An Interesting Article to Create Discussion

Click here for article
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/national/09church.html?ei=5070&en=189228fcbdb045fa&ex=1135314000&pagewanted=all

Many of you may have been hearing, as I have, the many different debates going on this Christmas Season. What is politically correct?
"Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays"? People are wanting to take the meaning of Christmas out of Christmas and put in Holidays instead. That is interesting enough, but I recently heard a radio show that got into a VERY heated discussion regarding mega churches not having services on Christmas. Even the NY times got into the discussion. The above site was for the NY time article that was written. THe spokesman for WIllow Creek here in the Chicagoland area said that they would like to not only allow their volunteers to have time off, but for all to have time with their families.
“If our target and our mission is to reach the unchurched, basically the people who don’t go to church, how likely is it that they’ll be going to church on Christmas morning?” Willow Creek’s Cally Parkinson said, according to the Associated Press.
Interesting question?
Back to the debate that I heard on the radio. Regarding the issue of spending time with family...
Who is our family? In Luke 14:26, Jesus says, "If anyone cones to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes even his own life-he cannot be my disciple." This was the argument made in the debate. If we say we are taking time off from church to be with our family, what are we distinquishing as our family? Of course our parents, wives and children, but is the more important family the family of God? If the head of the family is being celebrated on a day and that is not celebrated, what does that say?
There will always be debate. No matter what decisions are made, someone will always have an opposite opinion. But, as fellow Christians, what do y'all think about this issue? Let me know.
Merry Christmas!

The FINISHED product

Well, after a few hours, and a few strands of lights, the tree is finished. It was fun to have it all up and to finally have our apartment looking like Christmas! After Joel's Greek paper is finished, it will probably feel more like Christmas to BOTH of us. We are looking forward to the Holidays-even though I have to work some of it, but we will still have time with BOTH families-so that will be fun times in INDIANA! Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season, but remembering what it is all about in the midst of getting ready for family and gifts and everything else.

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace."
Isaiah 9:6

A day of Fun together!

Our Saturday started off with sleeping in and then going out to breakfast at...you guessed it-IHOP. International House of Pancakes! It was a great time to get to spend time together before a big day of decorating (for me) and writing a Greek exegesis paper (for Joel). I liked my day better! We didn't think that IHOP would be as busy as it was since when we went it was almost lunchtime instead of breakfast-but we had a great time anyway-yummy breakfast too! We then started looking for the perfect Christmas tree. Now, I am sure there is a whole etiquette and strategy for picking out a Christmas tree. We however don't know what it is-we just have fun looking and smelling them all. It's always a great thing to watch all the people there to get trees. You don't see too many unhappy people there. The place we went had Christmas tree selling down to a science. They had people to carry them out for you and also tie them to your car. Since we have an apartment, we couldn't (and wouldn't ) buy the $100 15 foot tree. We really liked one tree-since we were both taller then it, but didn't figure that would be that great of a tree-so this one is the one we chose. Buying a Christmas tree is a fun event, and a tradition that we love doing. I grew up with an artificial tree (which I see the logic in when I have to clean all the needles up-even through May). ANd Joel grew up getting real trees. It was a place I noticed where most all people come to buy their signature part of Christmas.
Our final product all decorated looked like this...I will do another posting for that.

Another question for you

Did everyone or anyone see or hear about the shooting in the Miami airport on Wed by the Federal Air Marshall? Well, this story hit home for both of us and got us thinking and I just thought I would share it with you all. First of all, when we first moved to Chicago, Joel worked with the Federal Air Marshalls. He didn't actually ride the planes, he did all the computer work for them (top secret security stuff), so he knows a lot of them here in the area. The other part of the story is that that plane was coming from Quito, Ecuador. We made the exact same flight this summer! I am not exactly sure how to feel about the whole situation. I mean, I'm sure we can all agree that it is such a sad situation and absolutely devastating. That is not in question. I mean the Federal Air marshall is trained to take people out, especially if they are at risk for security and safety. This of course generated an on-going conversation for Joel and I. As Christians, how are we to react? Before 9/11 and since 9/11 should we not be taking precautions for security? And especially in the idea of killing those that are a threat (our enemies)-what are we to do? Are we supposed to take the Sermon on the Mount as it is written to 'turn the other cheek'? Is there a limit to turning the other cheek? I won't tell you what conclusion we came to, but I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
Anyway, I was just thinkin...
For more about the story go to www.msn.com

Another one of my favorite things...

