Family

The Big Move- an Update

Posted on by kimnjed

I’ve been chattin’ it up about Heath so much I figured I better give an update about where we are on our journey to Ukraine.  I haven’t written much about our move in this space recently just because there is so much still up in the air.  I’m coming to realize that is pretty much our new reality though, so I better document it anyway. 

This past weekend we had a massive garage sale.  It was great!  We sold a ton of stuff.  Remember we’d already had one garage sale earlier in the summer, and now we had another massive one.  I look around my house and I still feel like we have too much stuff.  Seriously!!  Anyway, we made great headway in whittling away at all our things.  Like now the girls are sharing a dresser and Jed and I are sharing a dresser, so we sold the other 2 dressers.  We sold non”essential” kitchen items, more books, book shelves, paired down our stuffed animal collection a bit, tools…it felt good.  

The next step is to get out of our house so we can put our mortgage payment toward paying off student loans.  Good riddance Sallie Mae!!  We’d love to sell our house, but we’re upside down in our loan, so we have to rent it out.  We’re planning on moving out of our house in October and then getting it rental-ready.  We’ve had a very generous offer from a friend concerning our living situation that I can share when it’s all finalized.  Let’s just say, God is doing just what He said He’d do!  As we take steps forward He opens up the path before us.  It’s been nothing short of miraculous.  

Right now the main focus is our living situation.  Once we get out of our house, get it rented and start putting money away we’ll shift our focus to how God wants to finance this dream.  There’s talk of mission support raising, non-profit starting, grant writing, business plan making…all stuff that is much more Jed’s area of expertise!

We’ve contacted a few different organizations in Ukraine that do work similar to what God has put in our hearts to do and asked about partnering.  These are mostly people and organizations we visited while in Ukraine.  We aren’t sure exactly how it will all look, but we just step forward in obedience and I’m confident God will work it out.  

To people who don’t know the Lord this all sounds CRAZY.  Believe me, sometimes it feels crazy to be living it!  But, in the midst of the craziness we have peace.  We have peace that we are exactly where God wants us in this moment.  We have peace that He is paving the way and making paths straight. 

So that’s a brief update about where we’re at.  Thank you for your prayers and support!!

My Kids are Posers

Posted on by kimnjed

This morning we started back to school.  We were supposed to start yesterday, but then our friends invited us to an amusement park, so obviously we pushed our school plans out a day.   
Livin’ up that last day of summer!
 Today, as I fought back the lingering nausea of the Tilt-A-Whirl and the lingering effects of Seth on little-to-no-nap, school officially resumed.  
YAY!  
Highlights of the first day…
1.  Cookies for breakfast. Yep.  It’s true.  But, in my defense, they have the word “healthy” in the title.  That’s got to qualify them as a breakfast food!…right?
2.  Desks to the rescue.  We just sold our dining room table.  Uhhh where are we going to do school?  Nice.  I guess I should have thought of that last week.  Luckily I remembered we had 4 little school desks in our garage that my aunt had given us.  I had planned on selling them since they won’t really fit in our carry-ons, but I guess I’ll keep 2 of them around just for good measure.  Sweet!
3.  Latte delivery.  My mom and dad love to occasionally surprise the kids with hot chocolate on school mornings.  Today it was Grams with Starbucks delivered to my door.  Cue Hallelujah Chorus.  Thanks Grams!
4.  Ezra rocks at math.  How is it that Ezra seems to have improved at math over the summer with no practice?  He is definitely his father’s son.  Math is my nemesis; always has been, always will be.
5.  Addy the tutor.  Addy insisted Havalah should start preschool this year, so we picked up a little preschool workbook at Target for Hava to “study”.  Addy could.not.wait. to help Havalah with her book.  It was hilarious!  
Addy: “Havalah, if you don’t like the way I teach you, just tell me and I’ll teach you differently.  Just make sure you don’t scream at me.”
 
