Fab Friends | Wide Awake Family

Between Advents: Come Lord Jesus

Posted on December 14, 2012 by kimnjed

Advent.

He is coming.

We wait expectantly.

Come Lord Jesus.

As it is in Heaven, let your Kingdom come to Earth.

Tis the season of Advent. Tis the season of expectant waiting. “Advent” comes from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming”. Advent is the season of Christ’s coming. The world, swollen with expectation and anticipation, eagerly awaited His first coming.

Now we celebrate that indescribable blessing of Jesus’ coming as a baby. We hold our loved ones near, we smile more, we give thoughtful gifts of love, we eat too much sugar, we decorate with lights and tinsel, we celebrate how He saved our lives. Tis the season of reflecting on how that tiny baby changed the course of the universe- how that tiny baby changed my life. I am nothing without Him.

As Jed likes to say, “We are in between Advents”. The Jews waited for His first coming, and now we eagerly await the second Advent- His second and FINAL coming.

Jesus came as a baby to make wrongs thing right. He brought the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. Even now we see glimpses of His Kingdom on earth. We see broken bodies healed when we pray, we see loving grandparents passing down a legacy of love and faith to their children, we see friends crossing the ocean to adopt children with special needs- leaving their comfort for the sake of One.

But, all is not well with our world. We are standing between Advents- “the now and the not yet”. We see glimpses of His Kingdom come, but His Kingdom is not fully come.

Orphans waste away in cribs- their childhoods lost- discarded because of a diagnosis.
Innocent children’s lives are taken in one day- childhoods lost- because of the depravity of man.
Sickness runs rampant, wars rage…Oh dear Jesus, please come.
We wait for You.

This past week we recorded a couple of Christmas songs.
These songs were sung in celebration of His first coming, and in desperate longing for His return. We cry out, Come Lord Jesus! Make wrong things right! We long for you.

The songs are available for you to download on our church’s website. We would kindly request that in lieu of purchasing the songs you would please donate to our dear friends, Curtis and Sara Eriksen. They are in Ukraine right now adopting their newest son David. Their obedience is a small glimpse of God’s Kingdom coming to earth- wrong things made right.

Thank you Jesus that you came. Thank you that You still see. Thank you that You care. Thank you for keeping your promise that YOU ARE COMING AGAIN. All will be made right.

We wait for you Emmanuel…come quickly!

Click here to listen and donate. We hope you enjoy the songs! Merry Christmas and God’s richest blessings be on you and yours. 🙂

Weekend at the Farm

Posted on October 31, 2012 by kimnjed

We had a great weekend.

A rain-pouring, wind-howling, cozy-on-in”ing”, coffee-sipping, kid-cuddling, hair-cutting, late-night-chatting, friend-loving type of weekend. After all our moving and cleaning it was just what the doctor ordered.

Friday afternoon we headed up to the Happy Hartman Farm and we’re so glad we did.

Ben and Melanie visited us back in July with their boys, so now it was our turn to to visit them! Ben and Melanie adopted their son Judd from “The Lost Boys” institution about a year and a half ago and that’s how we got to know each other. We had been email friends for several months and in July we became real-life friends. We love us some Hartmans!

Addy and Ez were super excited to be on the road…hehe

It was pretty much pouring down rain the whole time we were there, but that was fine with us! It was perfect just being together, slowing down, enjoying each other, letting the kids play…

Oh how they played!

Jed and Ben burned up lots of stuff. So that made Jed happy. 🙂

Ridiculously cute Ruger. Stop the cuteness!!!

Melanie cut my hair (she didn’t even disown me after seeing the enormity of my split-end crisis!), Judd, Ruger, and Abraham were adorable (of course), sweet Lanie made cookies (delish), we parentals stayed up late chatting and laughin’ it up (my favorite times). It was a blast.

Of course I can’t write about the dear Hartmans without spending a significant amount of time gushing about Judd. Holy moly, Judd is amazing. He’s saying words now and it is so fun to watch him grow. He says “Mama”, “more”, “no”, “please”, “banana”…and more.

Judd and Daddy

I know I bragged about him when the Hartmans came in July, but I just can’t help myself! When I think of the life Judd would be living right now if God hadn’t plucked him out I want to cry. He is rescued!

Judd is precious. He is learning, growing, loved. He kisses his Mommy and Daddy just because. He hugs and signs “sorry” when he misbehaves (Havalah’s hair proved to be quite the temptation..haha). He loves Elmo and bananas. He is a treasure.

Ben and Melanie are so awesome. Many people would say that when it comes to caring for the orphan they have done their part. They chose Judd, fought to get him, and love him to the moon and back. They listened and obeyed…and they are still asking God “What do you have for us next? How can we continue to respond to this need?” They are doin’ the stuff. We are so proud of them and so thankful to have them as our friends.

***

On our way home we stopped in Seattle for a few hours for some food and fun.