Christmas in Goshen

We got to spend Christmas with Joel's side of the family. I had to work on Christmas day but was able to spend Christmas Eve and a few days after Christmas with the family. It was wonderful to be able to relax and not have to worry about anything. It was fun to be with family although we are missing some of the Delp's since they are in Japan. We were able to talk with them on our Christmas Eve, but we look forward to next year when we can all be together again. We miss you Eric, Fumiko, Sheena and Reenna!
We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas too!
This weekend (New Year's) we will be with my (Kim's) family in Hartford City, IN. HOpefully we will have pictures there too!







Braedyn and one of our doggies-Hireq. Braedyn loves to rub Hireq's tummy!







Bailey and Grandpa Delp. Grandpa's concentrating really hard!

BOOKS I AM READING

So, I don't know if you are like this, but unfortunately, I buy a lot of books! I LOVE BOOKS. I love to read too, but often don't have time to read a lot of the books I buy. I have been getting a little help with this because I recently joined a book club. We recently finished,
The Red Tent -a VERY good book and highly recommended.

Two books I am reading right now:
Leaving the Saints-How I lost the Mormons and found my faith.
My recommendation: about a 5 out of 10. Maybe a 3 out of 10. It's interesting in the fact that you find out a lot about the Mormon faith. Martha Beck is a little 'interesting' in her writing. We'll leave it at that.

I recently started East of Eden. I have never read it. So I can't really make any recommendation. Plus I am on page 1 so...
What are your opinions about East of Eden?

Christmas debate...

VS

So, the ongoing debate in the Delp household each Christmas season is what color lights we are going to decorate our tree with. The last couple years we have used multi-colored lights. This year, we used white lights. I won't say which is which, but one of us prefers white lights, the other multicolored. So the debate continues. I don't know that one is better than the other. The one of us who likes white lights likes them for their elegance and beauty (that's Joel, just kidding...)
The one who likes multi-color lights likes the diversity! (That is Joel)
Merry Christmas!!!
Which do YOU prefer and why?

Curves Update!

Well, it has been 2 months since I started on my quest for weight loss and a healthier body and life. One thing that I wanted to do was not get wrapped up in weighing myself and expecting 'quick results' because that usually results in disappointment. So, I knew it would be a slow process and I am OK with that because I am feeling much better about life and gaining more confidence regarding my body. So, after 2 months, I have LOST! YEAH! Nothing huge, but there are negative numbers and I am excited about it.
Results:
.5 inches off waist
.5 inches off abdomen
.75 inches of hips (woo hoo!)
.5 inches off thighs (another woo hoo!)
2.75 lbs off
1.4% decrease in body fat!
YEAH!
Stay tuned for more updates

