Prayer Requests for this week

birth-shotWe have a couple of really big prayer requests for this week.  Please pray for Joel’s parents, Ruth & Earl Delp, as they have had their share of serious struggles of recent.  Please pray for them and that God’s peace will abound.

Also, we really need to get Esther’s Birth Certificate!!! Yes, you read that correctly.  We still do not have her Ecuadorian Birth Certificate yet.  When we went to go get one for her, we were told that we could not get an accurate one unless we brought with us a copy of our marriage license that is apostilled from the U.S.  An apostille is like an international notary that recognizes that a document is legal for other countries.  We had one of these previously but do not have a current copy of our marriage license that is apostilled.  We tried to do everything we could, including going to the U.S. Embassy, but nothing worked.  In the end, we had to have Kim’s parents help us in getting a new copy of our marriage license apostilled and sent to Ecuador.  Today, a team from New London Covenant Church in Minnesota is bringing  a copy of our apostilled marriage license with them.  We plan to get it from them tomorrow and then work hard this week on getting her birth certificate.  Please pray that we are successful and have a child with a legal identity!

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Looking for land

We had the wonderful opportunity to accompany Rolando Escola, President of FACE, and Jose Tuquerres, Pastor of Iglesia Emanuel (our partner church) in visiting some possible land to purchase for the first home for at risk children in Cayambe.  You can take a look at all three and tell us what you think.  Negotiations are currently in progress.

First Property

First Property

 

 

Land#1-2

 

 

Second Property

Second Property

Land#2-2

 

 

Third Property - First Section

Third Property – First Section

Land#3_PartA-2

 

Third Property - Second Section

Third Property – Second Section

Land#3_PartB-2

 

Simeon enjoyed riding in the car in front of us and watching us from the window

Simeon enjoyed riding in the car in front of us and watching us from the window

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THANK YOU PLEASANT VIEW!!!

PV

 

A big THANK YOU goes out to Pleasant View Mennonite Church of Goshen, IN and the VBS they put on this past week.  They invited us to be a part of it through Skype.  Simeon was able to “attend” the VBS and watched the opening worship and group activities and then each day we had a question and answer time with the kids during the closing session of the day.  It was a lot of fun and really neat to be a part!  In addition to all of this, their mission project for the week was the Santiago Partnership and over $1,600 was raised for the purchase of land for the first home for at risk children.  THANK YOU SO MUCH PLEASANT VIEW MENNONITE CHURCH!!!

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Welcome to the world Esther Ashby Delp

Esther Ashby waving hello to the world seconds after being born

Esther Ashby waving hello to the world seconds after being born

“I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart;

I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1

It’s been a difficult road for us of late and we have sensed God’s presence along the way, but what better way to see Him clearly but through a miracle right in front of us.

PRAISE BE TO GOD!!!!

Esther Ashby Delp was born at 3:00 p.m. on June 5th, 2014 weighing 6.37 lbs and measuring 18.5 inches. Though the surgery was long and complicated, both Esther and mom are doing well.  Kim is doing extremely well considering the difficulty of the surgery.  Please continue to pray for little Baby Esther as she is not feeding extremely well yet from mom and we are trying to watch to make sure she does not become jaundiced.

Touching Thinking Simeon_wondering Simeon_Excited Simeon_at_camera Mama_Esther Kiss Kim_Simeon2 Kim_Simeon Joel_Simeon Face Eyes2 Eyes Cutie Being Careful

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Quicker than we thought

Newborn

This picture may accurately depict what could be our lives here very soon.

Today, we are flying back to Quito to move into our new apartment and adjust back to life in Ecuador again.  We had been planning that once we get back we can have a little bit of time to unpack our stuff (nothing is unpacked in our new apartment yet), make some last minute purchases for the apartment (curtains anyone???) and take care of some last minute details that are needed like Joel heading out to Guayaquil to turn in our paperwork needed for the container.  That’s what we HAD been planning.

Yesterday, we had our final appointment with our doctor in Indiana to get the approval to head to Ecuador today.  Everything went well with that.  But he also informed us of something that we weren’t planning.  He said that usually in their practice when it is a planned C-Section (what we are having), they usually plan it for the beginning of the 39th week.  The beginning of the 39th week is in 4 days… 4 DAYS!!!!  Holy canoli!!!  4 DAYS!!!  We had been thinking more along the lines of our due date which is June 15th, so this has been a bit of a surprise.

