that doesn’t mean we do not love or miss you any less!

2016 has been a good year for our family over all. Here are a few highlights:

Ben – still loves working bi-vocationally. Monday-Thursday he drives to Charlotte to work at Carroll Financial with our good friend (and “South Carolina Dad”), Mike Jette. Mike is a financial planner, and Ben is on his team. Ben has passed his Series 7 and 66 tests (if anyone knows what that means!) and is on his second course (out of seven) in order to be a CFP (Certified Financial Planner.) So he works with numbers and spreadsheets by day, writes sermons and administrates church “business” by night/weekend, and studies thick books about math on the side... if you know Ben, you know this is right up his alley. He’s still the “fun parent” who plays and wrestles, and he’s got big fans in three little people at home!

 

Taking Abby on a birthday date last January

Bedtime snuggles with Dad

Janelle – Spring 2015 through spring of 2016 was probably the busiest I’ve ever been in my life, mostly because of the adoption paperwork and fundraisers that I added onto my pile. (More about the adoption in a bit.) Once our dossier was submitted early this past year, and our HUGE Both Hands fundraiser finished in March, and our homeschool co-op/schoolwork was done early April, I suddenly was like, “What in the world do I do with my life now??” It felt like I should still be running 100 mph, and my body let me know it! I spent over a month feeling sick as all the stress decided to work its way out. So two things I learned and have finally put into practice the remainder of the year: 1) I need time away from my kids, and I shouldn’t feel guilty about that! and 2) My body needs to exercise! We reworked our schedule, and I have thoroughly enjoyed going to the Y all by myself a few days a week. It keeps me happy, and we all know that a happy mama makes for a happier household. :) Besides all that, I still truly love homeschooling our kids (and I still like my kids too... most of the time!) ;) Our Classical Conversations co-op is a huge blessing to me, and I just love learning along with my children. Homeschooling is one of those topics I could talk about forever.... so I’ll stop now.

 

Seeing "The Nutcracker" with Abby

Micah – is in the 4^th grade. He turned 10 this October and thinks he is going on 30. :) He is a true “oldest child.” He remains the most social of my children and wants to be with people all the time, never missing out on anything fun. In many ways, he is just a smaller version of his father... He makes charts and spreadsheets and keeps statistics of his basketball shots. He thinks up business plans, and figures out how much money he needs to save now to retire early. (I kid you not.) He asked me to buy him a book on Algebra so he can “look ahead.” (He’s already working a year ahead in math, and that’s the one subject I never have to teach him – he looks over the lesson and just gets it.) I’ve often found he and Ben laying in his bed before bedtime discussing such interesting topics as stocks and bonds. This year, he also started the writing and grammar-intensive portion of his homeschool that I have been dreading because I thought his math-wired-brain would hate it... but he has actually risen to the occasion and likes it! He’s writing papers and parsing sentences like a champ, and I’m so pleased with his work ethic. He still loves Star Wars and all things sports-related. Much to Ben’s chagrin, he has become a Steelers fan. (That’s his Maryland cousins rubbing off on him... he’s come to the dark side!) He’ll be playing basketball at the Y again this winter, and his hero is Stephen Curry. Micah has a big heart to do what is right and is a champion of justice, and I know the Lord will use those qualities to do a lot of good in this world.

Looking like a sharp-dressed man for a wedding

Caleb – is in 1^st grade and turned 7 in September. How does one describe Caleb exactly? He marches to the beat of his own drum for sure. He has typical 7-year-old-boy humor, so anything is funny if it has the word “fart” in it. He has an irrational fear of balloons for some unknown reason. He spends most of his spare time coming up with elaborate Lego creations or drawing out ideas to build in Minecraft. He loves to be around people too, but usually retreats at some point to get his alone time. He is also a full fan of Star Wars and quotes movie lines on a regular basis. He is usually the first of all our kids to offer to pray for someone. He talks a lot about our Haiti kids, and wonders out loud if they are hungry or feel sad. When he prays for them, he usually asks God to give them a hug since we aren’t there to do it. His sensitive heart has struggled with not having a “best friend” since moving to South Carolina, but we’re doing a better job about getting him around some boys his own age (not just Micah’s friends), and he’s loving that. He’s pretty sure he wants to be an astronaut when he grows up.