Ecuador in review

I thought I would finally post some pictures and give you all an update about our recent trip to Ecuador, South America!
We have been back only a few days and I think I speak for both of us when I say our hearts are still there. It was such a whirlwind of a trip-only 3 full days, but we packed a lot of things into that time. After the first day our brains were a little over loaded with info that we needed to process. We met with 2 sets of couples each running their own orphanages. One has been there quite a long time-16 years. One of our friends adopted a precious girl Ana from them. One of the pictures you will see her. We found out that of course it is not easy to get an orphanage up and running-even harder in South America. There a lot of "hoops to jump through" as well as many restrictions with the government. We weren't discouraged about that because we know what God has called us to.
Another part of our trip was meeting with the Covenant missionaries in Ecuador. Our hosts, Carlos and Karen (I am an idiot and forgot to take a picture of them) (you can go here to see a little more what they do with HCJB. http://www.hcjb.org/healthcare/hospital_vozandes_quito/missionary_personnel.html
set up a dinner at their house with most of the missionaries from Ecuador that were in the area. We had such a great time meeting and visiting with them and just being able to share ourselves with fellow missionaries. It was so great to hear their words of wisdom and encouragement. We appreciate them very much. We also went and visited one of our former students from our youth group. It was great to see him and see what God has been doing in his life. On our previous trip-he was on it and that is where the idea of coming back to Ecuador came to him. God is working in him and we are SO excited to see what GOd is going to do through him.
Well, you may be wondering what became of our trip-our thoughts etc...
First priority is to figure out what I (Kim) am going to do about school. We are trying to figure out if it would be beneficial for me to finish, wait and go back later, or just not finish. I thought I would get a lightening bolt from Jesus about that, but just a little more confusion. So, any medical professions out there or nurse practioners who are practicing in Ecuador or South America who have advice--bring it my way.
Second, we are planning on going down for a year. WHen that is, we don't know. Of course we would have stayed. We are defintely feeling ancy(sp?) being in the states, but we know God's timing and plan will develop in His time, not ours. To develop that a little more, we really feel God calling us to partner with the national Covenant church of Ecuador. We met with a few of the ladies from the national church and got some great ideas. Basically they are a pretty tight knit group and sometimes cautious of outsiders wanting to come in. Our year when we go would hopefully be working with an established orphanage to "learn the ropes" as well as developing relationships and getting invloved with the national church of Ecuador. Our idea is that we don't want to be bringing our vision to Ecuador, we want to partner with Ecuadorians who feel that an orphanage and clinic are needed.
That is where we are. I will try to keep you updated as things develop. Until then, please continue to pray for us. We appreciate and covet your prayers.
Blessings and Peace
Dios le bendiga




Karen and Carlos's backyard







Carlos and Karen's view







Us and a former student in our youth group who is at CBC (Covenant Bible College)
http://www.covenantbiblecollege.com/index.cfm?objectid=CB78EF7D-B0D0-AAB7-5A2C5CF1865FAE45




One of the orphanages we visited. Sorry no pictures with the kids...









The Covenant missionaries of Ecuador...most of them anyway














We were lucky that we were able to experience a holiday while we were there. Dec 6 is Quito Day-the Independence. It's a HUGE party time. This is one of the ways they do so. People rent one of these and music and dancing go on. It was quite a site!! They were also having ACTUAL bull fighting in a huge arena-we didn't make that one though. Maybe someday. I'm sure the pictures would have been...interesting

Go Buckeyes

Troy Smith!!!
Need we say more?

Christmas Inquiry

Well, I am sitting here with some down time at work thinking to myself..."O my goodness! It is December 3 and I have no idea what to do for Christmas this year." I have tried to actually send a card, letter or something since we have been married which is MUCH more organized than I usually am. Each year however, I wonder..."What do people WANT to know?" Do people even care? Do people really want to know the ins and outs of our year or do they just want a card? Do they want an email saying hey how are ya?
I struggle with the whole mask issue too! I mean most letters I have always sent always paint a pretty picture of the past year. You gotta wonder what people's years were really like. Not that people lie, but sometimes you just want to say, "My year stunk! Here's why?" Anyway, not that I want to send a letter like that, but I just feel if we are truly friends with people and our families truly love us if I DID send a letter like that-that they would STILL love me afterward and during.
All this to say...
What do YOU want to hear from you friends and family? Card? Letter? Picture? Nothing? What about from us? What do you want from us?
P.S...We leave for Ecuador tomorrow...
Please keep us in your prayers...

Scoping out Ecuador

As promised, I thought I would post a little more about our plans for Ecuador. We are planning a trip next week for 4-5 days to basically 'scope out' possibilities for our long term goal of an orphanage/medical clinic in Ecuador! This is a HUGE next step for us. We didn't think this would be happening for another year or so. We will be meeting with missionaries as well as others in Ecuador who have started an orphanage there. To expand even more, in talking with missionaries currently in Ecuador about my (Kim) long term goals of becoming a nurse practioner, it was said that NP's are not really recognized as such there. I would either be in administration (WHICH IS NOT MY GIFT AT ALL) or I would HAVE to work with a doctor. Not that that is bad, but it makes it more difficult if we are in the 'bush' somewhere. So, I am trying to gather more info while we are there to see if finishing school is the best option, or if I need to wait for a while and see or if I can be a nurse and function there well. These are all questions that will hopefully be answered soon. With my school being the only thing keeping us from going to the mission field, we could 'potentially' be on the mission field sooner rather than later!!!! We would LOVE that, but we also want to make sure that is God's leading and not just our wishful thinking and hoping! Below are some pictures from our previous trip to Ecuador. The orphanage pictures you see-we will be meeting with the directors there.
Other ministries there at this time are in the local city garbage dump which are pictured.
We will blog more info when we know more.





