No joke– the very day after I wrote the entry about Imanuel being an easy baby and sleeping so much, he got really bad.  He started throwing fits and temper tantrums, waking up in the middle of the night, and screaming whenever he didn’t get his own way.  We couldn’t believe it.  It literally happened over night!  We started praying.  I prayed every night with the baby that God would change his heart and help him to be more patient, teachable, gentle, you name it.  I particularly asked God to give me wisdom on how to deal with the situation, because I assumed that God wouldn’t just turn Imanuel into a perfect child overnight.  We had no idea what to do.  To make things worse, we all went to the ministerial retreat at Camp Au Sable and he kept waking up in the middle of the night and would just cry no matter what we did (except when we gave him some milk).  We had neighbors on the other side of the thin walls.  It was a very stressful situation.  (Comparable to your baby screaming on an airplane–NOT FUN.)  Anyhow, I was really discouraged…
On the second to last day of the retreat, I was talking with Elder Nelson (ministerial director) about how terrible the baby has gotten, seemingly overnight, and how Israel and I have no idea how to discipline our baby.  Then, he said, “Are you sure he’s not teething?  He seems to be drooling a lot.”   I looked at the baby and I did notice that he was drooling a lot.  It had been about 4 months since his last tooth grew in, so “teething” has not been in our vocabulary for quite some time…but it did seem logical, but too good to be true.  Later on that evening when the baby was more settled, I took a peek in his mouth and I couldn’t believe my eyes!  His two upper lateral incisors had poked out of his gums and his two upper cuspids were just barely visible!  That’s 4 new teeth that have come in and we didn’t even notice!  I praised the Lord.   
Imanuel has gotten much better the past few days.  He’s back to sleeping 14 hours at night, however, he does still act out at times and it’s getting more and more difficult to tell whether it’s because he’s tired, teething, or flat-out rebelling.  And, we still need to decide how we’re going to train and discipline him.  I tried slapping his hand  and flicking (really hard–HONEST!) while saying “NO” very firmly, but he always ends up laughing at me or giving me a puzzled look…and then giggling, like I’m playing a game with him.  He’s not used to me being so serious with him (because there wasn’t much need to prior) so he doesn’t know how to handle it yet.  We may start trying the “time-out” thing.  Well, we’re just thankful that what appeared to be “terrible-twos” behavior hadn’t come prematurely like we had initially thought.  What a relief!
Anyway, we continue to pray that God will give us wisdom to know how to properly train Imanuel to possess ALL of the fruits of the Spirit – even at this young age!  (Hey, we believe in miracles, right?  )

The following picture montage just happens to be representative of the three ministries that we are blessed to be a part of.  The GYC pics were taken by Daniel Mendez (and I hope I won’t get sued by Mr. Mendez or GYC for using them!)  GYC is a ministry that is near and dear to our hearts and it always amazes us to think how far God has brought it.  It is proof that God still works miracles if by faith, we dream big enough. 
The next pictures were taken at the winter ministerial retreat at Camp Au Sable.  Israel was so blessed by the meetings and he’s made specific commitments to God as a result.  He’s made great friends and was inspired by many mentors.  Judy was able to hang out with Tamara Conway, Gina Stearman, and other “shepherdesses”- or as Justin Kim likes to call them, “the shepherdess’ staffs”.  Thanks, Justin.  Imanuel was able to meet many of the PKs (pastor’s kids) his size.  So, it was nice for him to finally socialize with other babies.  Hopefully it’ll carry him over the next few months.  Pastoring has really impacted our experience in ministry and we’re really enjoying it.
And lastly and most recently, we’ve begun our newest ministry with the two universities in our area – Michigan Tech and Finlandia University.  We are so excited that Alanna Knapp has relocated up here to assist with expanding CAMPUS to the upper penninsula.  It’s called North CAMPUS.  God is blessing the ministry already and we ask for your continued prayers!

General Youth Conference:

GYC 2006:  “By Every Word” in Baltimore, MD

Imanuel with Uncle Sebastien

Israel with Imanuel and Juan are happy after eating.

Imanuel and Judy posing for Uncle Daniel’s camera.

Justin says “the pledge” to Israel, David stares in disbelief, and the baby faints.

Israel saying “hi” to his mom on live television during the worship service.  (His mom wasn’t even watching!)

In the lobby of the Sheraton with Kerri and Juan before parting…

At Ministerial:

Michigan Conference Ministerial Retreat at Camp Au Sable – Jan. 21-25, 2007


The lake frozen over.