I know this is kind of funny, but I absolutely LOVE chocolate chip cookies-all forms of them. I love to make the cookie dough and eat it as well as the cookies with a tall glass of milk. What a better time to talk about cookies than Christmas. Everyone likes cookies right? OK, so maybe not everyone, but most people.
So, WHAT"S YOUR FAVORITE COOKIE?

One of my favorite things!

Since Oprah recently did her "favorite things" show, I thought that I could post some of my favorite things as well. One of my favorite things is MUSIC! I love it! As I am sure most of you do too. I listen to just about any type of music. I listen all the time, especially in the car. I have about a 45 minute trip back and forth to work, so that makes for lots of music listening time. I am one of those people that loves noise. It's kind of hard for me to just have quiet. All of you psych majors and psych people could probably analyze something bad from that, and I know I have issues with being quiet-which is a WHOLE other blog. Back to music...
These are two of my favorite CD's right now. They pretty much just stay in my CD player all the time. the first is Bethany Dillon's first CD-Revolutionaries! She's a young girl-but has HUGE things to say to us all. I highly recommend her.
The other is Caedmon's Call most recent CD-Share the well. It talks about their trips to Brazil, ECUADOR(WOO HOO!) and India. I appreciate this CD so much because I feel like it really captures the essence of need around the world. Since I want to help people in a foreign country and because I have been to Ecuador, I guess I relate wellto it. Plus, I have loved Caedmon's since I was in college.
One of my favorite things-
I highly recommend these two CD's and I promise they are "lighter" than my last recommendation of Crash. (Congrats to Bethany M for seeing it.)
Hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving.

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

Well, today is my dad's birthday. I had planned on posting some really fun pictures, but for some reason, they wouldn't work. Maybe I will try later on. Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to my dad! He's such a great dad and I am so blessed to be his daughter! So, here's a post for you dad! I love you very very much! Happy Birthday!

More pictures

Here's "Uncle Dole" and all 3 nieces-Brianne,Bailey, and Braedyn! Braedyn calls us "Uncle Dole" and "Aunt Tim" (she's still working on saying K and J. But because she calls us that, most of the rest of the family does too! It's so fun! So, we had a great weekend and I think Joel had a good birthday. His mom even made his favorite dessert! Go Ruthie! So Happy (Belated) Birthday to Joel! 30 is just another birthday!

More fun weekend pictures!

This is our oldest niece-Brianne! She's such a cutie!

Fun Weekend (A little belated)

Well, I am going to do a couple of posts with a bunch of pictures from our weekend. We had a fun fun weekend, although much too short. It started with Joel's birthday on Firday! He woke up that day to a fun present from me (I almost couldn't wait till his birhtday to give it to him). A little background...Joel is not a surprise kind of guy. He likes to have things planned and for the most part-that works. But, I wanted to surprise him this year and it worked. Hehad no idea what I was going to do. Anyway, I got him tickets to his favorite musical-Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat!! I was so excited. He had only mentioned it once that it was playing in Chicago and I just happened to get tickets! Yeah KIM! I actually surprised my husband. Well, Joel is 30! It's pretty crazy and doesn't seem to effect him. It looks pretty good on him by the way! So to keep on celebrating, we went to Goshen, IN where Joel's parents live to have an early Thanksgiving dinner and to celebrate Joel's birthday more. He got lots of fun cards from our nieces. Here is a picture of 2 of them. Braedyn is the one on her head and Brianne is the one that Joel is putting something on her head! We have 3 other nieces-one more from this family and 2 in Japan-Sheena and Reenna. There dad works for Toyota and so they are in Japan for 2 years. We miss them! So here is the first of our posts!