Precious girl in the Quito dump
















Play time at the orphanage








Kim with kids at the dump


Joel made a friend at the orphanage
People's reality in the dump

Kids right outside of the jungle-they LOVE to smile and get their picture taken
A girl that loved to give hugs at the orphanage

Remember When...

This week is finals week for me at Rush University. It's interesting to be involved in finals week now that I am OLD compared to what finals week was like in undergrad.
I know not all colleges did this, but the 2 or 3 that I went to were just awesome for finals week!
At Asbury College, the night before finals started, the faculty served US a huge breakfast spread and we all just hung out! There and at IWU, I got fun 'finals packages' from mom and dad, church people, etc that were filled with highlighters, candy, an apple or something (to pretend they were being healthy) and lots of RAMEN NOODLES! AHHHH, I miss Ramen. It just doesn't taste quite the same as it did in college.
I remember staying up till all hours of the night, well actually morning 'pretending to study' and then realizing I really HAD to study or get a paper done. It was so fun being around all your friends and knowing they were all in the same boat with you. It was stressful, but the stress was overshadowed with friends, food, and fellowship.
Finals week now...
Well, lets just say there is not much of the above besides stress. Not to be a downer, but there is just SO much pressure. I don't know where things changed. The friends are not all here, no fun packages (except maybe when Joel brings me a DQ or a coffee). It's just not the same. Is it weird to say I miss finals in undergrad. Defintely never thought those words would ever be written by me.
Anyway, what if anything do YOU remember about finals week?
OH, I almost forgot the best thing I remember...
PAPA JOHNS PIZZA AND BREADSTICKS!
AAAHHHH the memories!

3 Things

There are 3 things that have gotten me through this week. Number one is my husband. My husband is wonderful! I know I have said that before, but he truly is. Not only is he my husband, he is my best friend. Through these last couple months, wow! He has just been amazing. The ups and downs of the stresses we have gone through. He has been amazing! This is one of my fav pictures of him with one of our nieces!








The second thing that has made this week easier is a new song from one of my favorite groups superchick. The song is
"Stand in the Rain!" If you haven't heard this group-you've got to!!! They are amazing. This song has been the first thing that is in my head when I wake up in the morning and the thing that comes back in it amidst the craziness of classes and work. A bit from the song...
Stand in the rain, stand your ground, stand up when its all crashing down. You stand through the pain, you won't drown and one day what's lost can be found, you stand in the rain...
It has been so powerful for me this week as I feel like all I know about me and what I am good at etc...I feel solid knowing God is with me standing in the rain.


The third thing that has helped this week...
Peppermint Mochas from Starbucks! I know, I am totally that yuppy girl, but I LOVE THEM!

What are your 3 things?

Birthday, Buckeyes, and Buddies!

This weekend we were able to relax a little before we jump into more busyness. We were very excited to have our friends from Ohio come to celebrate Joel's 31st birthday. The highlight was going to see the Ohio State Buckeyes play Northwestern-just right down the road from where we live! Here's the gang of us that went. We don't look cold do we? It was like 40 degrees with wind! But we had fun. This was right after a big lunch of stuffed Chicago Style Pizza at Giordano's. After the game we went downtown to the APPLE store and got some Garret's popcorn(the best in the world!!!)
It was a fun day and I hope my WONDERFUL husband had a great birthday!
Here's the birthday boy! It was so fun to get to spend time together and no better place to have fun than watching the Buckeyes. They ended up winning by...well, ALOT! Most of the NOrthwestern fans were gone by the second quarter.
In this picture I was trying to get a picture of the coach-Jim Tressel, I don't think you can see him...