Israel and his pastor buddies:  Ilko, Eddie, and David

Imanuel and his PK buddies:  Elisha McKenzie and Abby Stearman

Imanuel and Aunt Staci

Gabriel Stearman and Imanuel Ramos – yooper buddies  

North CAMPUS:

Bjorn, Andy, and Idaliza – North CAMPUS students

Bjorn, Heidi, Pete, and Alanna at Houghton church

Bjorn, Yunis, Idaliza, Andy, Israel, and Imanuel after Friday vespers

The Top 10 Things Remembered & Crazy Experiences
By: Israel Ramos

10.  New in Ministry with David Shin (about to be Elder David Shin)

David Shin’s been on ordination track in Michigan for only three years.  And he may get ordained this year (probably will, but hoping he won’t because he’s mentoring me through my new life in the pastorate).  I had to beg the room assigner so that I could be placed in his hotel room.  We wake up and get ready to go.  I look over at Dave, and he’s sporting a suit–dark suit, white shirt, dark tie (looking like a model!).  So I ask Dave, “Bro, we have to wear suits?”
David’s break down:
Day 1 — Wear Suit
Day 2 — Tie
Day 3 — Casual

I follow Dave.  Show up to the meetings…not even the Ministerial Director is wearing a suit!  Later in the day, the president of the conference would comment on our dress.  Good times.

P.S. Our impression on the brethren was so strong that we skipped the tie and went straight to casual on day two.

9.  Our Freestyle

We needed a new car.  We just had a kid and we’re moving up north.  The only problem is that cash isn’t a spiritual gift (or if it is, we haven’t got that one).  Judy’s dad takes us in to Ford for a new Freestyle.  You know how every kid gets nervous when the dad starts negotiating?  Not this time.

He got us a brand new Limited Freestyle–loaded for less than what the base models were going for.  No interest for 5 years.  And then shocked us by putting down a generous “initial investment” (I’m a big-booker).  And the sales folk weren’t even mad at us.

8.  Summer Visits to Andrews

Visiting Andrews always brings back crazy memories:  Had some good times when I went to school there;  On one of my birthdays, Sebastien drove up for a surprise visit with some others.  He ended up being surprised though . 

This last year, we seemed to take more and more impulsive visits, at times bringing Jen back down to A2.  We chilled with Dave at his County Fair booth and at his church (Village), ate a bunch of baguettes (and other stuff, huh, Jen), spent illegal nights at Jen’s house, balled with Johnny, and participated in some GYC Board teleconference meetings with Justin.  We love visiting Berrien.

Everyone should go there…when Dave’s preaching.

7.  ASI 2006

The meetings were good.  But what was crazy about this particular ASI was sitting on a committee (GYC Advisory Board) chaired by Mark Finley and composed of some of the church’s top leaders.  From GYC we had Elder Gallimore, Mr. Clark, Dr. Pipim, Dr. Orlich, Justin McN, and myself (hope I didn’t leave anyone out).

6.  Ecuador

I got to preach in Spanish at a Spanish-speaking country for the first time since 99.  They’re getting ready to lauch a youth conference towards the latter half of the year.  Making new friends was nice.  Seeing David Salazar and lovely wife and Steph was a huge treat also.  Got to visit the beautiful historic downtown of Quito and went to the equator for the first time in my life. 

Since Judy wasn’t able to come, we had to chat every night via video chat.  We left the computers on all night so that it could be as close as being together as possible.  Take notes, traveling men with wives.  And thanks Sang Im, for interupting our family time :0)

5.  Crossing the Pacific (six times in one month)

Chester to New Zealand, Justin to Australia and Asia.  For sure one of the craziest experiences of my life. 

Got sick in Korea and I won’t tell you what was in the food and who ate it anyway.  But some of them were pastors!  (Shame on them.)  I’ll leave the other crazy details out of this post.  But good to hang with old friends.  Could have done without the illness and treatments.  I met one of Judy’s uncles for the first time.  If you think I look ugly now, you should have seen me then. 

NZ was nice.  Always good to be around Chester.  The meetings went well there…very good programs.  Met Dr. Lindsay there and he gave one of the best presentations on EGW that I’ve ever heard. 

