Hello, I am 'jippia', 26, married June 7 1999 to Herman (30), living in Apeldoorn, Gelderland, the Netherlands, born in Hardenberg, Overijssel, raised in Coevorden, Drenthe, as a preacher's kid (Full Gospel) with one real sister (Esther, married to Joas), two foster sisters (Marinda, Shaila), later on one foster brother (Peter) and now I have two foster brothers from Togo (Ben, Yannick), all are younger than me, no kids, 1 rabbit (Jip), 1 guinea pig (Janneke), lots of hobbies and passions: reading books, tea, animals, walking, cycling, parks, forrests, beaches, heather fields, museums, castles, old towns, candles, flowers, pizza (I am a freak), singing, theatre, movies, musicals, writing lyrics, I love good conversations, my best friend's (Everdine, married to Jan) miracle baby Joas born one week ago (Docs said no, God answered YES), shopping, cooking, cookbooks, I do have something with socks and pyjamas, teach Sunday School to about 15 to 20 kids between 6 and 9 (that is one group called Immanuel) with five others in the teacher's team, sing alto in a choir (El Shaddai, 22 members), am involved in a children's prayer newsletter (Joris de Muis) and a prayer group that prays for our town (The Call Nederland, part of Soul Survivor Nederland), I like different kinds of music, my favourite colour is green, blue, red, yellow (I do not really have a fav colour), my husband is a drummer, works in an archive, serves meals to homeless here in Apeldoorn and together we are in a homefront team of friends of ours (Patrick and Marriëtte) who are missionaries first in Wales and now in South Africa, I was baptised in 1993, Herman in 2000, he is from a Dutch reformed background, born and raised in Apeldoorn, has two older, married sisters (Willeke + Maarten, Jeanet + Harm), five nephews (Jonathan, Matthias, Micha, Lucas, Jelle) and two nieces (Rivka and Laura, twins), his father (Gerrit) is an elder in their DR church and sings bass in the church choir, his mother (Gerda) is also alto singer in two choirs and goes for a swim with Herman almost every Thursday evening. I have two best friends (the other is Petra, married to Wilco), actually and I am a vegetarian. Anymore vegs here? My real name is Mirjam and my user name is inspired by our rabbit, whose name in turn is taken from a series of children's books by Annie M.G. Schmidt, Jip and Janneke. One of them has been translated into Latin by some students (was on the news) and in Latin their names are Jippus et Jannica (or something). We live in a small apartment on the first floor and we are dreaming about a house with a garden, so we can keep more animals (canaries, chickens, rabbits, Guinea pigs, fish, parakeets, etc etc) and to no longer portion out our birthday guests. And of course we will have more space and a garden with flowers and a lawn and such. My musical interests go from classical music to Hard Rock and all kinds of music in between. To give you some names I listen to: Michael W. Smith, Geoff Moore, 4Him, Carolyn Arends, Newsboys, Jars of Clay, MIC, dBA, the Tribe, Al Denson, Petra (the band), Whitecross, Whiteheart, Kenny Marks, Ralph van Manen, Julie Miller, Andrew Peterson, Martyn Joseph, Wes King, Rebecca St. James, Jaci Velasquez, Steven Curtis Chapman, Amy Grant, Iona, Ceili Rain, Bebo Norman, Graham Kendrick, Matt Redman, All-Star United, The Choir, Rich Mullins, Sixpence non the Richer, FFH, Elly & Rikkert. Just to name a few.
Well, now you know me a little. Hugs and blessings from the cold and rainy Netherlands.
