Hello from Texas!!!

Hi everyone!

Its Brittany - I am in Texas!!! Yayyyy. Mark is in a staff meeting right now, and I am sitting in his office. It has been awesome, and I am really liking it! I flew in yesterday, got here about 1pm. I left Lansing at 3:15am, and woke up at 2:45am, yuck!! It was eaaarly, but I could not sleep anyway because I was sooo excited. I flew out of the Grand Rapids airport, first to Dallas, where weather closed the "ramp", whatever that is. It caused a couple hour delay, but I finally made it. I was sooo excited to see Mark. It was really exciting to finally see him and just get a huge hug. I was a little nervous it was going to be weird, just that we have not seen each other in so long (about 10 weeks), and have only talked a couple times in the past two weeks because he has been at camp, but it was not at all, it was completely comfortable and felt "normal" immediately!

We went to this restaurant called Rosas for lunch. Neither of us had eaten and we were verrry hungry. It was a Mexican restaurant, and was good, but no Cancun (our fav restaurant in East Lansing). We sat there and chatted for a while, and then got the tour of Abilene. I don't really know how to describe it, its about the size of Kalamazoo, maybe smaller, and is just a city. It seems confusing, and there seem to be a lot of confusing roads and intersections, but I am sure once I am down here it will be less intimidating (lets hope). We then went to Target to find Mark a new wallet. Unfortunately Mark lost his wallet coming home from camp last week, and that has been quite an inconvenience. But, he has taken all the right steps to fix it, and luckily didn't have much money in there, or anything toooo important. So, he should be getting a new debit card, drivers licence, and Sam's Club card (the essentials) this week. Anyway, then we went to Academy, which is like a Dick's sporting goods store. It was fun - we both loooove those kinds of stores. I got an Abilene shirt, so that's fun! It is like an Abilene Eagles, which I guess is like the high school mascot here, but it is nice, and it will be fun to represent Texas back in Michigan. And it will remind me of Mark :).
So one of the craziest things while we have been here is how God is just using people and things to really encourage me with the whole idea of coming here. Sometimes, I get nervous and overwhelmed thinking of leaving my family and friends, job, house, everything familiar, and coming to this whole new place, and whole new stage of life. I have always been such a homebody, and sometimes get scared. So, we were driving around yesterday and these thoughts like "this will be my new home, like my new Target and new friends" (these people I have never met) were going through my head. Mark has been really great about being so encouraging, and I know that he will take care of me, but it is just a lot of change at once! So anyway, we go next door to where Mark is staying, and this lady Julie is moving, and offering to give us this bed and box springs, and lots of furniture, and she is just so nice. She also tells me there is a new rehab hospital opening soon, with a traumatic brain injury part and everything. She was just so nice, and just spoke so highly of everything down here, and said she would get more info about the new hospital for me. Then, we go to Chick Fil-A because I needed (yes, needed) :) some waffle fries. This lady comes running over and quickly says hi to Mark and gives me a huge hug. She goes on and on about how everyone is so excited to meet me, and have me come down here. She also says how much they love Mark, which is always fun to hear. She tells me about how she just moved down here a couple years ago, and loves it, and she also works at the hospital. Thennn, we go back and meet Craig Young, the dad of where Mark is staying. He is also super nice, and welcoming, and is just a genuine nice guy. Then, we go to Melody's house. This is where I am staying for the week. She has an awesome house, and is just such a nice lady. She was sooo friendly, and nice, and also works for Broadway in advertising, which is like the coolest thing ever. She too talked about how great Mark was, and we just chatted for quite a while. She also was watching the Bachlorette when I walked in, which even though I don't really follow the show too much, my mom and I watch it sometimes and for some strange reason it just made me feel more at home. She gave us a great recommendation for dinner, Jason's deli. It was amazing. I got a huge salad from this amazing salad bar. It was soooo good, and I love salad bars, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! The girl working there asked us where we were from (we don't have the southern accent down yet haha), and so that opened a conversation about living down here, and she too went on and on about how great it was, and was just soo nice. Anyway, long story short, there have been so many people who have been so over the top nice and just made Abilene feel like a wonderful place to live.

Oh! And tonight Mark and I are getting engagement pictures! There is this girl at the church who does photography, and I realllyyyyy wanted engagement pictures, so she is doing them tonight for us! I am so excited!!! We have open gym with the youth group kids at noon (should be interesting), and then tomorrow night is youth group. I am excited to meet these kids, and see Mark in action...I will let you know how it goes. Don't worry Moms, I am taking lots of pictures, and once I figure out how to work Marks Macbook, will post them!

Wow, sorry so long!!!

Love,
Brittany