Holiness Debate

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while. We had a crazy busy weekend (Joel's birthday, school work, church commitments, visiting fam, etc...). I will post pictures of those things later, but right now I thought I would share something that happened over the weekend and get your opinion. So Joel and I are in the car driving to see his family and, as usual got into an interesting discussion. Now, our discussions range from food to farts, religion, and end of life issues. You never know what we're going to talk about on a roadtrip. Well, during this roadtrip, we discussed religion. Since he is a seminary student and I am not, I tend to bring lots of questions his way, and very often too-especially with work issues. Anyway, I asked him the questions, "Are denominations good, bad, or ugly?" Then I asked, "What denomination do you think has the closest interpretation to the Bible?" As you can imagine, we both had interesting points to both questions. I think (and so does he) that denominations are good and bad. I will explain at a later date. As far as denominations and interpretations...well...maybe I won't go there now either. However, another thing that was brought up is the Wesleyan church. I grew up Wesleyan and although he grew up mennonite, he did go to IWU! We both like the Wesleyan church a lot. OK so I am making this really long, but the final question I thought I would post to you is this...you tell me what your thoughts are: Do you think a majority of the Wesleyan church views sanctification as a ONE TIME EVENT or do you think it is viewed as a LIFELONG PROCESS? I will leave you now with your thoughts...

My Best Friend's Wedding!

My most loyal and best friend Christa Davis got married on October 22 and I was honored to be in her wedding. I met Christa my first year out of college at Asbury and we have been friends ever since. Although we have lived miles about, we have remained close. I hadn't seen Christa in 3 years-since she was in my wedding. It was so great to see her and meet ALL of her family and friends. She married Bart Sims and they live in Evansville, IN. A cool thing is that they met on E-Harmony! He's a wonderful man of God and makes Christa very happy. Most of you probably don't know her, but enjoy the pictures anyway.

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Posted by j3delp

Ohio State still has a chance

Although our Buckeye's have not had a HUGE season, they are actually still in the running for the Big Ten Title! How great would that be with a record like theirs. They had a great win over Illinois (it's crazy we live here and don't root for Illinois) 40-2. Let's hope they can keep it up as they play another Illinois team-Northwestern. Have we mentioned we live about 10 minutes from Northwestern...we don't root for them either.

So as we celebrate Joel's birthday on Friday, let's hope Saturday we can celebrate a win for the Buckeye's!!!

Any other Ohio State fans out there on the edge of their seats?

Soccer Fun!

Tonight was youth group night and instead of having regular youth group, we thought we would make the hike down to North Park University (where Joel goes to school) and watch the soccer game. It wasn't just any soccer game...the Vikings are in the running for the conference championship. Since a lot of our kids like sports, we thought this would be fun. Well, although it was supposed to be warm, it was a little chilly...
The kids were great though and we had a lot of fun. Northpark won 1-0 and they will play their rival-Wheaton for the championship this Saturday. As the pictures show, I think Joel had the most fun of anyone...he plays soccer with a lot of the soccer team guys for fun so it was a sweet win for him too. No game could be complete without a healthy snack from McDonald's (is that an oxymoron or what!?) It was lots of fun!

They did it!

Congratulations to the Chicago White Sox on a great World Series sweep. There's nothing better than a little baseball to bring a family together. We had youth group tonight and then came home to watch the game with a very healthy McDonald's dinner (It's 69 cent cheeseburger day here!).
It was a great game! It's been a great series. Although like I have said, neither Joel nor I are huge Sox fans, we are happy to see some team out of Chicago do something! Our greatest team right now besides the Sox is the soccer team, the Chicago Fire. Anyway, hats off to the Sox. Have I told you that Ozzie Guillen's sons go to North Park University? That's the school that I graduated from and where Joel is in Seminary. Kind of a fun fact for ya! Again, congrats to the Sox and to J. Dye for a well deserved MVP!

Game 3-Whew...!

Well, we were certainly hoping the Sox would win. I didn't think, however, that it would take 14 innings (5 hours and 41 minutes) for them to do it! I guess they just wanted to make it interesting for everyone. I was at work and had a little down time so a bunch of us were huddled in a room. THis was the 9th inning. We went back to check on patient's and then back to watch the game. You can imagine how many times I did this in the course of 14 innings. Needless to say, I am happy they are doing so well-they've certainly waited long enough to get here. One more game and hopefully they will take it. Go Sox!!

