So, I'm not going to be running the 1/2 marathon any more.  The reason is that the opportunity has come up for me to go to Morocco over that time on a prayer team.  After much deliberation and weighing the pros and cons of staying vs. going, I chose going.  I'm still mostly keeping up with the running just because it makes me feel good. (and I can eat whatever I want)   I'm excited about going and being a part of this prayer team.

Simeon is in Zambia right now.....and that would be Africa for those of you who are less geographically minded.  Tomorrow will be one week that he's been gone and we have another week and a half to go.  I'm doing pretty well and I've been working like crazy which makes it easier not to think about missing him so much.  Last weekend I went to Goshen to a family reunion and the way I made that exciting was that I took my motorcycle.  Simeon is on his little adventure, I needed something to spice up my life.  So there it was.  It actually went really, really well.  I never got bored and 4 hours was just enough.  I'm not going to lie, I did feel fairly proud of myself pulling back into my driveway in Columbus on Sunday evening.
I've spoken to Sim a couple of times and he seems to be doing quite well.  He's there doing data collection for his thesis.  (he's working on a master's in economic development at OSU)  He is there with his adviser evaluating a subsidized drip irrigation process that some farmers have been using.  MEDA(mennonite economic development association) is the group that helped the farmers get going with this irrigation process and they needed it to be evaluated by someone.  Simeon needed a topic for his thesis....so you put the two together and you get a happy Simeon and a happy MEDA.  (And there will be a happy Janelle when he gets to come back)

So there's the update for now.  one of my projects while he's gone is to make placemats for our table.  we'll see how that comes along.

I think I'm going to run the Columbus 1/2 marathon in mid October.  I haven't actually signed up and paid for it yet because I'm battling a sore muscle in my leg that I'm not sure is going to hold out.  I think it will if I do my training right.  I came to this decision a couple of weeks ago because I've been sort of agonizing over when we're going to try to have a baby again.  Should it be ASAP or wait for a while? This is a fairly scary decision for me.  Some of you may not know, but I actually did have surgery a few weeks ago to try and correct some of the issues I'm having with maintaining pregnancy.  Some of the problems were able to be addressed as well as discovering some other issues that we didn't know I had.  In the end I still do have a bicornuate uterus which means that it's heart shaped and still high risk with a higher chance of miscarriage.  Anyway, the soonest possible time to try would be 2 months after the surgery which would put us at the beginning of August.  Well, something tells me that I'm probably not going to be ready to try again that soon.  (I say that with full knowledge that I could change my mind next month, or tomorrow for that matter.)  So I needed something a little more concrete to look forward to so I could tell my mind that I don't have to decide when we're going to try again until after the race.  It gives me something to work hard at and to be proud of.  I tried to run it 2 years ago but ended up having to stop because of a foot injury.  So it would be really cool to actually be able to finish the race.  So, I'm getting into my training regime and it feels good. 

So, I've tried to upload pictures to this thing twice and it's just not agreeing with me.  Maybe I'll try again later.  But in any case, in the last few months we've met some little ones that are very important to me.  My sister Jen had Jacob Henry.  My sister-in-law Rose had Wesley David.  My neighbor and good friend Deborah had Jonathan Keith.  And my other good friend Debbie had Brennan Chase.  Lots of little boys.  My other sister-in-law is due to have her little one in July and hers will be a little girl named Isabella.
I'm very aware of all these little ones and that if things would have gone a little differently they would have had another little buddy named Elijah.  This loss is still very real to me.  Yet in the midst of that I am starting to see........something.  I'm not quite able to articulate what it is at this point but it is good and it involves Jesus being there.