Australia.  Justin was with me through that whole time–crazy.  Judy was due at any moment.  My bro’s family was in Michigan visiting us while I was gone.  At one point, I thought Judy delivered (remember, Justin?).  I ended up buying a shirt for way too much money because I didn’t pack right.  The shirt is nice though.  On top of the conference going very well, we had excellent food (Indian and Thai) and we enjoyed the same dessert every day. 

4.  Thanksgiving

The best Thanksgiving ever…for me.  Judy says that her best was spent at her cousin Angie’s house.  I think it’s because she still likes turkey and those times bring back memories for her.  We cooked a bunch of food, played a bunch of games, saw some good (and bad) documentaries (thanks, Jen), hung out with some of our best friends, and heard Sebastien preach and Dan sing…both were powerful.  I’ll use the sermon, but not the song…well, I’ll use the song in the shower.

2.  Jukes & Aileen

If we could do our wedding all over again.  We’d run it like the Namm Drs.  That’s all we’ll say.  And Jukes crying made almost every other man cry…including little brother Justin (but he won’t admit it).  Albert wrote a post about Jukes and it is so true.  One of the best men out there.  And Aileen is a sweetheart.

2.  The UP

Notice how there are two #2s.  Both of them were equally important to us. 

Everything about our move to the UP was crazy:

–  Getting the call–totally unexpected, to say the least.  But so nice to be mentored under Dave, one of the best young ministers out there today.

–  Interviewing–Justin Namm drove up with us.  It was a long drive.  Thanks so much, bro.  All the way up we were making fun of me potentially being a pastor.  The way down?  Quiet.  In the interview, someone asked if we’d ever pastored a church.  I almost responded “Not really, but we did pastor a small student church of about 50 students or so.”  Good thing I didn’t say that.  Our current church is smaller than that :0)

–  Packing–Judy was doing a great job until she went on strike because I was gone so much.  When I got back from a trip to Cali, she made me pack the rest by myself.  We loaded the truck with just a few good men–me, pastor Jeff, and Sebastien.  Thanks, bro.  I’ll never forget that favor–I was about to go crazy loading that thing by myself. 

–  The trip–we drove up with all of our pets (minus the fish) and the baby.  Try that sometime.  You’ll have fun.  Just getting out of the car to fill up gas is quite the accomplishment.  And then we had to get a hotel.  I went up to the counter and asked if they allowed pets.  The guy told us it was alright if we paid 10 extra dollars.  You should have seen the look on his face when he saw me come in with 2 cats, a dog, and a baby.  He was one of those highschool boys who didn’t know how to handle the situation.  But the pets were nice to the room.

–  The living–still feels kind of crazy that we’re pastoring.  I don’t really feel like I deserve to be a pastor.  But looking to David and Steve and thinking that I could be like them one day gives me hope.  They are the real pastors.  We love our church members and are learning so much about what serving others really means.  Our placement is perfect.  A better family environment, patient church members, and great lessons being learned about ministry.

1.  Imanuel Alexander Ramos

The best memory of 06 is the arrival of our boy, Imanuel.  The joy he’s brought cannot be explained.  The change he’s created in our hearts has been from who/what we were to parents.  We only have one wish for that boy–that he’ll choose to be a follower of Christ.  That he’ll be a living statement to the world.  A simple, yet powerful statement: God is with us–even today.  Even now.  Imanuel, I hope you read this someday.

