Asia traveling

Samara H. welcoming TCC travelers to Istanbul at the airport. 

Naomi H, Anna Williams, and Samara H. are happy to be reunited again.

Worship on Sunday morning with Julie and Brian Sylvester at the Houston's apartment.

Woship was sung in English and so was the message from P. Travis. 

Pray for their Kenny's new sermon series in 1 Cor.

Kindra H. with an amazing spread of Turkish food yummy!

Made with a neighbor-friend and then by herself.

Touring the Hagia Sophia (this last one was stolen from Julie's camera)

Public transportation = Bus, taski (taxi) or ferry boat

Brian & Julie Sylvester catching the bus for our Batman flight.

Istanbul is populated by 13 million people! 

Pray for these unreached people.

I know you'll want to see a pictures of Hudson! (Julie's pics again)

Zzzz's in the van.

Spiritual Walking

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

I often find myself exercising more as the weather is warmer, so the past two days I walked around the lakes and was awed by creation yet again. I love seeing the Canadian geese, woodpeckers, squirrels and the tall tress around me - I just had to soak it in. Glorious design by a great Maker! So I stopped midtrack in my jogging and started praying and the verse that has been on my mind recently is Ephesians 5:15. A spiritual walking through our life and He is watching, guiding, our steps throught the Spirit if we ask Him too. The wisdom of God is here in front of us - His word. Father may I become wise in the way I walk, speak and act. May you make the most of my time and continue the work you've begun in me.

Passport time

It's time to get my passport for our trip in March! I'm super excited to be able to visit some dear friends and family of our faith. I'm just getting crunched on time. The tickets are already purchased and I have no passport.
John is making several trips to Dayton regularly and he is getting more and more eager to move there. He and I are trying to pray often together and this time is so precious to me. I enjoy seeing him read a lot and it pushes me to want to read more. More aspirations include reading fiction this year, memorizing scripture, doing more outdoor activities, hiking, camping, or whatever that may look like. Our dear friends are expecting there first child - I am ecstatic for them. And as we approach the time to move I get a little sad and a little excited. The memories made here will last and so will the new ones we will be making.

tis the season

Well I cannot believe it's December 2010! As I was writing the date several times at work my pen kept wanting to write "11" (november) I still cannot get over it.
John and I are going to be celebrating our 6 month anniversary on the 18th - also my birthday! Yay I love my sweetie.
I made a couple of my presents this year for my family. Using iron-on stuff for fabric and I just made some yummy cinnamon rolls! I however did not make John's gift as I have in the past. We have a small tree from Michael's and hope to have a big tree when we live in Dayton next year.
We are also excited to go with our church TCC to a mission trip in March 2011! Yay John and I both haven't been together overseas yet. I'm really looking forward to it. As are our friends Julie and Travis Williams. I love the idea of keeping our heart focused on Christ's coming this season and looking forward to being with my family in 4 days! What a time of celebration this will be as we haven't been united since our wedding in June. I think Andrea just said she's putting up the tree and lights on the house. I cannot wait to be back. And I'm definitely going to La Casita once!
And 'tis the season to Live for Him.

Lately

Tomorrow I'll be attempting to cook my first turkey. I'm going to try several ideas, I'll be using an oven bag and suggestions from the Trader Joe's website on roasting a turkey and combine them we'll see what happens. I heard it's harder than it looks.
I've been happily making plans to prepare a meal with my friend Lindsey Davis. She also has amazing talents of cooking! We already know we'll have plenty of food and leftovers. I made really cute invitations with a turkey on them and the back states "Turkey fellowship at the Popes'" when and where etc - who needs Martha Stewart when I have my own creative ideas right? Well, I still like her websites on scrap-booking and her other inventive crafts.
John and I purchased a table today from Lowe's it's a folding six foot table. Yay for more celebrations and hospitality in our near future.
John and I recently traveled to Dayton in a four seater plane. It was really amazing. I love seeing the states this way. And by far love by passing the terminal, security and traffic at RDU. We just pop ourselves in our seats. Jack and his wife Ashley are so generous in helping our church plant from the very start. God has blessed us beyond measure. John preached on Sunday at Kionos, he stated that God has one mission not missions and we get to be part of that!
John and I went to Harry Potter last night. I was actually pretty scared at the scenes especially when the snake pops out. John is so sweet at any movie he'll let me hold his hand through the entire movie. I feel like his one and only princess.

note on ibuprofen

So I was told by a fellow nurse the other day: "you should give food when administering ibuprofen" who knew! I'm now educated, ibuprofen potential gastric bleeding. check.

I did apply to the fifth floor RN position, a pediatric unit. Tomorrow will be my first dayshift at the new computer documentation - Caredoc I hope all goes smoothly John reminds me just pray.
I just recently re-learned that Jesus prays on our behalf. Romans 8:27 "and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." I am so thankful for His intercession, Jesus knows what's best for his saints.

Life on the 8th Floor of Duke Hospital

Duke huddle previous week: CareDoc Go Live Week! (Interpretation: all nursing staff will have new computer documentation.) I guess it's not so bad but I've only done on shift so far. There's tricky icons, and ways in which you could do excessive charting.
God has been gracious to help me find some friends among the staff. People of opened up to me when I least expect it. I also like John's model of remembering what's going on in their lives to allow them to know I care about them more than superficial stuff at work.
I took care of a patient the other night and their heart rate increased to the 160's! Most people regular rate is 60-80's/per minute. However the patient become stable enough to stay on our floor but God is gracious to provide the care I can give her through Him. My mom has said that He uses our hands! I am also reminded that Christ is the ultimate Physician.
Then to top of the night we had a code, my heart starts racing whenever that alarm goes off! EVIDENCE OF GRACE: another patient had pretty poor color (by that I mean blue) I couldn't see much of this patient's breathing , and someone tried getting a pulse rate, so after our charge nurse started doing compressions I also helped out doing compressions - then the patient started breathing on their own again while the respiratory therapist was on the verge of intubation...wow cool the patient's color came back! Then because this patient was not able to get the intensive monitoring they need this patient went to the MICU which is right around the corner from our unit...lucky us huh.
If you can remember to pray that John and I are a light and illuminate sketchy places of unbelief in peoples hearts if God is willing at my work picnic on Sunday. :-)