6.  Seth the destroyer.  Seth took a 3 hour nap after thoroughly destroying the house while my attention was diverted to the big kids.  I’m choosing to think positive and call that a highlight.  🙂
7.  My kids are posers.  We walked to the park after lunch and I told the kids I wanted to take a couple pictures of their first day of school.  OMG.  Hands on hips, heads tilted.  I’ve never seen my children like this.  It was as if they were channeling Olan Mills.  Immediately the poses broke out.  Unbelievable.
Here’s the proof: 
Look at the foot back on the tree!  The hands! HA!
The hips!  The bowed legs!  The constipated smile?  Hilarious.
Again with the foot on the tree!  Pointed toe.  Seriously!
 
This one just kills me.  We never ever get smiles like this for pictures from our Seth.  LOVE.
8.  The biggest highlight of my day was seeing my kids excited to learn.  Havalah and Seth were so proud of their scribbles.  “This one’s for you Mommy.”  Seth put his on the fridge all by himself!  The Bigs and I snuggled on the couch and read while the Babies napped.  I was deliberately with my children.  Sigh.  It’s great to be back in session.  
 Aren’t they beautiful?  🙂

If Everyone Jumped off a Cliff…

Posted on by kimnjed

— 1 —
If everyone jumped off a cliff, would I follow?  Well, apparently I would follow Becki.  I saw Becki’s “7 Quick Takes”, thought it looked fun, and promptly jumped on the bandwagon.  I’m a fan of Becki.  I’m a fan of fun…so…why not?
— 2 —
Tuesday was quite the adventure!  We dropped Addy off at the theater camp she’s at this week and Ezra had spent the night at a friend’s house, so it was the babes and me for the morning.  I decided to take the babies out on the town. (Havalah is 3 and Seth is 2.  Yes, I know they aren’t truly babies anymore, but that’s how we clump our kids together: the big kids and the babies.  Thinking in twos makes it seem more manageable to me…somehow) I had a voucher for a free drink at Starbucks, so I headed downtown to get a free slice of bread and to get my drink.  The sun was shining, the children were behaving, it was blissful…that is until Seth decided to make a break for it and dart into the middle of the street downtown with oncoming traffic!  Holy cow.   If you heard frantic screams in your part of the world at approximately 9:54 on Tuesday morning, it was just me, having a coronary.  OMG.  He got all the way out into the middle lane before I caught him.  Not my best Mommy moment.  I hope my over-the-top freak out scared him into never doing that again.  One can hope…right?  🙂
On a brighter note, the guy in front of me in the line at Starbucks bought my drink!  I was positively giddy!  Thank you stranger.  You brightened my day with your thoughtfulness.
— 3 —
 Another thing that made my day on Tuesday was the generosity of a friend.  My super lame, super old cell phone kicked the bucket.  Poor red flip phone had served me so faithfully for so long, I couldn’t blame her for finally giving up the fight.  I mentioned to my super amazing friend that my phone had died and she proceeded to have her husband bring me an extra Iphone they weren’t using!  I’ll miss you old flip phone….er, well, who am I kidding?  I haven’t given old red a spare thought.  Now I can do cool things like…Instagram!  Thanks my generous, thoughtful friend.  You rock.

Proof of my mad Instagram skills
— 4 —
Wednesday was my birthday.  This past year of life was superb.  I can’t even wait to find out what’s in store for us this year!  While I was 32 we adopted Seth, we explored Ukraine, we made new friends, we decided to move our family across the world.  We had a busy year, full of wonderfulness.  Some sad things happened, for sure, even those moments were filled with love and grace.  God has had his hand on us in a big way this past year.  Because of His faithfulness and goodness I look forward to another year being led by Him.  Yay for 33!
— 5 —
Yesterday something really awesome happened in a place we love dearly.  I can’t share about it yet, but I just had to put that teaser out there.  Muwahahahahahahaha!!!!!
(I hate it when people do that, but since I so rarely have a secret I thought I’d give it a try.  I like it so far!)  🙂
— 6 —
My friend Sarah introduced me to Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt this week.  I can’t decide if I should thank her or disown her.  This new-found knowledge could be the death of me.  Dark chocolate with sea salt combined with the SUPER skinny SUPER bright red jeans Jed got me for my birthday are not shaping up to be a very good combo.  Somehow I’ll manage…somehow…

Old Navy jeans
(Not me…definitely not me if I continue with my chocolate spree!)