World Series Anyone??!!

Just thought I would blog a little bit about the world series. Is anyone watching it? Well, we have watched the last couple of games. I must admit I am not usually a SOX fan. I am actually a north sider (in Chicago that means you are a CUBS fan). Joel is impartial since he is a Cleveland Indians fan. We have gone to a couple of Sox games but both times we have rooted for the Indians. That can be dangerous, but we made it out of the park fine. All that to say that although we may not be actual Sox fans, we are excited that they are in the World Series (even if they did beat the Indians). They have had two great games and we hope they keep it up. Any Sox fans out there?




What do you all think of the series? Does anyone still like baseball out there?

Have you seen this????

I am not sure if any of you have seen this movie, but I highly recommend it. It recently came out on video and DVD. Joel and I saw it when it first came out in the theaters and when we saw it said, "We have to tell everyone we know to see this!" So, from the Delp's-GO RENT THIS AND SEE IT! It really did change the way I look at so many things. Since Joel has been in seminary, there are many things that we have learned about racism and racial reconciliation. Being from a small town in Indiana I automatically thought, "I'm not racist!" I'm a Christian! I am sure many of you have thought the same thing. However, I have found that sometimes we may say and do things that are considered offensive and yes even racist without thinking about it. I ask you to watch this movie. It is very graphic in some areas I will warn you, but I ask you to watch it and then discuss it with someone. I hope that you can get as much out of it as we have and maybe bring into light things that you never thought were there.
I also recommend going to OPRAH.COM. Now, I am not a huge fan of Oprah, I think her thinking system can be a bit...well off base at times, but she does do some good shows about things that I think are very important. She recently did a show with the cast from Crash and I thought you might be interested in seeing some of it. Also, if you don't know what Crash is about, go to crashfilm.com and watch the trailer.
Hope you all get a chance to see this film. You will be better for it. Let me know what you think!

Our Ecuador

As promised, I said that I would post more about our time in Ecuador. The song that goes with this is a song by my favorite group, Caedmon's Call. They traveled to Ecuador and seems were effected much the same way we were. Some of the pictures are hard to see I worn you, especially those of children in the dump. Keep in mind, a lot of these people LIVE IN the dump. There are also a lot of pictures of the landscape, the hospitals we visited, the missionaries we love and just Ecuador in general. If you want to know more, let me know. I hope you all can get a glimpse of the wonderful country and people of Ecuador. Enjoy!

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Posted by heartnursekac

My best friend, my husband

This is one of my nieces Braedyn and my best friend-he just happens to be my husband. I love this picture a ton! It just makes me smile every time I look at it.
I had to write about my husband because, well, I just love him so much. I was so proud of him this weekend as I watched him preach his first sermon in the "big" church. Right now he is doing his internship at our church for seminary. He had preached once before at church, but it was the weekend that most of the congregation was at our church picnic in Wisconsin. Last Sunday, a ton of people were there. His parents and aunt and uncle were also there. We sat right in the front row (no pressure), so we had a front row seat.
I knew that he was going to be preaching on John 13-Jesus washing the disciples feet, but didn't realize how much it would touch me and how I felt he lives out the message he was preaching. The basics of the sermon was that Jesus washed the disciples feet and then sent them out to wash other's feet. He also led by serving. Of all the people I know, I feel my husband is such a servant leader. He is the most loyal friend anyone could ever have. After the service was over, I was just so proud of him. Of course me being so emotional, I started crying. But I realized how truly blessed I am to have the husband I do. I am so excited to see what God is going to do through him.
Thanks Joely for being my husband and my best friend!

Double Trouble!

As I am attempting to clean our apartment for company this weekend, I come around the corner into our bedroom and find that are cutie pie puppies have done THIS! Now granted, they have done many worse things, but I couldn't help posting this because their faces were just priceless. They knew they had done something they shouldn't. They had taken my little puff thing from the bathtub and torn in to shreds all over the room. At least I hadn't cleaned that room yet if you can't tell. It's so hard not to just crack up in the middle of when I am telling them NO! They are just so cute that I really do just start laughing. As innocent as Patah(the white one) seems to be, I am sure she does her fair share of the mischief that they get into. So, that's the dog story for the day! Happy Thursday everyone.