It was a total sea of red at the stadium. I felt a little bad for the Northwestern fans because there was MAYBE 10% purple, the rest red and one lowly MICHIGAN fan that we met later on the EL. I am not quite sure what HE was thinking. Anyway, he did make it out alive.

Does YOUR DQ do this?

We have had a tradition that each time we go to DQ (Dairy Queen) we ask for "doggie cups". It all started when we had the pups with us and stopped and they gave us to cups full of regular soft serve ice cream. The dogs of course loved it. They eat ANYTHING that tastes terrible, let alone something that tastes as scrumptous as soft serve from DQ. ANyway, each time we go we ask for a treat for them too. Tonight I had to take pictures because it was just hysterical!

Hireq (the brown one) stood on her hind legs for as long as she could to get her share. Even Patah (the white one) tried to stand, she's not quite as good at it as Hireq, but it's ice cream...who wouldn't???

They were all over the place and finished in about 2 or 3 minutes.
I wonder if dogs get ice cream headaches?
Anyway, enjoy the pictures of our dogs enjoying their treats!


MMM, MMM
GOOD...

Destination...Ecuador...

Well, this is a very loaded blog that will probably need a continuation since I am at work right now and at any minute something bad could come through the door and cut this short. Maybe I should just keep you guessing...
Just kidding...

Well, we are planning on taking a trip to Ecuador the beginning of December to "scope out the territory".
For those of you that don't know, we took a trip 2 summer's ago to Ecuador and really felt that this a place where we needed to see if God wants us, well, for the rest of our lives.
This is kind of the 2nd step in the process. We met with missionary friends last week and they said they would host us for a few days and introduce us to some people and just hang out.
Well, I am feeling a little scattered as I am writing. I feel I have so much to tell you all that has been going on, but I don't want to get in the middle of it and have to stop. So, what I am going to do is post more tonight about our last couple weeks and post some pictures too.
Until then, keep your feet on the ground...and keep reaching for the stars...(that sounds kind of familiar.) ANyway,
HAPPY FRIDAY to ya!

Cafe WHAT???

Last night, thanks to my old job, Joel and I were able to go out for a date night! This is something that we have really been working on trying to implement into our marriage. We are so busy that sometimes these date nights are catch up from the previous week. We had so much fun at this resturant. My old unit gave us a gift certificate that was good for like 20 different resturants. This was one of the few we thought we could afford after the $25 was gone. We came home and watched some of the Cards vs. Detroit game. It was so nice to just be able to relax and enjoy each other's company. So this is a big thanks to the PICU for giving us a night together on you.
Happy Sunday!

Today is the day!

I finally did it! I joined CURVES today. I had my first workout with a trainer and it felt really good to get back in to working out! For those of you that don't know what CURVES is, you can go to

http://www.curvesinformation.com/

to find out more. I have gained a lot of weight since we got married and it is really starting to make me feel not good about myself. So, I am making a change.

This may be weird to some of you as something to blog about, but it is important to me and I am totally OK with the occassional check up's on me from you all to make sure I am still keeping up. A little accountability is a good thing-especially for me who tends to be a little...undisciplined. Anyway, today was the day!

Have YOU Ever Been THIS tired??????????

Have you ever been THIS tired?

Trading Spaces...Amongst Other Transitions...

As the title says, we traded spaces. Maybe not in the sense of the show that was so popular, but there was a lot of painting that went on and hopefully soon-new furniture. Right now, there is just LOTS and LOTS of boxes! We moved from our apartment close to Wrigley Stadium to Rodgers Park (still a part of Chicago), but very close to Evanston, IL-where Northwestern University is. Don't worry, we will NEVER be Northwestern fans (GO BUCKEYES!!!!!!!)
Anyway, the apartment is twice the size with a sun room, two bedrooms, a garage, enclosed backyard (for the pups) and other perks too! Hopefully soon we will be able to post pictures.

