These are a few of our favorite things...

It's been three weeks since we moved to our new home. I'm the kind that jumps in with both feet and gets familiar with the surroundings right away. Therefore, we've had more than our share of fun in the past few weeks. I thought I would highlight (with pictures even!) some of our favorite adventures so far.

Maci: Anywhere that she can find chocolate, she's happy. Needless to say, she's ecstatic here. We have started a tradition of going outside after naps to have a popsicle for snack. We made some homemade chocolate pudding popsicles one day. It ended up even worse than it looks.

Joel: "The bells," hands down. Each Tuesday evening in June, the campus offers concerts on their carillon, or bell tower. The highlight of the evening for Joel is that after the concert, there is a tour of the tower where you can climb to the top and even help ring the biggest bell. We have

been to the top of the tower five times so far (including during two campus tours), with our sixth and last visit for a while scheduled for this Tuesday.

Jonah: The Science Center was fun, and we all love that it's free. It's near Forest Park, very close to campus. Forest Park also houses the zoo, several museums, Turtle Park, great walking trails, etc. It's a great spot. Also, during our first bell tower concert, we had our first Ted Drewes frozen custard experience. Jonah quickly became a fan.

Darci: We live in a park. What more do I need to say? We explore as much of the 80 acres as we can every day. One of the many favorite places the kids like to visit is the fountain. We've also been enjoying our new shark pool. I'm so thankful to have so much time to spend together.

Micah: His favorite, least favorite, and everything in between is learning Greek, because that's all he does. He's doing great at it, so the time has been well spent. He does make sure to leave at least a little time for snuggling with us, though.

We're looking forward to see what new adventures are waiting around the bend for us. Although our lives are very different than they were a few short weeks ago, we feel so blessed to be on this journey. God is good, all the time.

Blessed Beyond Measure

"My life is a dream," Jonah announced at dinner tonight, while eating his favorite tater tot casserole. Here we are, unemployed, living on a shoestring, we can't get our house to close, we miss our friends and family like crazy, and we'll hardly see Micah for the next ten weeks, but nonetheless, I have to agree with Jonah. Our last nine days here have been nothing short of amazing.

We have met so many incredible people here who jump at the chance to open their hearts and homes to us. Our neighbors have shared their possessions with us, befriended our children, and become our new community in every sense of the word. We have benefitted from the generosity of others through donations of food, and we were able to treat the kids to a shopping spree at the campus second hand store for a grand total of $2.75.

Our kitchen cabinets are piled high, our closets contain enough hand-me-downs to last for years, our gas tanks are full, and our cups runneth over. We truly are blessed to overflowing. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. We really can feel the prayers. Many blessings from our family to yours.

Where to begin...

I'm a little too tired mentally and physically to be terribly eloquent here, but I'll touch on a few highlights of our first few days in our new home. The actual travel went well. The kids were angels. The unloading was a little rougher than expected, but not too bad. We have spent the last two days trying to balance the need to unpack and organize with the need to get the kids accustomed to their new surroundings. So, we've done some sightseeing, played outside a lot, and met lots of neighbors.

We're doing pretty well with getting settled. We still have a long way to go to get everything put where we want it, but we're very comfortable for now. We like our place, and we're having fun in our new hometown. Tomorrow we have our first play date with other seminary families, and we're going to a concert on the campus grounds. As long as the weather holds out it should be a fun day.

Blessings to you and yours!