Let me know what everyone thinks of Survivor and CSI this week!

Marathon Anniversary!

Well, I have to brag on my husband and my friends for a little bit. A year ago today, my wonderful husband and my two seminary friends Johnna and Jodi, completed the Twin Cities Marathon! I didn't do much but stand on the sidelines and cheer for them and give them the occasional banana when needed. It was a fun experience for me (I don't know how much fun for them...)
Today we went out the lunch at Yes, Thai; one of our fav resturants and one of the places we all went while they were in training for the marathon. It was fun to catch up and talk about life after the marathon.
So Joel, Johnna, and Jodi, if you didn't know already, I am super proud of you all! You all did a great job. So maybe it's a year later, but it was fun! See you in the spring for a MINI Marathon right??? (That's just my size)!
Congrats and happy 1 year (MARATHON) anniversary!

SUSHI Anyone?????

Well, there are many things we have been introduced to in Chicago. I have mentioned the traffic previously. Other things are culture-almost anytime you walk down the street you are guaranteed to hear 5-10 different languages. We LOVE it! Another thing is a Starbuck's on almost every corner. It's terrible for the purse, but I just can't get enough. But one of my favorite things that we have found here in Chicago is...

SUSHI!!

On Saturday for our date day, we got Sushi from our favorite place called...Sushi Station and then came home and watched Indians play (unfortunately they lost), but we had a fun time anyway. Joel like Sushi too, but I must say I am the connosiere of Sushi in the family. I just can't get enough of the stuff and I sometimes even crave it.

Now some people may be saying that I'm crazy for liking Sushi, and I probably would have said the same thing before I tried it. But after you try it, it really isn't too bad. I think some people get caught up in the name and what it actually is. Don't worry though, not all sushi is raw. And it's actually very good for you.

So here is my blog about Sushi. For those of you that may feel a twinge in your stomach-I apologize, but I had to share this love of Sushi.

Happy Eating!

Thursday's Survivor and CSI!

Did anyone see Survivor or CSI this week? Any thoughts? I am still working on Thursday's so I usually see them after the fact. Just thought I would ask. I'm sure it's another great episode. Although I love that they have a nurse practioner-and I am rooting for her to go MOST of the way. I still love Steph from Survivor Palau-so I am kind of rooting for her a little more! Let me know your thoughts for those of you who are fans!

God is in control!

Well, I probably won't talk too much on the blog about my job because, well, I work in a crazy unit and it's not always the most happy subjects to discuss with people. However, I thought I would share a little bit of what I have seen that last couple of days. For those of you that don't know, I work at University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. I will admit it is not an easy place to work. I see a lot of things that I never thought I would and some things I would rather never have seen. Univ of Chicago is located on the south side of Chicago and is a level one trauma center. That means we get all of the REALLy bad stuff that happens in Chicago and in northern Indiana (like Gary).
The last couple of days I have seen some crazy things. I took care of my first high profile case. It was all over the news about a family caught in a fire in Gary. We received two of the children from the fire. The other case that we got yesterday was a child (15) who was shot 5 times!!! I have felt the last couple of days that I have been on the show E.R. because of the crazy stuff that has happened. We don't always have stuff like this happen, but probably once a week or so. I feel like I could be Abbey Lockheart from E.R. with all that I have been encountering.
I don't know why I am writing this. It's not like we like to see these kind of things or that it is easy to see. In fact, it is VERY difficult. But, I admit it is such a great DAILY reminder of how I am so not in control of anything that happens. I don't always understand why things happen. Most of the days I leave I question a lot of things. I have brought home many questions to Joel about life, death, sin, God, and evil in our world. It's hard. But I know that I am in this hospital for a reason and that this is such a great place to bring Jesus. What better place for Jesus to be than in the midst of fear, loss, and anxiety. I know God brings me to strength daily to deal with what I see. I thank God so much for that and for being able to work in such an amazing place with such amazing people. And I thank God for having such a wonderful husband who deals so well with me when I am dealing with the things I see. He is such a wonderful support and I love him dearly.
I don't write this to make you sad...I promise. I write it to encourage you to give those you love a hug and tell them you love them. I also hope that you all know that GOD, not evil is in control. We all see a lot from hurricanes and tornadoes to abuse and neglect. But I take heart in knowing that the God I serve loves us all. He is in control of our lives so much more than we are and that He knows better than we do what we need! He loves us all so much. Take heart, He has overcome the world!
http://www.uchicagokidshospital.org/ University of Chicago Web site

Patah gets a haircut...

