Reasons To Celebrate!

Well, it is almost New Year's Eve!! Almost 2007. Almost time for us to resume our world travels. We have had a wonderful Christmas and a very relaxing break. Karmyn's first turkey turned out delicious and the left-overs are almost gone. Chad survived the day of shopping he gave Karmyn for Christmas and didn't even whine about the 5 hours in a mall! Knowing he was getting a Red Robbins' hamburger at the end probably helped!

We were able to talk to our families and lots of friends over Christmas which was so wonderful.

Perhaps the best news of today is.... I finally got my SSN!! This 'should' be the 'final' hurdle to start working. I have received my orientation schedule for January.

We will have a fairly quiet New Years. We will watch "The Sound of Music"- Chad is VERY excited to return to this weekly-viewed movie as he was growing up (his sis apparently loved it... but who doesn't, really?) And have meaty-cheesy nachos.

On the first we will drive to New York and on the second we head to ISRAEL!! We will be on a 10 day study tour with our school. We will be following the gospel of Mark. We are SOOOOOO excited about this opportunity. Please pray for safety as we travel. We will stay in Jerusalem, Tiberius, swim in the Dead Sea, have a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, walk in the Garden of Gethsemane, and see tonnes of cool Biblical sites! And don't worry, we will take a tonne of pics and we will try to post some stuff on here while we are there.

So, we are busy packing and getting ready to leave. We have a friend coming from Canada to do an intensive class at the Seminary, and he will stay in our place while we are gone, and we are looking forward to seeing him when we return.

Hope everyone had fabulous Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!!

p.s. I have taken off the restrictions for commenting, so it should work for everyone now.

The REAL Deal

Jesus’ Birth in Bethlehem- Luke 2:1-20

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.
2 This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.
3 And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city.
4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,
5 in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child.
6 While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth.
7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;
11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
12 “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”
16 So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger.
17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child.
18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.
19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.
20 The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, (La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation) 1996.

Did I Mention?

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!
There is just something about this special time of year. The memories of this season make my heart smile! I love the REAL reason for the season along with everything else about it! I love decorating at the end of November and leaving it up well past New Years. I love sitting in the dark with Christmas lights on. I love falling asleep and making Chad unplug all the lights, night after night. I love the houses down here have wreaths on the door and all the windows. I love that they put a single candle in every window. I love wrapping and giving gifts. I love driving around looking at lights. I love getting a new ornament from my parents every year. I love carols. I love the cheesy music they play over and over and over and over again. I love the Charlie Brown soundtrack. I love the TV specials. I love the traditions. I love the baking (especially Nanimo bars...even though no one knows what they even are down here!), and chocolates (Tofifee, anyone?) I love all the special foods (Lefse, flatbread, Rossettes, popycock, tri-buns, layered salad, seafood dip, oranges, Grandma's punch, homemade icecream, turkey and all the trimmings, midnight snack...I could go on and on!) I love the Jello that melts into the hot turkey. I love pancakes, fruit and whipped cream for Christmas morning breakfast. I love wearing PJ's all day on the 25th and doing as little as possible. I love wishing (secretly) for a giant snow storm. I love studying the story of the birth of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. I love spending special time with Chad (though we wish we could be with our families and dream of the time we can be together again). I love remembering the warm feeling of Christmases growing up on the farm. I love remembering my Grandparents and our extended family all together.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!

What's in a name??

Well, names have been on my mind the last couple days. Why you ask?

For starters, another "Karmyn" found my bog! How crazy! It is fairly uncommon to say the least to run into someone with my spelling (outside my hometown at least!).

Secondly, we have been busy the last couple days working on our Church Planting stuff and have been throwing around different names and trying to settle on one. The main discussion is between a traditional name or a unique name.

Thirdly, we found out that Chad's sister and brother-in-law are expecting a boy! (Yipeee!) What a momentous task to choose a name for another human! In my SSN issues, I stumbled upon a list of popular baby names in the USA (http://www.ssa.gov/ssnumber/).

For Boys in 2005 the list is: 1. Jacob, 2. Michael, 3. Joshua, 4. Matthew, 5. Ethan, 6. Andrew, 7. Daniel, 8. Anthony, 9. Christopher, and 10. Joshua.

For Girls in 2005 the list is: 1. Emily, 2. Emma, 3. Madison, 4. Abigail, 5. Olivia, 6. Isabella, 7. Hannah, 8. Samantha, 9. Ava, 10. Ashley.

You can also check the top names for any year.

The year Chad was born the most popular boy's names were Micheal, Christopher, Jason, David. Chad was the 38th most popular boy name the year he was born but in 2005 was the 380th most popular name!

The year I was born the top girl names were Jennifer, Amanda, Jessica, Melissa. Karmyn (though not spelt properly!) was 183rd most popular girl's name the year I was born but in 2005 was the 270th most popular. And to think as a kid I wanted to change my name to 'Stephanie Amy'!!

You won't believe this!

So, this is unbelievable. After fighting for months to secure a job, interviewing, getting the visa issues sorted, doing a border-run to change my status, applying for a Social Security Number... I find out that because the hospital recruiter took sooooo long to sort me out, my temporary nursing permit has expired and is on hold until I receive my SSN!! So, we are back on hold. I attended a general orientation this week but there will be no other working until I receive my SSN. That will "take as long as it takes". We are praying for it to come asap!!