Sharp-dressed man number 2

Abby – will be five in just a few weeks! I don’t know if it’s because she’s our only girl or because she’s the baby of the family, but she still seems pretty adorable to all of us, and she’s the princess of the family for sure. With the exception of her Dad and grandpas, she would prefer that the entire grown male population be wiped off the planet (or at least not acknowledge her existence.) Ben hopes it stays that way. She has an amazing imagination and everything she plays with (dolls, pipe cleaners, a piece of trash from the ground) takes on a personality complete with dramatic voices. She loves to color, snuggle (best snuggler in the family by far!), and play with the neighborhood cat, Mojo (“Jo Jo” as she calls him.) Although she’s not officially in kindergarten yet, this is her first year joining in a classroom at Classical Conversations and she LOVES the songs and memory work. Most days, she and Caleb alternate between being best buddies, worst enemies, and partners in crime.

Adoption news – As most of you know, we began the process last year of adopting children from Haiti. We have requested two children ages five and under, and although we could end up with just one, chances are we will get two since we are willing to accept two. (Yes, they will be siblings since in Haiti you can only adopt more than one child at a time if they are biological siblings. No, we do not know who they are yet. Under the Hague convention, you can no longer request a particular child – or at least it’s 1000 times more difficult!) It took nearly a year to complete our home study and dossier information. I tell you what, the adoption process is NO JOKE! It’s a good thing we are requesting two kids at once because I don’t think I could talk myself into going through all this work again for a second go round. Our dossier was submitted to Haiti in March of this year, and we just did our one-year updates of our home study and immigration approval. Unfortunately, we will probably have to do the updates AT LEAST two more times since our expected timeline for a referral (according to the current rate of forward motion) is March 2018. But that’s okay; in the event that we DO get a five year old, I would prefer Abby to be closer to 7 before we bring our Haitian kids home.

For us, adoption also comes with a lot of fundraising and grant-applying. We’re willing to put everything we have into it, but the cost of adopting two kids from Haiti is almost definitely going to be over $50,000. If I wasn’t 100% sure this is specifically what the Lord has asked our family to do, I would have said “No way!” a long time ago just because of the price tag. But He always pays His bills. :) We’ve received grants from both Lifesong for Orphans and Show Hope, and we’ve had a couple of great fundraisers this year (a HUGE garage sale with lots of help from friends, an on-going coffee fundraiser through Gobena coffee, and our Both Hands fundraiser.) I could write paragraph upon paragraph about our Both Hands fundraiser alone in which we had about 50 people working together to fix up a widow’s house here in Rock Hill. It was simply amazing and God-ordained, and I cried lots of tears of joy as I saw so many people being the hands and feet of Jesus to not only us, but also to Ms. Nat, the widow we helped. To date, we have raised over $20,000 through this fundraiser. It was a doozy to organize and pull off, but so, so worth it!

Some of the dear friends who helped at our Both Hands project

Vineyard Church of Rock Hill - It’s hard to believe that it’s been over three years since we moved to Rock Hill, SC, to plant a church... and our church has been holding Sunday morning services for almost two years. I was flipping through an old journal the other day, and found the first entry where I prayed specifically about Rock Hill as we began to discern that this might be the town where the Lord was calling us. The passage I had read that day was Joshua 24:11, “So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant...” and it struck me how much that verse has applied to us in these first couple years of church planting. We truly have experienced a “Vineyard” being planted that we ourselves have not had to toil and work for. It feels like the Lord simply had people ready and waiting for us with a similar vision and heart, and we haven’t had to run ourselves into the ground trying to get started. We are past the “honeymoon” stage of having a new church, but despite all the “horror stories” we’ve heard, our team is still together (AND we still like each other! At least as far as I know) :) and no one wants to throw in the towel. We were able to tell our outside financial supporters that they could stop giving a few months early because we became self-sustaining earlier than we anticipated. The past two years have really been an experiment in many ways... is it possible to have a church that has practically no programs and no “machine” to run? Could people be inspired to seek out community with each other even if there aren’t pre-manufactured “community groups”? Can we encourage others to take ownership of their own discipleship rather than depending on church staff or church-run programs to feed them? Can we have a church simple enough and Spirit-led enough that folks don’t burn out from doing too much and we don’t need full-time staff or a building and everyone truly does “get to play” and we can give away most of our money to things close to the Father’s heart? Well, the experiment still continues, and we are far from having all the answers to those questions, but we have found a lot of joy in the process. We feel like we are exactly where God wants us to be at the moment, and we want to stay sensitive to whatever He wants us to do.