Well, Patah looks (and smells) a little different today. It must be a totally different world for her since she can actually see what she is doing. Now, I would never want to compare our dogs to kids-we are working our way up. We love our pups and although they are a pain sometimes-getting us up early and the occassional "accident" waiting for us when we get home, we really like our additions. I think it's true that they really do make you happy. Sometimes it's nice to come home from a hectic day at work when you feel like everyone hates you and have your dogs happy to see you no matter what has happened. I couldn't help posting this. Sorry if it is goofy to some of you out there, but since we don't have cute kids like a lot of our friends, we have to post something. I would feel bad posting a picture of Patah without Hireq, so here is a picture of them both after a hard day of play. By the way, there names are Hebrew meaning "dot" and "line"-the 2 smallest in the Hebrew language. Don't worry we won't name our kids after vowels!

Busy life or full life?????

This weekend, I (Kim) went on a retreat with about 20-30 other woman from our church. I must admit, I was excited , but a little unsure at what it would be like since all the retreats I have been on have been high school youth group stuff, college stuff, or taking a high school youth group on a retreat. This time I would have to act like an adult which at times can be difficult for me. It turned out to be a great weekend! We had a great speaker named Ruth Hill who mixed the word with a lot of humor. The theme verse for this weekend was John 10:10:

"I have come that YOU might have LIFE, and have it to the FULL."

I realized a lot this weekend and just thought I would share some of it. Number one, I needed to determine if my life was just busy or if it was FULL. For those of you that know me, we are really busy. However, I couldn't help feeling often that I seemed to waste an awful lot of time for being so BUSY. I realized that I fill my life with so many things that I miss out on a full life. I make so many excuses for NOT spending time in prayer, meditation, and the Word because of being busy. The great thing is that God has somehow still been able to use my flaws and shortcomings for His glory and His kingdom, but I couldn't help wondering how much more He could use me if I was seeking to be used.
I don't know about you, but I LOVE noise. As much as I can say that I hate the cell phone ringing, all the beeping at work (which I hear in my sleep some times), I have to have noise in my life. Even when I want to relax and be still, I constantly feel I have to have music on or something. I wonder why? Am I scared to hear what God wants to tell me? Well, I could go on and on, but the bottom line is my life is just...busy, it's not full. It's not always satisfying, just busy. I want more than that, I want to be able to say I have an abundantly full life. I don't want to settle for just having mediocrity in my life. I want more than that. I want life to the full. I can't wait to see what the means and where that takes my relationship with God. I'll keep you updated!
How "Busy" or "Full" is your life?

It' back!

Yes friends! It's back. Survivor time is here! Some of you may have thought that people don't watch reality TV-well, we do! I married someone who loves Survivor as much as I do. We have watched every episode except when they were in Marquesas (I'm not sure the spelling is right.) We didn't watch it because that is the time we were planning to get married (a good excuse huh?)

We are very excited. Unfortunately (like tonight) I work most Thursdays so we will be taping it. Don't know if anyone else loves reality shows (besides Robin), but we do.

Thursday nights are also fabulous because CSI (Las Vegas) is on. The season premiere is next week, but we are still excited. Have a great Thursday everyone!

How long does it take YOU to get home from work?