It really is difficult to believe that it has been 10 months since we were in the hospital that Sabbath…me, laboring away, and Israel sitting on the little recliner chair.  (That’s really all he did for about 24 hours.) Anyway, it sure has gone by fast!  The baby has changed so much that sometimes he seems like a different baby altogether.  I mean, when he was a newborn, he was so helpless and skinny.  Now, he is neither of those!  Granted, he has slimmed down over the past few months, but he’s still pretty thick (& heavy).  And he is so active- climbing up onto everything and crawling around the house like he’s on a mission.  It’s been so much fun, though!
I think overall, Imanuel has been an easy baby.  Much of this can be credited to the fact that he sleeps so much at night and he started doing that early on.  I just cannot imagine what it’d be like if Imanuel didn’t sleep through the night yet.  Anyway, I think it’s directly a result of his eating habits– he eats a lot.  Since he started sleeping through the night at 9 weeks, we’ve gradually upped his bedtime from 10pm to 7pm and his wake time has gone from 6am to around 8:30-9am.   I know, it’s almost ridiculous that he sleeps close to 14 hours a night.  Anyway, now, the most fun part of raising Imanuel is seeing his rapid mental development and exploration.  It is so incredible to see his little brain working, especially when he is playing with interactive toys and romping around with the animals. 
(John, maybe you can come and observe sometime, then give us a counseling session on this…)
The dynamics between IA and the pets has been really interesting!  We couldn’t have asked for a better outcome, though.  The cats were always pretty cool with the baby even as a newborn.  Aroe definitely spends more time with the baby than Chance, but both are very patient when IA tries to do things like grab their  tails and suck on it.  Chance just walks away.  Aroe likes it, so we usually have to intervene.  Now Bentley, at first, didn’t know how to react.  But now, he has really been a part of Imanuel’s life and learning.  A couple times when I was pregnant, the dog barked really loudly and I could feel the baby actually shake inside me.  Now, it is rare that Bentley’s bark can startle the baby.  It’s amazing to see how Imanuel has gotten so accustomed to having Bentley around.  They play together (or near each other) all the time.  Toy stealing happens a lot and it goes both ways.  IA tries to steal Bentley’s toys, but usually Bentley just picks it up and relocates farther away.  And of course, Bentley is always looking for opportunities to steal the baby’s toys, even if the baby has it in his hands.  But, I have never seen the baby get fussy when this happens.  They interact so much on a daily basis that I think Imanuel is actually learning how to share and be more independent because of Bentley!  I kind of see the relationship (at this point) as Bentley being the older sibling who is struggling for attention.  Bentley has some issues with jealousy and selfishness, but I think he understands his role.  We’re so proud of him because he’s always been so good with the baby.  The pets have also given me opportunities to extend IA’s vocabulary since their schedules consist of mainly the same things each day – eating, drinking, being pet, sleeping, going outside.   I know it’s crazy, but I think IA knows what “go home”, “down”, and “no” means, since we say that to Bentley so much.
So anyway, I didn’t even mean to go off like that, but yeah, it’s been fun.  Once in a while, at the end of a long day, Israel and I find ourselves thinking about how crazy it is that we are married, pastoring, have a kid!, up in the U.P….  Then we can’t help but thank God for His faithful guidance and the many blessings that we just don’t deserve.  It’s been a crazy 10 months, but we definitely wouldn’t trade it for anything. 

Here are some pics from the past couple weeks…

Baby has taken a liking to biting on shirt strings/zippers…(and his mommy!)

REAL FOOD!  I’ve been trying to incorporate new foods into the diet (lentils, potatoes, olives) but still no seasonings…sorry baby!

But, he still likes it…a lot.

We had never let him go in the cage, so this once, we decided to see if he’d actually do it…and he did.  Bentley was super-confused.   

This picture was taken today.  We have a lot of snow and it’s coooooold.

Until next time!

A few weeks back, my cousin Angie wrote me an email and at the end of it, she put, “I can’t wait until Imanuel talks!  I think he’ll be silly.”

Imanuel’s repetoire is becoming quite extensive…(although still behind Bentley’s – a post in honor of his 2nd birthday – coming soon).  The following lists his communicative skills that he has accomplished in the order learned:
1.  “Give me five.”
2.  “Stretch!”  (which we’re in the process of Koreanizing to “Mahn Sae!”)
3.  Clicks with his tongue.  He’s quite proficient and will now respond when clicked to.
4.  HIS FIRST WORD – “ka-koong” – He mastered this one right after GYC.  This is his first word.  Unfortunately, it’s a Korean sound that is the equivalent to “peek-a-boo” or “koo-koo”…not really a word.  Kind of like Juan’s “uh oh” when he was first learning to talk. 
and most recently (on Jan. 9)….
5.  “Jem jem” – When you say these two sounds, (or start chanting/singing it,) he opens and closes his fists.  It’s very cute and it’s perhaps one of the first things a baby Korean learns to do.  I should try to get pictures of it because it actually looks like he’s motioning “come here” with both hands because he always points the palms of his hands up when he does this.   And, to add to the humor, he’s always smiling when he does it!

It’s amazing how quickly babies learn.  The crazy thing is that, except for him saying “ka-koong”, all of the other motions (even the clicks!) were things he did on his own first, and then I put a name to them.  So, he was then able to associate the name with the action that he was capable of doing.  I’ve tried teaching him other motions, but it hasn’t been successful yet.  He hasn’t been able to do them on his own (like folding hands together to pray and clapping).  It’s interesting to see parallels to my teaching experience and methods that help students learn quicker/better…but I’ll save my thoughts on that for another time.