Surprise, surprise, this email has turned out much longer than I originally intended! Overall, I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to each of you and to let you know that we love and miss those of you who live far away from us! I pray your holiday season is blessed with the presence of Jesus and that your new year is a fresh new start in all good ways.

Love,

Janelle for all the Gansons (Ben, Micah, Caleb, and Abby)

A few links:

About our Both Hands project: https://bothhands.org/project/ganson-236

Our Gobena coffee fundraiser: http://www.gobena.org/stories/ganson-adoption-fund/

Vineyard Church of Rock Hill: http://rockhillvineyard.org/

Our “official blog” I never update anymore but probably will someday: http://gansonfive.blogspot.com/

The blog I OCCASIONALLY update but is purely a scrapbook for our family and has nothing of substance except pictures of the kids and a list of what we’ve been doing as a family: http://gansonfamilyscrapbook.blogspot.com/

Adoption FAQs

As our Both Hands project comes to a close, I'm getting lots of questions about our adoption, so I thought I would post a few FAQs here for easy reference.   As of today, we have raised just over $16,000 through Both Hands!    It's not too late to give... just visit https://bothhands.org/project/ganson-236 

But first, here is a short 5-minute video about our Both Hands project.  Be sure to watch all the way to the end to see Ms. Nat, who is so sweet:

 Ganson Family Both Hands Project on March 19th, 2016

FAQs:

Q:How much money do the Gansons need to raise?

A:The total cost for them to adopt two children from Haiti will be between $45,000-57,000.  They have received some grants and have paid a good bit themselves already, so they really only need another $20-29,000 to finish paying for all the adoption costs.  (That means that, from this point, another $4,000-$13,000 raised through Both Hands would give them everything they need!)

Q: What happens if the Gansons end up getting more money than the amount they need?  (i.e. If their Both Hands project raises  $27,000, but their adoption costs end up only totaling $25,000?)

A:A couple things could happen.  First, the Gansons could actually be reimbursed from Both Hands for some of the adoption costs they have already paid themselves personally (approx. $14,000). This would obviously be a huge help for them to get some savings back as they prepare to add 2 more kids to their family...or they could use it on certain things that aren't officially considered "adoption expenses" (i.e. vaccinations recommended for overseas travel, certain in-country expenses when they travel to Haiti, etc.)  If by some miracle the Gansons raise enough money to pay all their adoption costs AND be reimbursed for previous adoption expenses, the remaining money would be given to other adopting families who are doing Both Hands projects.

Q: Does all of my donation go to the adoption expenses?

A:YES!  Both Hands raises money for it's operating expenses separately so that 100% of the money that comes in via this fundraiser can go toward the cost of the family's adoption.  The one exception is if you pay online with a credit card or paypal, a percentage of that will be deducted to pay the credit card/paypal fees that they charge Both Hands.  Both Hands doesn't use this money; it's only for the fees the credit card charges.

Q:How did you pay for all the materials on the work day?

A:Everything was donated or underwritten by local businesses.  Most of the work we did was labor-intensive, although approximately $2,000 worth of supplies were donated!  (Donating businesses are listed at the end of the video.)

Q:Is my gift tax-deductible?

A: Yes!  Both Hands is a 501c3 organization and all gifts are tax deductible.

Q:What if I want to give, but can't now?

A:The Ganson's Both Hands account will stay open until their children are home and the adoption is finalized.  (This could take up to another 3 years unfortunately.)  So anyone can give any time until then!  (Just visit https://bothhands.org/project/ganson-236)

Q: Where are the Gansons at in the adoption process?  What does the timeframe look like?

