HACKED!

Hello Blog Readers or Facebookers,

I just wanted to let you all know that if you have been trying to check Kim's facebook page and it hasn't worked, don't worry!
Her account was hacked and the security code to unlock it was sent to her phone number in Ecuador!
We are currently in the process of trying to fix it, so pray that it all gets fixed.  I know this is a way that people keep up with us so we want it fixed.

We are also currently in Maine doing church visits.  Due to the upcoming storm, the pastor's retreat we were going to attend was canceled.  We are with a great family right now, Frank and Austin Catalano, and awesome husband and wife team that pastor a new church plant called Evergreen Covenant Church. If you are in Maine, you should really check this church out.  It's awesome.
So right now we are in Maine, awaiting a storm.  Pray for safety for our families and sanity as we may be stuck in the house for a couple of days.

So, 'how are you feeling?'

Maybe it's the fact that we've been taking mental health assessments all week this week or maybe it's because we need to be reminding ourselves to ask ourselves this question..."how are you feeling?"  It seems to be a little bit of a loaded question at this point in our lives.  Probably to say we are tired is a little bit of an understatement.  We've been going non-stop since we arrived back in the States a little over a week ago.  Maybe exhausted is a little more accurate.

We had one interview each this week which was very nerve-racking but ended up being a very affirming and uplifting time for both of us individually and together.  I suppose it is very good that we felt more confident in our call.  That's a definite positive!  To read more about our last week in detail, check out our other blog here.

It's been very good to reconnect with friends.  We stayed with Chris and Jenny Hoskins this last week and were with Jeff and Kristi Lundblad and Paul and Mary Thompson also.  It was great to talk and laugh and play and watch football and drink coffee and EAT lots of american food we missed.

We could talk for a very long time about our last week, but back to our question, 'how are you feeling'.  A good word is probably awkward.  We have adapted pretty well to the different cultural nuances of Ecuador like saying "buen provecho" (bon appetite) whenever you are around people who are eating.  I caught myself getting ready to do that in a restaurant this week and had to hold back.  When we greet friends, we always do so with a kiss on the cheek.  People might look at us really weird if we did that here!  We just kind of feel out of place.  In doing our different assessments this week, it was hard to answer questions because we weren't sure if we should answer being in Ecuador or being here.  It's really crazy!

We thought of all of us, Simeon would have the littlest amount of adjustment because he is so used to traveling and meeting new people all the time.  He has been struggling a little bit too.  Probably if just one thing had changed it would be one thing, but SO much has changed from language to where we're staying, to parent being gone for the day that I think he has felt overwhelmed.  Today we are in Goshen and will be here until Wednesday.  It is good for him to see faces he has seen fairly recently with the nieces and grandma and grandpa Delp.  Hopefully he will get to see my family this week too-including my brother and sister-in-law!

So, how are we feeling... awkward, overwhelmed, out of place.  But we also feel blessed and thankful to be with family and friends and that they realize where we are and can meet us there.  Thank you for your prayers.  Hopefully this will help you know how to pray.  Thanks so much!

From THERE to HERE...WHERE is that?

No one can ever tell you exactly how you are going to react when you transition back to your home country after being gone for a while.  I mean, people told us that we would have adjustments, some easier some difficult.  So, we knew that, but we also knew we would not have a whole lot of time to mentally process this before jumping right in to interviews and intense conversations about our futures, call to missions and our lives in general.  I (Kim) was a little nervous how this culture shock may present itself.  Not having time to talk through things very much caused some of the stress of transition to come out in the middle of the interviews we had yesterday.  I didn't think I would really be emotional about anything.  But, I had 2 different times when I was overcome by missing Ecuador when explaining it to our interviewers.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not ashamed of my emotions, especially when they aren't really something I can control.  But it just made me realize we need to rest and process a little bit before our next interviews next week.  For Joel, the analytical one, seems to be struggling a little with being here in the States, when the place God has called us is Ecuador.  Being a driven, focused person, it's almost like it's a step back after we have made so much progress so far in Ecuador.

I'm sure we will continue to encounter different areas of culture shock.  Some things we've realized so far...

We can flush toilet paper
We can drink the water out of the faucet
The choices at restaurants and grocery stores is a bit overwhelming
We get GIANT glasses for drinks AND free refills
We can basically watch any sporting event we want-INCLUDING OHIO STATE FOOTBALL!
We were pleasantly surprised to experience a church business meeting in the States and realize it 
                                    was a lot like business in Ecuador.
Simeon WILL actually wear a coat, mainly because it means he's going to the park
Simeon is probably going to transition MUCH easier than us
Spending so much money on a meal out is incredible considering we can all eat for under $10 in 
                                     Ecuador.
Enjoying a big glass of milk that doesn't have a different taste than we're used to
Adjusting to the fact that when we're out of the house, we don't have to speak Spanish.  We have 
                                  already made the mistake of speaking to random people in Spanish and have
                                  gotten some funny looks.

More to come...
    

Between Here and There...

For those of you who read our newsletter than we sent out, you probably recognize this photo.  It is our family standing more or less on the equator.  We actually standing on the Northern hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere at the same time.  In our newsletter we talked a little about the transition back to the States, but I wanted to expand a little bit more on this.  I'm sure people wonder a lot what goes through missionaries heads when they are packing up to leave for what most would consider their 'home' country...
This picture is a good representation of what goes through our heads.  Probably now, in the midst of packing, saying goodbyes etc is not the best time to write it, although maybe it is just to be able to process things a little in the midst of the craziness, because it certainly is craziness in our lives right now!
We obviously have ourselves in both worlds-our new home in Ecuador and our old home in the United states.  For Simeon, Ecuador is home, it is all he really knows.  Although probably for him, the adjustment will be easier.  We have gotten so used to life and culture in our new home in Ecuador and we really have worked hard to make Ecuador our home.  Leaving what you know is never easy, whether it is when we left the States or now when we are leaving here.
It is not an easy place to be.  As I'm writing, this makes me think of one of my favorite books on life...

Yes, I know it is Dr. Seuss, but this book has such great mental imagery on life, the realities of life...for instance...

Except when you don' t
Because, sometimes, you won't.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted.  But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both you elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out?  Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

OR...

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

Ahhhh, the waiting place...

Everyone knows and understands the waiting place.  A place where sometimes you feel like you will never get out of it.  A place where you wonder, "will life ever feel stable again?"  Waiting can be lonely, waiting can make you more impatient, more anxious, more stressed the longer you are there.  We are there.  We are waiting, but we are also moving...literally, moving.  We are moving back to the States in a little less than a week now.  Is it possible to be in 2 places at once?  The waiting place and the mountain place or winding place or the confusing place?  It must be possible because that is where we are.  

So, you ask where we are, what we're feeling, how we're feeling...

We're hopeful yet anxious and overwhelmed but taken care of by our Lord.  Honestly, this is a tough place to be, between 2 places, between our old home and new, between new friends and old.  

We are praying Romans 12:12 and we ask you to pray it on our behalf...

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.