Anyway, back to the point of this post.  (It’s 1:31AM, btw.)  Imanuel has been sleeping for 13-13.5 hours each night, but tonight he drank more milk than usual closer to his bedtime, so what I feared would happen, did happen.  He peed through his diaper and it got his pjs wet and he woke up…at midnight.  We changed him and then I held him for a while to get him settled down.  He got into his “I’m tired” position (laying his head on my chest, snuggling his face against my cheek, and thumb in mouth) and I sang him his bedtime song one more time.  After that, anticipating that I would put him down in his crib, he kept jerking his head up as if to say, “I’m not sleepy yet!  Don’t put me down!”   But, he was so sleepy that he couldn’t resist it.  He ended up with his head back down, snuggled under my chin, with thumb in mouth.  Anyway, just when I thought I should put him down, he whispered something to me.  At first I wasn’t sure if I heard him right, but he repeated it again.  He whispered, “ka-koong”.  I had to keep from laughing.  I said, “Okay, ‘ka-koong’, now go to sleep.”  And he kept saying it but louder with full intonation and everything – the entire time laying on my chest with thumb in mouth.  It was as if he was telling me he wasn’t ready to sleep…that he was still awake…it was so funny! 
When I put him down (and he did fall asleep soon after) I tried to go back to sleep, but I just couldn’t help thinking about how much Imanuel’s personality is beginning to come out.  And I thought to myself, ‘Ang must be right.  I think Imanuel is going to be a silly boy’.  

Imanuel’s first Christmas holiday season was spent doing of a lot of traveling.  We’re not exactly sure how much he appreciated it, but as his parents, at least it was nice to see many of our good friends getting to know and spending time with the baby.  Imanuel met some of them for the first time like Jeannie, super-imo-Liz, Michelle, Ellen, Steve, James, Linda, Andy, Ellen, Stephen, Sang, Alistair…and the list goes on.  We want to make sure as much as possible that our baby grows up knowing all of his uncles and aunties.   
On Sunday, December 24th, we drove “downstate” (that’s what people up here call it) to Judy’s parents’s house in Novi.  We got there by evening time (~9 hour drive) and spent Christmas with them.  We went golfing for the first time.  We had fun…making fun of Israel.  HAHA, jk.  It was a lot of fun.  On the 26th, we left for Baltimore for GYC.  It was a lot of fun and we were blessed by the messages.  You can watch some of the messages from this year at this link.  Hopefully the GYC website will be updated to include these messages as well. 
On Sunday, December 31st, we flew back to Detroit with the Pipims, missionaries, Sebastien, Amy, Stephanie, Jeffrey Rosario, and others.  It was also a special day because it was Auntie Stephanie’s 24th birthday!  Our flight ended with the stewardess making a special birthday announcement.  Then we were back to Novi at Judy’s parents’s house.  Stephanie came home with us too!  We watched the ball drop and that was pretty much it.  We were so tired so we went to bed.  (Although, Stephanie and Judy ended chatting in bed for ~1 hour or so).  Uncle Justin shared his room with Imanuel which was nice (except for the time when he came into the room and woke the baby up).  Uncle Justin’s girlfriend, Esther, was over too.  The next few days were spent “making an investment for Stephanie’s future”, making a couple visits to Ann Arbor for meetings and to pick up some stuff, and we did end up half-watching “Free Willy”…that’s Uncle Justin’s favorite movie and he was having withdrawls after years of not watching it.  We were playing “yoot-noh-rhee” at the same time.  We watched two documentaries which we would recommend – “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Deadline”.  And, our trip ended with exciting news.  Uncle Justin’s article was on the cover of “Michigan Memo”, the Michigan Conference newsletter.  Now he is officially published!  HAHA. 
Now, we’re back at home and it’s been nice settling again.  The sad part is that we still have Christmas presents/cards to send out.  We’re running tardy.  Hopefully by this week, that will be taken care of. 
Here are some pictures from our trip!!

Houghton SDA at GYC 2007.  Bjorn, Idaliza, Judy & Israel (Immi is down for bed.)

Getting a ride from Uncle Justink.

Meeting his Uncle Steve!

Back at Novi home with G-ma.

Hanging out with the grams…

Grandpa going to extreme measures (wearing Grandma’s hairpin) to bribe Imanuel to go to him.

Esther and Justin

Israel and birthday girl, Stephanie

Happy belated holidays!