A: They started the process last March (2015).  Their home study and all the paperwork US-side are done, and their dossier was sent to Haiti.  Their paperwork officially entered the central social services agency in Haiti on March 9, 2016, so now the long wait begins for them to receive their referral.  It is estimated to be another 1-2 years before they receive a referral, and a total of 2-3 years before their children come home. (This actually works well for them because they have requested 2 children ages 5 and under, so in 3 years, their youngest biological child will be 7, leaving a nice age gap between her and the oldest adopted child, if they get a 5-year-old.)  Janelle has a goal to update this blog sometime this summer with all the "God-things" that have happened since they said "yes" to this adoption: http://gansonfive.blogspot.com/, and this will be the place they write adoption updates as they progress.  

Q: Why is adoption so expensive, especially when kids are in desperate need of a home?

A:  To adopt one child from Haiti, it would cost approximately $30,000.  To adopt 2, it will cost between $45,000-57,000.  (The difference mostly depends on which orphange the children end up coming from and whether they double fees for sibling groups or not.)  There's no great answer to this question, except that it is a very long legal process that involves "checks and balances" at what feels like every government agency at local, state, and national levels - in two different countries!  In some ways, it helps to weed out those who aren't serious about taking on the challenge of raising a child from another culture, and it definitely helps to deter those who might have ill-intent.  The main goal is to protect children (who have already suffered trauma of one kind or another) from being placed in harmful situations.  Someone once said, "It feels like you're paying a ransom for the kids," and the thought hit me (Janelle), "That's exactly what we're doing.  We are paying a ransom for their lives, and I'm okay with that.  If it was one of my biological kids who was left orphaned in a third world country, I would move heaven and earth to pay whatever I needed to to get them home!" 

Q: Why is the process so long to adopt from Haiti?

A:  There are two answers to this: For one, they are a third-world country, and things just don't operate like they do in the US.  Their central social services office that oversees all adoptions in Haiti doesn't even have air-conditioning (and loses electricity several times a day), and there is no "online" way to match parents and children... it's all paper and pen.  Offices run out of ink for a month at a time, or things close down because of political unrest.  It can be a mess.Secondly, Haiti joined the Hague convention in 2014, which overall is a good thing that ensures adoptions are done well and with integrity (to cut down on child traffiking), but as they have tried to transition to the new system of doing things, it has bottle-necked many of the applications, making the wait time longer "than normal."  The Gansons are okay (at this point!) with the long wait, since they wanted their youngest biological child to be a little older when her siblings come home anyway.  

Q: What did you accomplish on your work day at Ms. Nat's house?

A:  Projects we completed:

• Took out the back door which was rotting and not closing correctly and replaced it with a brand new door (door donated by Home Depot)
• Replaced three windows and reframed them (windows reduced priced from Lowes; paid for by Ecclesia construction)
• Fixed framing on other windows (supplies paid for by Ecclesia and Vineyard Church of Rock Hill)
• Scraped and painted all trim and cement on the house (all paint donated by Home Depot, painting supplies paid for by Ecclesia)
• Repainted the front porch and outdoor furniture (spray paint donated by Lowes)
• Landscaped the yard and flower beds/planted flowers (flowers donated by Lowes, Wilson's Nursery, and Sheila Sanders)
• Cleaned out the attic, shed, back porch, and other areas of the house and hauled off all the trash: 2,870 POUNDS worth!
• Tore down and hauled off wooden structures outside
• Added railings to steps on the back 
• Replaced crawl space door
• Repainted the front door and mailbox
• Cleaned out and repainted kitchen cupboards, put down liner, washed and organized contents
• Deep-cleaned most areas of the house (wash windows, flip mattresses, dusting behind furniture, etc.)
• Organized office nook
• Replaced all blinds
• Sprayed perimeter of house for bugs and weeds (spray donated by Lowes, weeds were sprayed by a lawn-maintenance worker nearby who caught on to what we were doing and wanted to help too! :))
• Basic HVAC maintenance

Q: What is Both Hands?

A: 

 The short answer is:  Both Hands is 501(c)3 non-profit organization “serving widows, orphans and adoptive families.” Both Hands helps families raise funds for their adoptions while serving a widow through home improvement projects. ( A hand for the widow, a hand for the orphan.)  Visit https://bothhands.org/about/our-story for the amazing story behind this incredible organization!

