This month, our very good friends the Lowrances moved away. Sam and Shanelle Lowrance, and their children, Annabelle, 2, and one-year-old Samuel, have been very dear to us in the last year and a half. They were stationed in New Mexico with the Air Force and attended our church here. We became friends almost immediately after we met, largely I think because none of us are natives to New Mexico and although this is a beautiful state, people who have just been relocated here find the lack of trees remarkable. We really enjoyed each other, and Dan and I learned a lot from knowing a couple not much older than us wading through the deep waters of parenting small children, something we hope to do ourselves one day but find somewhat intimidating at the moment. Annabelle and Samuel were very obliging in allowing us to babysit them from time to time with only minimal screaming and crying, and it was helpful to us to see that they survived being under our care for a few hours at a time unscathed. Perhaps, one day, our own children will be willing to put up with us. Their new station with the Air Force is in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, which is good for them because it put them nearer to their families in Alabama and Tennessee, but bad for us, because we had to say goodbye to them. It's always hard to say goodbye to good friends, and it almost made me resolve not to become friends with Air Force people anymore, until I remembered that two of the best friends I have made in New Mexico, Shanelle, and my dear friend Kate, are Air Force wives, and that knowing them was worth feeling sad when they moved away. I am now especially sad to lose Shanelle, who cooked me lots of dinners when I had to stay late in Valencia County (where Sam and Shanelle lived and I work) to cover night meetings, and who trusted me enough as a friend to go out and eat sushi based solely on my assurances that it's really fun to eat raw fish dipped in wasabi. Here is a photo of Shanelle and I before we left on the night of the Japanese cuisine adventure:

And here is a photo of the whole cute family:

Godspeed, friends. We will miss you. Save that guest room for us down in Florida. We like the beach.