Now, we need to actually meet with our Ecuadorian doctor on Monday as planned but it is obvious that our lives are just about to be rocked by a new little bundle of joy much sooner than we thought.  Your prayers are appreciated today as we travel, as we arrive and get ready very quickly and as the new little one joins the family for mom and him/her.

 

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Puzzzled???

Puzzle2Are you puzzled by where in the world we are???  Well, the way our lives have been all over the map recently, we are too!!!  So, much so recently when Simeon asked “Where are we going?” and we responded “Home,” he then responded “Which one???”

Yes… it is true that we do have two homes in Ecuador and the States and we have been seeing a lot of them both here recently.  On May 12th, we flew back to Indiana to be with Joel’s parents for a little while.  Recently, we as a family decided that Joel’s mom, Ruthie, would stop taking the chemotherapy treatments as they were tearing apart her body and causing even more problems than what the tumors were causing.  When that decision was made, we decided to start Home Hospice care as they could provide excellent care during this time.

With this decision also, we decided to travel to be with them for a little bit before baby #2 arrives and our lives getting even more crazy with the start of the project and life with a new baby in the house.

We have had a nice time with Joel’s parents.  Since stopping the chemotherapy medication, Ruthie has been feeling significantly better and has had a lot more energy and strength.  We have been doing things like fixing the puzzle that you see above which is of Cotopaxi, one of Ecuador’s most famous volcanoes.  We even went miniature golfing one day as Ruthie was feeling up for it and it is one of Simeon’s favorite pastimes.

Today, May 29th, we are traveling back to our new home in Quito, Ecuador.  Yesterday, we received the written authorization from Kim’s doctor in Indiana to travel back to today.  We are excited to return to Ecuador.  However, it is extremely difficult to leave Joel’s parents during this time as there are so many struggles.  Please pray for them and for us as the distance will be felt and will be difficult again.  Ultimately, we ask that you pray for complete healing for Ruthie from the tumors that plague her.

Ruthie and Simeon working on the puzzle together.

Ruthie and Simeon working on the puzzle together.

 

Joel, Grandpa and Simeon getting the bike fixed.

Joel, Grandpa and Simeon getting the bike fixed.

 

 

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How about Kim’s licensing???

logo_ministerio_salud_publica

We are also needing to update you all on the latest on the process of getting Kim’s medical licensing in Ecuador figured out.  On the day that we had left Ecuador, May 12th, Joel had a meeting with the doctor who is the head of the Department of Human Talents in the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador.  After a lengthy conversation, it was decided that there would be a committee of three people who would review Kim’s case to determine if she is eligible to do her Rural Internship as a doctor or as a Nurse Specialist.  We are awaiting to hear the results of that committee’s decision.  Please be in prayer for it!

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Container news

ConsulateWhile being here in the States, we took the opportunity to work on the remaining issues with the container.  We have reported recently on it but to get you up-to-date, fairly recently we found out that the container was needing to be switched from being a container of both donations and personal belongings (our stuff!) to a container of only donations.  We could basically still send our personal belongings but they would be considered donations to the Covenant Church in Ecuador as far as the container goes.  That isn’t a problem at all, the problem that came with this is the fact that Ecuador does not accept donations of “used clothing” so all of the used clothing needed to be removed.  The problem there, of course, is that we have a lot “used clothing” in our personal belongings to be sent down.  For this reason while being here in the States, Joel decided to travel out to Ohio to get all of our clothes out of the things to be packed on the container.  He was able to do that on Friday, May 16th as well as while he was there, he was able to get all of the paperwork for the container signed, notarized, and apostilled (international notary) by the folks at Coshocton Christian Tabernacle.  Many thanks need to go out to Janae Stevens and Angie Eberhard for their help with all of that.

Then, last Thursday, May 22nd, Joel traveled out to Chicago to visit the office of Ecuadorian Consulate, what you see pictured above.  There he was able to get all of that official paperwork legalized for the country of Ecuador.  So, the paperwork is now all set and ready to go.  Once we return to Ecuador, Joel will just need to deliver this paperwork to the port of Guayaquil where the container will be arriving and then the container can be sent from Ohio, so we are just waiting for this one last step.