Ben & Janelle Ganson - Both Hands

Ganson Seven

We started this blog back in 2013 when we began the process of moving to South Carolina to be a part of a church plant. We titled it "Ganson Five" because we had 3 kids at the time and weren't planning on any more in the near future. It is amazing how quickly things change!

We have had it in our hearts since the beginning of our marriage to adopt. But with the move to SC and all the other things on our plate, we thought it would be a while until we would be able to adopt a child. We also thought we would adopt domestically, possibly through foster care to keep costs low. But in  February of 2015 my wife took at trip to Haiti and the Lord convicted her that this was the place we were supposed to adopt from, AND that we were to adopt 2 kids! 

This is obviously a HUGE financial step of faith. But one day when I was praying and complaining to God about spending $50,000 on our adoption, this thought popped into my head- "Ben, you didn't have any problem spending $100,000 on your house. You didn't stress, you didn't lose sleep, you didn't complain. You made that decision without much deliberation or concern at all. Why are you stressed about spending half the cost of your house to take in 2 kids from the poorest country in the western hemisphere?" 

And then I come across videos like this about how kids in Haiti are eating mud pies, and I gain even more perspective. 

So we need lots of help and prayer from friends, family, and even people we don't know. Here are some practical ways you can help:

1. Donate items to our yard sale. We are having a huge yard sale on October 9-10 and are looking for things to sell. Email Janelle at janellieganson@yahoo.com if you want to donate.
2. Donate through our "Both Hands" fundraiser. We will be doing a big service project on a local widow's house and raising financial support for our kids at the same time (watch this video, if you want a better idea of what Both Hands is all about). The project won't take place probably until the spring, but we have an account and can receive tax deductible gifts through Both Hands at any time.  Once we have a date set for the project, you can donate through our Both Hands website, but until that page is set up, here's how to give:

Mail checks payable to:

Both Hands

PO Box 2713

Brentwood, TN 37024

Attach a piece of paper indicating your giving preference is “Ganson #236 adoption”   

      3.  Purchase an item on this website by October 1. You will receive a 20% discount, and 20%                of your purchase will go to our adoption when you use the promocode "gansonfamily."

We will probably have other ways to support the adoption costs in the future (we're looking at a fair-trade coffee fundraiser as well, plus there will be other things that pop up.) Thanks in advance for your support and for helping us move from Ganson Five to Ganson Seven!

Ben and Janelle Ganson

August 27, 2015

We're still rolling along!  We may be sweating bullets in this Southern summer, but overall, life feels good.   Like Psalm 16 says, it feels like the boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places for us. :)

Backyard party!  When the sun went down it was *only* 85, and the mosquito spray worked enough to make them bearable! :)  

Slip-and-slide party after church at the Zieber's.  This day was actually only in the mid-80s and had lower humidity.  I'm telling you, when someone plans a party, God smiles on us. :)

Sunday mornings feel great - I've loved the churches I've been apart of over the years, but I've never felt as energized by a Sunday service as I have these past few months.  Not because they are so perfectly done, but because it feels like the Holy Spirit meets us (or at least me!) on a weekly basis.  It feels like a big family breakfast every Sunday, followed by some really genuine worship.  Karl and Lindsey and our other worship folks (Jason and Kyle) are doing an amazing job.  And then... I have to brag... I love hearing my husband speak.  He may not agree with this all the time, but he's a REALLY GOOD communicator.  And when he gets to talk about things he's passionate about, look out folks. :)  (We have a few other guys who preach here and there too, so Ben isn't overwhelmed.)  If you ever need a sermon to listen to, you can find (most) of our's on the website under "Sundays"... http://rockhillvineyard.org/  (They don't always get recorded... like I said, Sunday mornings don't always go perfectly) :)

Sunday mornings at the YMCA.  

(We never know what the room will look like when we set up on Saturdays.  The Y used this room during the summer for kids' summer camps that had a Star Trek theme.  So we had Star Trek decor and streamers and stars hanging from the ceiling these past few months!)

