On to the 2nd Trimester

Well... I am done with the first trimester and have now moved on to the 2nd trimester. I am now in my 19th Week! I had a very smooth 1st trimester and felt very fortunate to not have gotten sick at all. I only experienced being really tired, but now am not experiencing that as much anymore. It is really true when they say you feel great during the 2nd Trimester. So far I feel great and continue to not have any complications. We continue to go to monthly check-ups and the baby is growing and developing as expected. January 5th is our next appointment and at that appointment we will get to find out if it is a boy or girl. We are very excited to find out the gender of our baby. We will post the news as soon as we find out. We have been having fun starting to get the baby room ready. Sometimes it is overwhelming all that there is to get for a baby, but then I remember that there is 9 months in which to get it all and that is very helpful. I have posted a picture of what I look like right now. I haven't grown too much for the public eye, but I can tell that growth is taking place. Enjoy!!!

On other notes, Ben and I are overall doing well. Ben just completed his first quarter of Graduate classes and he is really enjoying it. He now has 3 weeks off to gear up for the next quarter and to enjoy the Holiday season. We are staying plenty busy this Christmas with Church programs and holiday parties etc. We will not be going back to the west coast to see our families, which will be hard for us to not be with them, but we have had to make choices in regard to traveling since Ben started Graduate school. We are glad to have each other and know that we will have a very enjoyable Christmas together. We also have plans to go to Kentucky to see the Mammoth Caves over the New Year break. We are looking forward to getting away for a couple of days and seeing some new sights. Those are the highlights about us. More to come in the coming months!!!

Ben In Seminary

At the beginning of September, Ben began Seminary in the major of Family and Children's Ministry. He is doing his studies through Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. Primarily his studies are done at home and from a distance, but 2 times a year he goes to St. Paul to have 2 week intensive courses. Right now he is attending his first intensive studies and really enjoying it. He has met some great people and gets to sit-up late at night and discuss Children's Ministry with other Children's Ministry directors. The program he track he is on is 3 years. Ben looks forward to applying what he is learning to the current Ministry. This is the only new update in our lives, other than expecting a baby. Otherwise we are just plugging away at our jobs and Ministry at the church. We are entering a very busy season with the holidays coming up and all that goes with them. We will post more later.

First Ultrasound

Ben and I went to our first ultrasound a couple of weeks ago and it was really fun. Seeing the baby makes everything real. The doctor said that the baby was healthy and that all the tests she did came back normal. The baby's due date is definitely May 27th, which was also confirmed by the ultrasound. Below is a small picture of the baby, but the best that we have right now. I (Christina), continue to feel pretty well. I have had to fight off a few colds, but have continued to not have any morning sickness. I have decided to keep pressing on with my 10 hour work days as my doctor said I will not experience this extreme tiredness in my 2nd Trimester. I have 4 more weeks to go until the 2nd Trimester, so we will see if I can do it.

We're Expecting!!!

Many of you have found out by now that Ben and I are expecting our first baby. We found out in early September and we are very excited. We will be due on May 27th, 2010! Soo.. right now we are in the middle of our 7th week. We plan to utilize our blog to keep everyone updated on how the baby and we are doing. We will even post pictures!!

So.. this being our first update we are doing well. I (Christina) am overall feeling great. I have not experienced any morning sickness per se, however I have found myself getting nauseous when I am hungry. After I eat something the nauseousness goes away, but it is sometimes hard to figure out what to eat when I'm nauseous. It really isn't all that bad and now that I have learned how my body is operating I know what to expect and how to deal with it. Other than this I have just been very tired and wanting naps a lot. This is not bad on the weekends, but does pose problems during the week while I am at work. Some may or may not know that I started working four 10 hour days and have Monday's off, which is really nice. Please just pray with me during those 10 hour days that I would have the Lord's strength to get through each day.

We have had one doctor visit so far where they poked and probed me all around and took blood samples etc. to be sure that I am healthy and that the baby will be healthy. All of those tests came back normal. We go back on October 12th for our next appointment and first Ultrasound. We are very excited to see the baby and to check on whether everything is okay. We will update after that appointment with a picture from the ultrasound.

Six Years Together

In the Fall of 2003, Christina and I were in a class together at college. On September 16 of that year, we took a walk after class and shared that we were very interested in each other. We got Slurpees at 7-Eleven and sat down for a couple hours in a park . I remember many details of that day because it was very significant in our relationship. Six years later, we're married and love each other more than ever.