CRAZY TRAFFIC IN CHICAGO
There are MANY things that we love about Chicago, TRAFFIC is not one of them... I used to think it was bad in Marion when it took me 15 minutes to get to work instead of my usual 7 minutes. It cracked me up when I was home last time and my mom told me that she couldn't believe that she got stuck in traffic in UPLAND! It delayed her in getting to work. Well, I have one that tops Upland. Yesterday after working a 12 hour night shift (7PM-7AM) I managed to take and hour and a half to get home from work. Granted, some of it was my fault because as my husband can agree with, I am seriously directionally challenged. However, once I got to where I knew where I was going, it still took an hour. As you can tell from the pictures, I got a little bored sitting in traffic. I'm sure people probably thought I was crazy snapping pictures in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic-I totally looked like a tourist. If snapping pictures wasn't enough to make me look crazy, I also had my music turned up really loud and was singing to it. That was the icing I'm sure. I have figured out now how to get home without falling asleep. Bad traffic is the worst possible time to fall asleep, but defintely the easiest. Turning up the music is one such was to keep myself awake. The other is watching people around me. It's absoulutely amazing what people do in their cars. Sometimes, I think they think they have tinted windows or something. Yesterday was one of those days as I caught a grown (rather old actually) woman sucking her thumb...and people think I'M weird for taking pictures? I have also seen many a man in a suit and tie pick his nose like nothing else. AAHHHH, the things you can't see (and probably don't want to) in Chicago. Well, I better go to bed now. Have a great day-and watch out for traffic!

My husband and I in Chicago 

A walk down memory lane

Well, first I should probably apologize to Robin for posting this picture, and Brock, but I couldn't help it when I found the picture. It just captures the essence of Robin and how awesome she is. Brock's awesome too, but since I don't know where he is, I am going to focus on Robin.
So, I looked through more pictures today and couldn't help but put myself back in the memories of what those pictures captured. Some good, some...a little crazy, and some, I guess I would just rather not remember. However, when you go back like that, you realize that ALL of those experiences, good and bad, and even ugly make you who you are. I realize had I not had the experiences, I would not be who I am. This brings me to the picture. At the time when I was at IWU and helping with the Search, I feel that was one of the times I grew in my life the most. Not that I didn't fail a lot and not that I didn't screw up, I did, but I also realized that God had so much more out there for me than what I had thought before then. During this time was when I felt God calling me to missions. I met Ken and Robin as well as many others who helped me see who I really was and the potential I had. I did things I never thought I could. So thanks guys. And to each of you reading this (who know me anyway) you have also contributed to my life and I thank you too. OK, well, I think I am going to bed. Have a great Monday everyone!

Look what I found!

I found this picture as I was looking through other pictures that I could post on our blog. I think this may be when Julie and Nate were first getting together. Just thought Julie and Nate (if no one else) would enjoy this. For those of you that don't know. The Lambs (before they were the Lambs plural) sang and played for our wedding. It was fun to go down memory lane today as I was looking at pictures of our wedding and stuff. I'll post more in a bit.

Just a glimpse...

Well, this is only our second post and I don't even want to mention how long it took just to do this. Some of you may have seen these pictures before, but some may not have. Most of them are of our trip to Ecuador this June. It was defintely an amazing trip! We got to do so many things on this trip that would take 2 blog sites to talk about. The main highlights were; visiting an orphanage, visiting (and working) in 2 hospitals, working in a home for abandoned elderly, and doing a kids club and handing out bread in the city dump. Probably the most profound experience of our lives was visiting the dump. We took 11 high school kids with us, so I thought I would be trying to help them put their heads around this experience, little did I know that I would be a basket case even before visiting the first person in the dump! I still have trouble sometimes with this experience. As amazing as it was, I have never felt more useless in all my life than handing out bread to starving people LIVING in a garbage dump and then leaving. I wanted to stay so bad, I think all of us did. I will write more on that at a different time as every couple weeks or so I go back to the experience.
Most of the other pictures are of these experiences. We loved the orphanage and realized even more that that is what God has called us to do with our lives. We so wished we could have stayed down there, but realize that our place (unfortunately sometimes) is here right now and that we are hear to prepare for the future. Not always an easy thing to do.
The other picture you see is of us and our two puppies-Hireq (pronounced "hear-ek") and Patah (pronounced "pa-ta") These are our orny 1 year old pups that are named after Hebrew vowels. Joel was taking his Hebrew intensive class when we got the dogs so instead of sparky or spot, they got names that no one can pronounce. Anyway, we love them lots and they keep us entertained.
Well, until next time...

Joel and Kim with their heads in the clouds 

Joel with the blind boy at the orphanage 

Kim passing out bread to kids at the dump