The BEST news about our church, however, is that we are planning our first baptism!  Sarah, who Lindsey befriended several months ago, has been really consistent about coming Sunday mornings with her daughter, and a few weeks ago I had the privilege of praying with her as she decided she wants to be "all in" with Jesus.  I love her testimony... she said that as a kid, her Mom would sometimes take her to church and it was the one place where she felt like everything was going to be okay.  So years later, when Lindsey invited her to church, Sarah felt like she wanted her daughter to experience that same thing.  Sarah felt like she "belonged" with us even before she fully believed, and when Ben preached his first sermon in a short series on the gospel, she said, "I want that!"  The power of the gospel is a beautiful thing!  We have lots of other friends who haven't decided to follow Jesus yet, including some friends who come every Sunday, but we see the Holy Spirit at work, and we wait to see what He will do next.

Sarah (on the left) and Lindsey.  This is a horribly blurry picture, but I took it right after Lindsey and I went with Sarah to get her driver's license!  We went out to lunch to celebrate and none of us could stop smiling. :) 

On the Ganson homefront, we are totally done with our home study for the adoption.  Woo hoo!  I've sent off three applications to different grant organizations, so I'll hopefully hear back from them in the next couple of months, and we're slowly working on our dossier.  We met with a psychologist today to be interviewed so he can write a letter stating that we are competent to care for children.  Good news!  Turns out we are!  (I know that's a relief for our current children.)  :) We're planning a yard sale for October, and I have a sweet friend who is doing a very cool fundraiser for us right now through her shop, http://melodyjoy-designs.com/.  From now until October 1, using the promo code "gansonfamily" gets the shopper 20% off their purchase AND Melody is donating the same amount to our adoption.  I love that she's doing a fundraiser for us when so many of her products are about parenthood (mama bird nest jewelry for women and leather arrow cuffs for Dads - like "arrows in the hands of warrior are sons born in ones youth")  Here is a link to the event page about the fundraiser if you want more info or want to help spread the word!  (You may have to cut and paste it - I'm not sure if it's linking right)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1468761036759955/

AND...  Ben passed his Series 7 test with flying colors!  Big YAY!!!!  So many hours of studying and concepts that I can't even begin to comprehend... and now he's done!... well, sort of.  He actually has to take another test (The Series 66) by November to pass all the state requirements, now that the federal requirements have been met.  But that one shouldn't be as much of a doozy as the test he just took.  THEN he will be a "Registered Representative" and can actually take on and advise clients.  (He will NOT be a Certified Financial Advisor as I stated in my last blog post... that's laughable now that I understand more of how it works.  There's a lot of experience needed there - and a much harder test to pass - before he would have that title.  But he doesn't need it as long as he's working under Mike, who is a CFA.  Ben may someday tackle that years down the road if it's beneficial, but that's not on the radar screen anytime soon.)  Anyway, we went out to eat last night to celebrate.  I posted this on facebook, but I'll share it here too.  Our kids like to party... and they did NOT get their dance moves from me. :)

And while we're on the subject of our kids, I'll go ahead and post their "first day of school" pictures.  Actually, this was something like their 29th day, since we worked some over the summer, but this was their first day of our homeschool co-op for the year. 

He wants to be in business with his Dad. :)  Last year, he said he wanted to be a farmer when he grows up.. sorry, Grandpa Bender and Uncle Kenton!  You've lost a future employee.  (This is what happens when your children are actually clones of your husband...)

Where we are... the church and the Gansons :)

I suppose, after 3 1/2 months of regular Sunday morning services, it's about time I update what's going on in our neck of the woods!

We've been in South Carolina now almost a full year and a half, and not only can I (usually) find my way away Rock Hill without a GPS (a minor miracle in itself, considering my genetics), but this place is actually starting to feel like home.  (Or at least, one of them.  For me, it feels like I still have three homes... Maryland, Ohio, and now South Carolina.)  It's an odd sensation of relief that I feel "comfortable," balanced with a tension that I don't want to be "too comfortable" and lose some inner passion about why we are called here.

To sum up what we've experienced in the church these past few months, it has been AWESOME.  I know there's some of the "fresh adventure" excitement still going on, but I can't get over how fun this time has been and how clearly God has been moving.  I really, really love our church!  We have roughly 40-50 people coming Sunday mornings (we don't actually count, but I think that's about right), and there are a lot of families on the "fringe" who are involved in our lives during the week or who might come once in a while on Sunday mornings or who just aren't interested in "church" yet but we have relationships with.  Most importantly, we see discipleship happening... "iron sharpening iron", strongholds being broken down, practical outpourings of God's love to both fellow believers and those who don't know the Lord yet.  