OTHER TRANSITIONS...
Two weeks ago, Joel was voted in to be interim associate pastor of our church! There are mixed feelings about this right now. I know I have told you all some things, but our church has gone through a lot of transition itsself this year and Joel was there during that time-but it is still going on. He does however feel God wants him here and we know that our God doesn't make mistakes. He also gives us the strength to handle whatever He asks us to do. It will be interesting to see what happens there.
Most of you know this as well, but I also changed jobs just a few weeks before we moved. I am working in the Emergency Room. It is challenging and stressful, although a much different stress than working in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. I admit I miss my old job-especially the people, but again, I know God knows so much more what He is doing than me-so I will adjust and go with it.
I also started classes 2 weeks ago. I am doing a lot more studying than previously. The classes I am taking are both very invloved-Physiology and Biostatistics. The latter I do believe is my nemesis...not much more say about that...
Needless to say, a lot of transition at once, but we seem to be taking it OK at the moment. We hope to eventually post more pictures from the new apartment. Right now you wouldn't think it was very nice since mostly boxes are filling the rooms.
Happy Sabbath (almost)

Our Mt Fugi Climb

This is when the fog started setting in right before the drizzle came. Right before the climb started getting really hard.





THis is the map at the base of the mountain showing the different trails you can take up. We were warned many times to stay on the path you start out on or else you will end up somehwere that is really hard to get back from.







This is us at the base of the mountain.


So, I promised more pictures from Japan. One of the highlights was our climb up Mt Fuji. I guess I have always taken for granted climbing a mountain when I read it in a book. You know "Jesus went to the Mt of Olives.." Climbing a mountain is just plain hard work!!! The big thing with climbing Mt Fuji is that most people arrange it so that you get to the top for the sunrise. Of course we wanted to be like "MOST" people. We started around 4:30 PM at the 5th station (there are 10 stations, but you only climb 5 of them). A bus carried us to the 5th station. We were supposed to make it to the 8.5 station before nightfall which is about 8PM (that's when they turn of the electricity). Almost as soon as we started climbing, the fog came in as well as drizzle, which made climing the volcanic rock...FUN to say the least. We made it to the 8.5 station in 3 hours and 20 minutes (it usually takes longer) I just had to add that. I was pretty proud of us. We passed a lot of "young college kids" on the way so that made me feel good. Anyway, we got to our $100 hotel which was more lilke a barracks-a hundred or so sleeping bags with bean pillows right next to each other. I guess they can charge that since they are 1 of 2 on the entire mountain. We went to sleep around 9PM and they woke us up around 2:30AM to finish the climb to the top. We did this and made it in time for the sunrise. It was such a beautiful place to be. One of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences and just such a beautiful reminder of God's awesome creation and what a priveledge it is to in the midst of His vastness. It made me realize once again how small I am, but how much I mean to Jesus. Here are some pictures from the start of the trip-read down for pictures from the top...

More Climbing...

I thought about sending these head shots to Hollywood, but then thought I would save them just for our blog-why waste them on Hollywood. Really, this is probably the worst picture ever of us, but I just had to get the head lamps in. This was during our night climb up Fuji-the first half anyway. Please erase this picture from your mind after you see it...







Joel wondering what in the world he got himself into climbing this thing...Or maybe thinking about all the great sermon illustrations he will use from this experience...who knows what he was thinking, I jsut thought it was a fun picture...

A cool picture of the sun rising over the mountain. It was such a beautiful sight and such an awesome reminder of Jesus and His wonderful and VAST creation.

This is us right as the sun was rising over the mountain. Notice the 'peace' sign...that is what a lot of Japanese do when they take a picture. It was hard to find a good place to take a picture because there were so many people. Notice also the BIG smiles and of course...our really cool headlamps!

It was REALLY cold at the top of the mountain. We probably didn't prepare like we should of for it. We also didn't have a whole lot of food at the top or water so almost as soon as we got to the top, we headed back down for water and food. Just to put things in perspective. Noodles similar to the 25cent kind here in the states with tons of sodium and "just add water" were like $5 there and you had to pay for the hot tea too. Needless to say we waited until the bottom...