Our Trip to Alaska

Greetings again from the Malans! We took a bit of a sabbatical from blogging this summer due to being extremely busy, but we are back and ready to start sharing our lives again. The best way to start is by sharing about our most recent vacation we took.

We recently got to take a fabulous vacation to both Seattle and Alaska. We had been planning this vacation for quite some time and it finally arrived. Here are some tidbits about our journey:

Day 1: Getting to Seattle

To begin our trip we had to drive from Indianapolis to Chicago to catch our flight to Seattle. On our way to Chicago our electrical system in our car decided to go out. The car was driving fine, so we weren't worried much until we realized that not only could we not run the air conditioner, but that our windows would not roll down either. It was about 85 degrees outside and we had to sit in a hot car, sweating for about an hour and a half. We didn't know what the fate of our car would be, but we managed to make it to Chicago (opening our doors to get air every opportunity that we had) and made our flight out to Seattle. All the meanwhile our faithful friend Andrew picked up our car from us at the airport and took it to a mechanic to get fixed while we were away. The Lord was good and worked all that out for us.

Day 2: Visiting Leavenworth, Washington

We went with Christina's parents to the small town of Leavenworth in Washington. Leavenworth was just a normal town until about 40 years ago when the city decided to boost their tourism by adding a section to their town that resembles a Bavarian village. Ben had never been there before. It was a quick tour of the town, but it was great to go there and see all the shops and eat some delicious salt water taffy. Leavenworth All in all we spent more time in the car than actually touring the town, but Ben was glad to see some new sites and it was a great chance to chat with Christina's parents. Plus, we took the "scenic route" through the beautiful Cascade Mountains, and that was great.

Day 3: Savannah's birthday party

I know it seems insignificant to mention a birthday party, but the thing is that we rarely get to go to family birthday parties since we live so far away. It was great being at Christina's niece's fourth birthday party and to be able to celebrate with her. It is so fun reliving the experience of birthday parties. Kids get excited over the littlest things, which is awesome.

Day 4: Fly to Anchorage

After spending about 3 full days in Seattle the two of us flew out to Anchorage Alaska for our own personal vacation for the summer. We met a nice lady on the plane that gave us lots of advice for our trip and ideas of good places to go and sites to see. She was very resourceful for us. The only bad news we got was that we were going to Alaska during their rainy season. We had prepared for colder weather when we packed, but not wet weather. Sure enough when we landed it was pouring down rain. We were a bit disappointed, but didn't want it to wreck our time. We were determined to make the best of it. Another funny thing about our first day in Anchorage was that we were driving around in the pouring down rain trying to find a place to eat. We found a place, walked in, sat down and looked at the menu. It turned out we picked what seemed to be the most expensive steak restaurant in town. We laughed about it and ate a great meal anyways.

Day 5: Glacier cruise

The highlight of our first full day in Alaska was taking a Glacier Cruise. We learned several interesting things about glaciers while we took a 1-hour boat cruise to see Portage Glacier. We didn't get to see any break off, but there were several that had already broken off and were floating in the lake.

Day 6: Hiking in Denali National Park
Unlike most national parks, Denali does not have many hiking trails, but the few it does have are very scenic. We started with a steep hike up Mount Healy and were treated with a wonderful panoramic view of the valley below. We had to hike in a little rain, but it was worth it. Later in the day we hiked to a nearby lake. The lake was beautiful, and it had some beavers busy cutting down some trees.

Day 7: Taking a shuttle bus 66 miles into Denali
We took an 8-hour bus trip into the park and saw several mountains and animals along the way. Some of the animals we saw were: Moose, Grizzly bears, a fox, a wolf, a marmot, and several Dall Sheep. We were able to see the bottom of Mount McKinley (the tallest mountain in North America), but not the top because of the clouds. It is actually pretty normal for Mt. McKinley to be completely covered with clouds, so we were actually lucky to see the bottom of it.

Day 8: Fun in Fairbanks
Just outside the city of Fairbanks is a town called North Pole, Alaska. We drove there and got to meet Santa Claus at his "house" and saw some of his reindeer. Then we mailed some postcards from the "North Pole" post office.

The main reason that Fairbanks grew to be a city was because of the gold rush. They have a park called Pioneer Park that has several replicas of log cabins and some actual machinery that was used for finding gold. They also have a Salmon Bake every night, so we joined them for some for some amazing fish and prime rib, along with other great food.

After dinner, we drove out to the Chena Hot Springs, a natural hot spring where you can go swim and relax. They've turned it into a sort of shallow pool with a fountain in the middle. Most of the water is comfortably warm, but there are some places along the side that are extremely hot! When the water comes out of the rock it is 145 degrees, so we quickly learned which places to avoid!