One of the coolest things is to see how God has lined up just the right people for our church.  We knew coming down here that He would have to have people prepared for us, and He has not disappointed!  There are a handful of families who, from the time they walked in the door, it felt like we all looked at each other and said, "Oh, there you are!" as though we are long lost friends.  These are families who have had a vision in their hearts of a group of people who value community, who want to live missionally in their neighborhoods and workplaces, who pursue simplicity for the sake of generosity, and who want to live in a way that allows "margin" for the Spirit to use them where He sees fit.  Families who don't want to be content with a "normal" Christian life, but are willing to let God take them out of their comfort zone and answer the call to do "radical, mundane things."  If you get VCRH's newsletter, you're introduced to one of these families each month.

On a very practical level regarding Sunday mornings, we never dreamed that VCRH would be this "far" this early in the game.  Somehow God has given our church a total of four other people (besides Ben) who have taught Sunday mornings, so Ben hasn't had to prepare a sermon every single week. Our worship team started out with just Karl and Lindsey Bucher, and the Lord sent us an awesome drummer right away, plus another gifted musician who can play multiple instruments and used to lead worship at a Vineyard in Washington.  Financially, we had anticipated this year having a significant deficit since we are small, and we assumed we would have to rely heavily on the support we raised outside the church to see us through these first three years.  But we have kept things "simple", and the Lord has given us generous people... the giving we received in February and March from people WITHIN our church has met the budget without any outside help.  If this keeps up, we might be able to write our church planting supporters at the end of the year and say, "You can stop giving now!"  As it stands (and we wait to see how the trend continues), we may have a pretty significant surplus at the end of the year... which means we can move even quicker to giving away our goal of at least 50% of what comes into the church.  Thank you, Lord!

And now, about us personally... Since the beginning, we wanted to foster a church that was not only simple but encouraged the idea that "everyone gets to play"... instead of a church where people expect the staff to do all the work of feeding them and "running the show" with lots of programs and "extras".   Along those lines, we prayed that if the Lord wanted Ben to work bi-vocationally that he would provide the right job for him. What a financial blessing it could be to a church if it was able to operate well with part-time staff!  And what a blessing it could be to a pastor to be able to naturally maintain relationships outside the church through the workplace.  It looked bleak at first, as the only part-time work Ben could find paid very little.  But it feels like the Lord may have opened a door in this area of our lives as well.  

Several months ago, one of the members of our church (Mike Jette) approached Ben with a "proposition."  He has been a certified financial planner for 20+ years, and works for Carroll Financial Associates in Charlotte, a very quality firm in the second largest banking city in America.  He was overwhelmed with his client load and wanting to make more "margin" in his life for travel and other ministry.  He knew Ben's educational background was in business and finance, so he wondered if Ben would want to come work for him part-time.   It quickly felt like the Lord confirmed this move in our hearts, so now Ben is helping Mike manage his clients and do all sorts of administrative details.  Mike is paying for Ben to take the Series 7 test that would give Ben the credentials of a Certified Financial Advisor.  Ben still has months of studying to do before he's ready for that, but once he becomes a CFA, he can take on clients of his own or just continue to support Mike and his clients.  It's ironic that this is probably what Ben would have been doing if he had not become a full-time pastor out of college... but in that case, it would have been much harder to start "from the ground up" with no clients instead of having someone take you under their wing and hand you what you need.   

