A few quick notes from Janelle....

• Tomorrow (Wednesday) is Ben's birthday.  The big 3-4!  Someone we recently met said he still looks like 25. I'm not sure if that's good or bad at this point. :)
• I now realize that I don't especially love meeting new people.  I just want to have good friends.  But you have to do one to get to the other!  (I apologize to those of you who knew me from age 2 through about age 21.  Somehow I used to be an extrovert by all appearances, but my theory is that was actually just immaturity.. either that or  I am now a mild introvert by default because "alone time" sounds so foreign and exotic since I have young children.)
• Soccer has been so, so good for our family.  Micah is truly loving it and I feel like there are a handful of really good relationships forming there between some of the other parents and us.  We've got two more games and an end-of-soccer celebration coming up, but we have plans to continue getting together with some of them beyond soccer season.
• We were SO BLESSED last week when a special friend sent us a check and told us to use it for a family membership to the YMCA.  He knew that we were considering it, but I'm not sure he knew how little room we had in our budget for it.  Everyone tells us that summer in South Carolina is kind of like winter up north... you just don't go outside the house (or in this case, outside of air conditioning).  We've been so easily interacting with people the past month or so because of the amazing weather, so we wanted to find someplace we could expect to build relationships INDOORS in the summer.  I've already acquainted myself with a few women in some of the classes (I've only been to two classes, but I already have a new facebook friend from one of them! :))  and Ben is looking into some groups of guys that get together to play basketball.  It feels like this is going to be a really good opportunity for us, both relationally and physically!  Plus, the cool thing is that the night before we found out we were getting this check, Micah had just prayed at bedtime that we'd be able to join the Y.  (He wants to play racquetball with Ben.)  Ben shared about Micah's prayer with a guy at work, and his response was, "Hey, get that kid to pray for me!" :)
• This past Saturday evening was probably one of the most fun evenings we've had since we've been here.  The weather was BEAUTIFUL so we sent out a message to most everyone we know that we were going to meet up at a local playground that has some picnic areas.  Most of OUR new friends couldn't make it, but we had lots of friends-of-friends there, and it was just an awesome evening of hanging out with  15 or so people (plus a whole gaggle of kids).  We even made some new friends at the park.  
• It feels like our net is spreading wide, so to speak.  We (and our other team members) have lots of relationships forming or slowly growing.  It's sometimes hard to know which ones to pursue more intentionally and deeply, and which ones the Lord doesn't plan to go much further.  We'll just keep praying for those people we encounter, and try to follow the Lord's leading in all of this.  We're praying for a lot of "natural" conversations, and this seems to be happening regularly. 
• I'd better be off to bed.  Abby has (another) stomach bug, and I'm guessing a full night's rest is probably not in the books for either of us.  We love and miss you all!