We were hoping to see the Northern Lights, and Fairbanks would have been our best chance to see them, but it was cloudy every night of our trip, so we didn't get to see them. However, we bought a book that has several great photos of the Lights.

Day 9-10: Return to Indy
The nickname for Fairbanks is the "Golden Heart of Alaska". The "Golden" refers to the gold rush and the city is close to the center of the state. Therefore, Fairbanks has a Golden Heart Plaza that has a nice fountain and statue of Eskimos, along with several plaques of historical information about the state. This plaza is positioned right by the river that runs through town. it's a great place to visit.

Our trip home had four main components. Part 1 was to drive from Fairbanks to Anchorage, seeing the same great scenery had seen on the way up. Along the way we stopped for lunch at Denali and picked up a few more souvenirs. We made it to Anchorage in time to get some photos developed before getting on the plane. Part 2 was to fly to Seattle, where Christina's parents picked us up and took us to breakfast during the 4 hour layover. It was fun to show them the photos and tell the stories of our trip. Part 3 was to fly to Chicago where Andrew met us with our repaired car. Part 4 was the drive back to Indiana. We had really enjoyed our trip, but it sure felt good to get home!

Back in Blogging Business

Lately I seem to be starting each blog saying: "It's been awhile since I've written", and I'm realizing that keeping up with blogging is harder than I thought it would be. Ben and I have been keeping very busy with work, church, our home, and trying to have a social life. With all that going on it has been hard to sit down and truly reflect and write out what is going on in our lives. Probably like most people we take one day at a time and try to accomplish enough to make it through each week. The weeks have literally been flying by and we can hardly believe that we are at the beginning of April and close to embracing Spring (YEAH!!!). The Lord has truly been faithful in our lives and we are grateful for that. I will try and highlight what we have been doing in order to not write a complete novel that no one would want to read.

Back in January we finally had the opportunity to go back to the west coast to visit our families. We were gone for a total of 9 days and they were wonderful! We enjoyed the relaxation and rest as well as a good time with each of our families. In light of having 9 days of vacation, it never seems like enough time to see everyone that we would like to see. We had some very full days visiting with friends and family, but they were fun nontheless. A highlight from visiting my (Christina's) family in Washington was going to the skating rink and teaching my niece and nephew how to roller skate. They sure were troopers and quick learners. A highlight from visiting Ben's family was our bonfire/cookout that we had in the middle of the desert. It was so peaceful and serene. We got to watch the sunset, cook hotdogs and roast smores over the fire and sing worship songs as a family. Going to the west coast also allowed us to get away from the bitter cold and to defrost in the nice sunshine of California.

In February we expanded our family (I know what you are thinking, and no we did not have children, nor are we pregnant). Instead we purchased 2 kitties to add to the excitement of our life. We bought an all black cat and named him jet and we bought a white cat with patches of calico fur and named her patches. We are having such a great time having them around the house. The black cat, jet, especially has lots of energy and loves to explore everything. He never misses a thing and has to be around in all the action. The other day I was loading the dishwasher and turned around to find him sitting inside the dishwasher with the dirty dishes. He keeps us on our toes to say the least. Here are some starter pictures of them. I will post more as we get them.

March has led us into beginning to paint our home. We are taking it one room at a time, but are excited to get some color on the walls to spruce up the house. We are gathering that it will be a slow process for us, seeing as many other things keep us busy on a regular basis. Painting is fun for us and a relaxing thing to do together.

Church Ministry has been going really well. Ben continues to love his job and is doing a great job. He is in the middle of a very busy season right now. Our church has decided to go to two services instead of one service. One of our services will now be strictly in Chinese and the other service with be for our new English Ministry. We will go LIVE with this on April 19th. The church is both excited and nervous about this new development. For Ben this now means that the children's ministry on Sunday mornings is twice as long. He has come up with a plan and now he is working on recruiting man power for the job as well as developing the program for the entire morning. It is a huge endeavor for him, but the Lord has been faithful in leading him to just the right people to help serve the children. We also are continuing to enjoy building relationships with the people at the church and love serving alongside them.

That seems to highlight the past several months for us. I hope to be more regular with these blogs, but can't make any promises.