But all is not lost... Chad finished his finals yesterday. Karmyn finished on Wednesday. We were talking last night and figured that this is the first time since our honeymoon that we have been together- not traveling, not sight-seeing, not working, not moving, not doing a 'rush-visit of all family and friends', not studying (which are all great things we have been fortunate to experience!)... just having un-pressured time together! And it is Christmas! So we are going to relax and enjoy a bit of down time and count it is as blessing God figured we must have needed!

It just seems wrong...

Well,here we are mid-December, and the temperatures are in the double digits (Celsius), and I can unfortunately say that baring some freak snow storm (though not all together unheard of in 'these-them parts') it looks like it will be a 'brown Christmas'.

Although not all together brown... having grown up in the 'true North, strong, and free' I just can't quite wrap my head around this one nagging question that keeps coming into my head-

Do they pick up and move, or just mow around the Christmas lawn ornaments??!!??!!??

A Charlie Brown Tree

When Chad and I were dating, we were delighted to learn that each of us had grown up watching and loving 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' TV special. It was fun to come together and share an old tradition.

Last year in Korea, we were able to watch the show via the internet which helped us feel a bit closer to home, though we were a million miles away.

This year, we will only be a half-million miles away for Christmas, and we will for sure be watching the special once again, but we have also gone one step further... perhaps not on purpose...

We have our OWN Charlie Brown Tree this year. Being short on space and cash, I decided to hit the dollar store to 'Christmas-ize' our apartment. A few candles, table runner and mini-lights just weren't enough (though what is ever really enough Christmas-izing?), so I went back for the $1 tree! Good idea Karm! Let's just say it is 'cute' how it bends under the weight of the homemade ribbon star/bow topper, the mini-lights and the balls (12 for $1... not bad, not bad- too bad there wasn't even enough space for half of them on the tree!).

Even though it may not be an award-winner, it's ours, and there is just something unexplainably nice about sitting in the dark with a Christmas Tree all lit up at night...even if it is only 18 inches of beauty!

Virginia Christmas Spectacular

A week ago we had the privilege of seeing the famous Virginia Christmas Spectacular. It is an amazing Christmas show with 2 live singing Christmas trees (over 200 people per tree), over a half a million Christmas lights on the trees and stary back drop, lazer lights, hundreds of actors, amazing costumes, a live orchestra, brass band, bag pipers... you name it. It was incredibly well done and definitely helped us to get into the Christmas spirit.

I'm baaaack!!!

Well, I did my boarder-run yesterday to the Toronto airport to change my visa status. It only took nearly 20 hours of travels- thanks to delays (Chicago O'Hare shut down for a couple hours due to an 'emergency' during Friday 'rush hour'... can you imagine the nightmare?!?!), but Chad was patiently waiting on the other end with red roses (awwwww!). By the way, in case you were wondering, Toronto airport is not a very exciting place to kill 4+ hours... no Timmy's, no Starbucks, no Timmy's, no McDonalds, no Timmy's, no stores (other than a magazine and snack place), and did I mention NO TIMMY'S?!?!

I slept like a baby on most of the flights... and missed the pretzel snacks- doh!. 3 of my 4 flights were not full, so the extra room was nice to stretch out in. When I wasn't sleeping I finally got to read one of the books I got for my birthday. On one flight we had these flight attendants who were regaling each other with their stories. The craziest of which was the one about a man who actually flushed his pants down the airplane toilet! and came out in purple skimpy underwear!!

Thankfully, there were no issues securing my "Trade NAFTA Status" and I am clear and ready to start work this week! Bring on the orientation! I can't believe that after almost of year of getting all my ducks in line that I can finally be a Nurse in the USA! Praise the Lord!

Comments Still Welcome!

Due to a hillariously persistent annonymous commentor, we have been forced to enable comment screening on this blog (we have to approve every comment before it is published). However, we still would love to hear from our friends and family who we publish this blog for, and miss dearly!

The Excuse

Well, we know, we know, you have all been wondering where we have been, what with no posts and all. Busy? You guessed it. This week is the last week of classes, then onto exam week, and the semester will be finished! It has gone so fast.

We did however have a week off for American Thanksgiving. The North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention flew us up to Canada to look at a church planting opportunity. It was nice to be 'home' for a few days, but all the miles, airports, and rental car left us a bit worn out when it was all said and done. It did however more than satisfy our curiosity as to who's winter is better... Virginia, or Canada??? Like that was a hard one!?!

The Majestic Rockies- doesn't get much nicer than this. (Though we had mixed feelings on our way back as we drove hour after hour though the snow and ice...)

We drove throught the Rockies into the Okanagan Valley, in British Columbia, where we visited the sponsoring church in West Bank (Kelowna). They have choosen Vernon, BC as a target area in need of an Evangelical church.


Vernon is about 45,000 people with the surrounding area population bring it up to about 75,000, but there are only 2 evangelical churches with any impact in the community that the scouts have been able to identify! We got to spend some time with the pastoral team in West Bank, as well as some time looking around Vernon and by the time we left, we were sure that this is what God was leading us to pursue. So, we have some hoops to jump through, but our plan is to end up in Vernon, BC to start a new church in about a years time! How exciting!!!

Who wouldn't want to live here?

And just for old times sake, we ran across a little "Engrish" on the way...