  

— 7 —

Havalah got her new glasses yesterday.  She scratched her old bifocals with her teeth.  HA!  What in the world?  Oh well, it was time for insurance to pay for a new pair anyway.  This time she chose purple frames.  I love her to pieces!  

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

The Family Blind Date-Love at First Sight

Posted on by kimnjed

Have you ever been on a blind date?
I never had- until this past weekend.
On Friday we met our friends Ben and Melanie for the first time and let’s just say, it was love at first sight.  🙂
Let me back up.
When our adoption plans did not turn out how we had hoped and we were praying and waiting for God’s direction and leading, our hearts kept coming back to one place, one specific group of people:  “The Lost Boys”.  We knew that we knew God had placed these boys deeply in our hearts for a reason.  We had no clue, and still aren’t certain what His plans are for us and those boys, but honestly, the main reason that drew us to eventually visit Eastern Europe in April, and the main thing that is drawing us to move our family overseas is those boys.  So, we contacted the people had been there before.  That was quick, because there are only 2 families that have adopted from there: Rob and Julia, who adopted Aaron, and Ben and Melanie who adopted Judd.  We contacted those families and I don’t even remember all what we said, but it was along the lines of “God has put your son’s former home deeply in our hearts…can we be friends?”  (I’m sure it was more detailed than that, since I’m a talker, but you get the idea)
Out of that developed very special friendships (after they all  figured out we aren’t weirdos).  We became co-laborers for the Kingdom; united for a group of boys that most people don’t even know exist. 
 Go team go!!!
All along our journey so far Ben and Melanie have been our encouragers extraordinaire.  Although we only knew each other over emails and blogs, it was apparent that God was doing something.  He was knitting our hearts together in a very special way.  When we finally got to Eastern Europe in April Ben and Melanie’s emails were like huge spots of sunshine.  They prayed, they encouraged.  When we thought we weren’t going to be able to see The Boys Melanie actually gave us directions to just head to the institution ourselves.
 (HA!  You go girl!) That is how passionate they are about what God is doing in that place.
Ben and Melanie live only a few hours from us, so we had decided that when we got back to the US we would meet.  The long-awaited meeting happened this weekend and it was all we hoped it would be.
 Ben joked to Melanie on their way to our town that it was like a “Family Blind Date”- kind of like our own version of EHarmony.com + 7 kids ages 8 and under.  Jed texted me Friday afternoon before they arrived and asked if I was excited.  My reply “Yep!  I hope they’re not weird.”  I was joking…sort of.  🙂
It was amazing.
When God knits hearts together He goes all out.
They arrived at our house Friday evening and when they pulled up I may have cried a little bit.  Then when Judd got out of the car and I saw his sweet face in front of me I know I cried a little bit.  We hugged, we laughed, kids ran a muck.  It was fabulous.  Judd, Ruger and Abraham are as cute as can be.  In Addy’s words “I love Abraham, his eyes are so shiny!” 
We had a great evening together, chatting, laughing, watching the kids jump on the trampoline.  Unfortunately the SD card to our camera was stuck in our Wii, so we don’t have any pictures of that night. 
The next morning we met at a park for the fun to continue.  We also got to meet up with a very special family who has a very special connection to all of us.  It’s a BIG FAT secret that I’ll be able to tell you about soon enough.  For now let’s just say that there are no accidents with God and He is too stinkin’ good to us.  He loves His kids and He loves the orphan more than we realize.
Sweet Judd
 