Empowered To Serve

Last night Ben and I attended our Young Adult Bible Study and it was really neat because we have been studying in the book of Acts. We chose to study this book because we will be starting up our new English Ministry in a couple of weeks and we thought it would be great to learn about the early church development and the characteristics of the early church. Last night we discussed in length what true fellowship is versus just hanging out and having a good time together and also about serving those in need who are around us. In regard to fellowship we decided that true fellowship happens when we bring the Lord into our times of fellowship. It can look different for every occasion, but if there is no spiritual component to our times of meeting than we are just hanging out with one another or partying ( much of what the world does). It seemed that we were challenged to try and go the extra mile when we are gathering in the future to really engage in conversation with each other to get to know each other and to grow spiritually with one another. It definitely takes extra effort, but is worth it when everyone is growing closer relationally and spiritually and we can encourage and sharpen one another.

We also discussed serving others whether they are from our church or neighborhood or from somewhere around the world. In Acts it talked about the people selling things that they had to give money to the leaders to distribute to those in need. What an incredible picture of sacrifice! They did not treat their posessions as their own, but the Lord's and wanted the Lord to do with it what was needed. What could that look like for us today? One question that I wrestled with was whether I give my best or my leftovers. Also, do I really put my heart into it in order to see what the Lord can do with what I give. Often times I give with a half heart for my own purposes, instead of with a full heart and for God's purposes. One barrier we did mention is that often times we are not made aware of the needs of those around us. Often times our hearts are ready to serve, but we just don't know where to offer our services. Helping each other is a two way street. We, as people, need to let down our pride to admit when we need help and there needs to be people willing to give and serve where needed. It was awesome to see the passion in the different individuals of our group to really make a difference in the lives of those around us as well as those around the world.

The work of the Holy Spirit is utterly amazing when we let go of our own agendas and really let the Lord work. I hope our group maintains this fervor for serving the needy around us. I can't wait for next time when we discuss our spiritual gifts and really determine how we can be at work for the Lord the way He gifted us.

Celebrating All the Holidays in Indy!!

Where has the time gone. Looking back at my last blog I realized that a lot of time has gone by since I have taken the time to sit down and share what Ben and I have been doing for the holidays. Ben and I have stayed in Indiana for all of the holidays thus far. I (Christina) will not earn any vacation time from my job until the beginning of January, and there was not enough time during the holidays to go to the west coast to visit family so we stayed put at home. For Thanksgiving we started off our day going to the park and playing flag football with the youth and young adults from the church. We had a great turn-out of about 50 people come to play. I learned really quickly that flag football is not my thing. I felt as though I was running in circles trying to figure out what I was doing. I took over watching the youth pastors 3 year old son, which was much easier. That evening the youth pastor and his wife hosted the young adult group for a potluck Thanksgiving dinner. It turned out to be a wonderful, meaningful evening with a group of our new friends. We were blessed to have a place to spend Thanksgiving since we could not be with our family.

Next came the very busy season of Christmas. We had several great parties and celebrations that we got to be apart of. I will only mention a few of the highlights. One of the highlights from Church was the Christmas program that we had a week before Christmas. Ben had the opportunity to put together a short play for the children to perform during the program. He wrote a play based off of Luke 2 and each of the children played a part. You will see in the picture the angels, which are the kindergartners that Christina works with on a regular basis. They did a wonderful job, as did all the children and the play turned out great. A highlight for me (Christina) was a Christmas party that the youth pastors wife Grace and I put on for the women of the young adult group. We spent many weeks planning for this event and felt that it turned out really nice. We had dinner as a group, sang Christmas carols, decorated sugar cookies and made cookie jars that we could give away as presents. We had many new women join us for the event, which was wonderful because now they are coming to our young adult group on a regular basis. We love to see the growth in our young adult ministry.

Ben and I had a great time celebrating Christmas in our new home. We had fun getting a tree and other fun decorations to make our house look festive. Ben and I kept our tradition of looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. We landed on a gold mine when we found a house that was not only decked out with lights, but they had it set to music on a certain radio station. They had a sign outside of their house that told what radio station to tune into and then you could watch the light show. It was amazing and utterly outstanding. We can't wait to go back next year. Christmas evening we went to Chicago to spend a few days with our friends. We had a great time traveling around seeing people we had not seen since we left in July. Again, it was nice being amongst friends when we couldn't be with our family. The last major celebration we had was a New Years party that we hosted last night. We had about 23 people come through the house to visit and to ring in the new year. We even had a time of sharing/reflecting on this past year and praying for the year ahead. It made the night really special.

Soo... another year has gone by and Ben and I know that we have much to be thankful for. It has been a full year, but one of many Blessings and the Lord's direction. Ben and I look forward to this next year and what the Lord will do in and through us for his glory.