In addition, to visiting the Ecuadorian consulate last Thursday, Joel was also able to accomplish one more important thing that day.  As you know, we now have a lot of clothes that need to get down to Ecuador.  Joel got in touch with a friend, Pastor Dan Teefey to see if their church could help us in getting our clothes down to Ecuador.  Dan’s church is Riverside Covenant Church of West Lafayette, IN and they are sending a team of 27 people down to Ecuador this Sunday.  Dan and his church were extremely kind and very willing to help us out of our jam.  They will be bringing 3 50 lb bags of clothes down for us Sunday!  Thank you so much Riverside Covenant Church!!!  Riverside

 

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Moving Days

Well, we have been extremely busy and haven’t had much time to give updates and post pictures so we are going to try to do a bunch here today to update you on what has been going on with us.

Not sure if you know or not, but we recently moved…. well… kind of.  You see we had been living in a temporary furnished apartment in Quito since we had arrived back in March.  It was a good landing pad for us as we didn’t need to come up with all of our stuff immediately (appliances, furniture, personal belongings, etc).  Also, since the plan was that our container would be arriving in April or May, we could live there until much more of our stuff arrived on the container and we would have more of our stuff for filling our new apartment.  Well, as you know, the second part of that plan did not work out as we had hoped as the container still has not been sent (more on that in a bit) and so we haven’t received our stuff from the States yet.

Nevertheless, the baby is a comin’ and so we needed to figure out where we would be living long-term or short-long-term or basically the next 1 to 2 years of our lives.  We had originally been thinking we would move to Cayambe for a year while Kim would be doing her 1-year rural internship there.  However, since that has not worked out how we have been hoping/planning, we decided to go with Plan “B.”  Plan B is that we decide to get an apartment in North Quito, basically the most northern part of Quito that you can get which is on the way to Cayambe.  In getting an apartment there, we would be able to slip out of Quito quickly (if that’s possible) and travel up to Cayambe in about 45 mins on a  normal traffic day.

So, that is what we have done.  In the beginning of May, we signed a 1-year lease on an apartment in Carcelen Alto, a sector of Quito in the north.  Pictures will come a little bit later.

Our days before we traveled to the States were a bit crazy as we were moving all of our belongings that we have in Ecuador (out of our current apartment and out of storage unit) into our new apartment.  In addition to that, we also were purchasing and having delivered all of our new appliances and furniture for the apartment.  Safe to say it was a lot of work as Joel even pulled an all-nighter one night getting it all done.  There are some before and after pictures below that show the good use of our new van for this process.  Simeon was the photographer on the second one.

So, we are moved into our new apartment… kind of.  Basically, everything is in there, but we still need to unpack and do everything for setting up the place.  It will be a lot of work still but we do really like the place so it should be a lot of fun!

before

after

 

 

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The Rocha Family

The majority of the Rocha family, although missing a couple after lunch on Sunday by the Panecillo

The majority of the Rocha family, although missing a couple after lunch on Sunday by the Panecillo

We had the great opportunity to host the majority of the Rocha family last weekend.  In case you forgot who the Rocha’s are, they are the administrators of the Covenant Camp in Santo Domingo.  In November and December, Rueben and the family faced many challenges as far as Reuben’s health.  You may remember some of our previous posts about it.  Rueben had pancreatitis, had 2 surgeries, his duodenum was punctured during the second surgery and he and the family were told multiple times that he would likely not live.  We are happy to say he is ALIVE AND WELL!  PRAISE BE TO GOD!  It was such an amazing time to spend with them.

We went to Old Quito and spent time there and had a nice time together.  On Sunday, they went to church with us and because so many people had prayed for them, there was a testimony time where both Reuben and Amparo gave their testimonies.  Although quite emotional, it was such a wonderful time of sharing.  I believe the time really blessed and encouraged many in the church.  Amparo also recently lost her brother to a motorcycle accident.  It was such an encouragement to us to hear and experience with them what they have faced and to see how God has truly worked a miracle in their lives!

It is difficult, (especially for me, Kim, in Spanish) to express how much we love and appreciate this family.  They are such an example to us.  They love Simeon as one of their own and care for him that way.  They are examples of consistency and faith in each adventure or hardship they face.  They face it “con fe” or “with faith”.  Life is not always easy, but they have been examples to us of faith, strength and encouragement in the midst of hardship.  We praise God for them and the work He has done and IS doing in their lives.  Gracias a Dios!

Reuben giving his testimony

DSC_0429

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rocha's and Delp's

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