And Ben absolutely loves it!  He comes home everyday sharing stories about good conversations they had with clients.  If clients are willing, at the end of their meetings,  Ben and Mike pray with them about anything going on in their lives.  I love that in a business arena where there can be a lot of greed and materialism, Mike and Ben get to operate under different principles, even if it may mean less money for themselves sometimes, and one of their goals is to help people not base their security on their bank account.  They encourage generosity and live it out in their own lives.  Part of Mike's testimony is that he came to a point in his life (along with his wife, Sharon) when he knew the Lord was asking him to live on much less and give away much more.  They stepped out in faith to do this... and then the stock market crashed.  Yet somehow while so many people in the financial business world were floundering, God kept sending people to Mike out of nowhere and that year ended up being his best year ever.  (I know this isn't how it always works... I'm not a proponent of the "prosperity gospel"... but this is how it happened for him.)  He has story after story of God's faithfulness and how abundant your life can be when money is not on the throne.  He and Ben have such similar hearts in this, and this job has felt like a win-win-win: for us, for Mike, and for the church.  We're excited to see how the Lord uses it in the future.  

And of course, the other big thing happening in our lives right now is the fact that we have begun the adoption process.  (As announced in my last post.)  We've signed a contract with an adoption agency, paid the first payment, and finished our initial home study paperwork.  We'll have a social worker assigned to us soon to start our five home study meetings, and then start on our dossier to send to Haiti.  Most likely, it will be close to four years before we actually bring home our children (we're hoping for siblings), but God is already using this adoption to totally rearrange our hearts.  

Some of you may know that adoption has always been on our hearts.  We planned to start a domestic adoption once we got settled here in South Carolina and felt like the church was going well.  We hadn't even been open to an international adoption because it didn't feel "practical."  We are "number people", and the cost and time of an international adoption felt like it was WAY out of the range of what we could do.  But once the undeniable conviction came that we should pursue an adoption through Haiti, we realized that God was about to take us out of our comfort zone in a whole new way.  

I know it may not be "kosher" to talk about personal finances, but money is a huge part of adoption, and through this process, I've realized that my own feeling of security often came through our bank account.  Not that we ever had a lot of money, but our last year in Ohio allowed us to build a little bit of a "nest egg",  and it's been a long time since I worried that we don't have "enough."   Even while Ben struggled to find a job, and then held jobs that paid little, I could look at our bank account and not feel overwhelmed.   So... yeah... adoption is changing that.  :)  To adopt two children from Haiti, it will cost between $40-45,000, and we don't have ANYWHERE near that.  Our nest egg is already disappearing fast, and will probably be gone before we even get all the paperwork sent to Haiti.  But we're confronted with this thought: Would we obey God even if our bank account got to zero?  Would we trust Him to provide even without a concrete plan?   This is SOOOOO against our nature.  We try to live frugally, to budget, to make all the numbers balance.  Ben is the king of spreadsheets and tracking expenses.  But we can't get away from the feeling that to not pursue this would be to disobey.  And so... as we've "let go"... we have never been so joyful to see our money disappearing!!  I of course have moments of freaking out (when my eyes turn away from God and look too long at the situation), but overall, we have a very deep peace in what we're doing.  (I often feel like the man telling the Lord, "I do believe!  Help me in my unbelief!")

It doesn't escape me that the Lord first spoke to me about Haiti and adopting from Haiti through the story of Gideon in the Bible.   Within a week of announcing we were adopting, we had a series of unusual expenses pop up... expenses from properties we own in Ohio, a mistake with our taxes that means we have to pay out much more than we thought, Micah fracturing his ankle, car repairs, plus other things that took a significant chunk of money... and it was all weird enough stuff that it felt clearly like when the Lord told Gideon, "You're already outnumbered, so let's reduce your army down to just 300 men... and watch me work."  There's something very "Gospel-like" about realizing we don't have what it takes, and God will just have to work it out.

I don't know what the future holds with all this.   I suspect I see some things God might be lining up.  For instance, we can't apply for any grants or loans until our home study is approved, and if my numbers are adding up correctly, it looks like we will have just enough to make it to that point, and then have a little time before the "next payment".  So maybe God will grant us amazing favor with the grants and loans we apply for.  Maybe the timing will work out that Ben will get certified as a CFA and the Lord will send him some major clients just when we need it.  And last night, I discovered an organization I think is amazing called "Both Hands" that raises money for adoption by helping a widow.  (If you want to watch an amazing video, check this out:: http://www.bothhands.org/our-story).  I'm hoping to apply to Both Hands for the very first thing once our home study is approved.  

One thing I know for sure: "Some trust in chariots and some in horses [and some in bank accounts], but we trust in the name of the LORD our God." :)