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)