The littles playing together, pre-drama  🙂
A good time was had by all, minus the little spat between Ruger and Havalah.  Typical boy/girl drama that ended with Havalah wanting to talk it out, Ruger responding “I’m done with this nonsense”, and Havalah running off to pout.  Oh the drama…  🙂  They are so cute.
After the park we said good bye to the very special secret surprise family and headed off to lunch downtown (where my camera died…so no pics of lunch) then home for little rests before resuming the fun.
Pool time!
Proof that Addy and Ez were there!
Oh my word, Judd is such a water baby!  I think he drank about a gallon of pool water.  He would just face plant into the water with his mouth wide open and laugh and laugh.  He and Havalah were our fearless ones.  I think both of them were convinced they could just jump in and swim on their own and were slightly annoyed at our attempts to keep them safe.  Ha!
Judd jumping to Mommy!!!
Ruger
Next up was pizza at our house.  I think I loved this time the best.  The kids played happily and we got to just sit around the table and chat, encouraging each other, understanding each other.  It was sweet.  We told Ben and Melanie then, and I’ll say it again, their encouragement to us on our journey has meant the world to us.  They have seen the children, they have touched them, they have loved on them.  Their hearts ache like ours.  To hear them say “What can we do?  How can we help you?” were the most precious words they could say.  Any and all encouragement along this journey has been meaningful and amazing (keep it coming dear friends!!)  :), but there is something extra special about it when it comes from ones who have seen and know the huge mountains we are facing.  But- more than once Ben and Melanie reminded us that NOTHING is impossible with God.  Amen and amen.
Abraham and his “shiny” eyes
This weekend brought so much hope to my heart.  Hope that God has His big plan in place and it is better than we could ever imagine.  He brought us friends who instantly felt like family.  I can not wait to see what He wants to do with our relationship in the years to come.  Woohooo!!   This weekend brought hope in what God is able to do.  He is a miracle-worker.  When I watched Judd jumping on the trampoline, swimming in the pool, giggling in the kitchen, kissing on his Mommy it made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.  What a miracle!  God has redeemed Judd’s life.  When I think about where Judd was and where he would still be had he not been rescued it’s almost too much.  God has taken a boy who was invisible to the world, lost in a village, abandoned by earthly parents and given him abundant life.  
Judd signing “happy”.  Melt my heart!!
He is loved.
He is cherished.
He is learning.
He is happy.
He is thriving. 
He is Ben and Melanie’s sweet baby boy and we got the privilege of celebrating with them.
To God be ALL the glory for the great things HE has done!!!!
Love you Ben and Melanie.  Thank you for coming all that way to love on us.  You rock!!!!
Judd loved Havalah!
Kisses
Lucky Jed 🙂
Seth jumps high!!!
Judd lovin on Hazel

We Had No Idea

Posted on by kimnjed


 
Two years ago today we had no idea what we were in for.
It was a Sunday, I headed to the hospital to pick up a newborn foster baby. I remember the day clearly.  It’s strange because there are many foster babe pick-up days I don’t really remember, but I remember a lot of the details about this particular day.  I think that’s a gift from the Lord.  He knew I would want to look back at that day and remember the great things HE has done.
We had received a call from DHS on the Friday before that a baby boy had been born who needed a foster family.  The mother was a meth addict and used every day during pregnancy.  Their had been no prenatal care and the baby was born addicted, so they were looking for a medical home.  I remember calling Jed to ask him about taking the baby and us both not being so sure.  We were technically “on a break” from fostering since we had just finished fostering a very sick, high needs baby and were pretty exhausted.  We were also planning to leave in just 5 days to meet Jed’s family in Idaho for his grandpa’s birthday and a family reunion.  Drug-addicted newborn on a road trip anyone?  All signs pointed towards us turning this baby down, but somehow we didn’t.  I can’t recall how we came around to a “yes” decision; that clearly was the Lord’s gift to us as well.  🙂 
Sunday came along and it was time to pick up the babe.  He was born at our local hospital, and interestingly enough, he was the only foster babe we’ve received from our local hospital.  We usually do our pick-ups in Portland.  I headed over to the hospital while Jed stayed home with the napping kiddos.  I got there a little early, called the charge nurse phone and she let me know birth mom hadn’t left yet, so I needed to wait a few.  I had a coffee, my heart was beating fast.  I always get a little nervous and a lot excited before meeting a new baby.  If only I had known the journey we were about to embark on!  I think I would have been a lot more nervous, but a million times more excited!  
After a bit the charge nurse called and said mom had left so I was free to come up and meet the baby.  The sweet little bundle was in a bassinet behind the nurses station where he could be watched closely.  The first thing I noticed was his color.  YIKES!!!!  The nurses all quickly reassured me “He’s bruised!”  Good gracious his face was purple!  Holy bruising batman!  Still, it was clear to everyone in the room that he was a beauty.  He had striking white blond hair that looked even more blonde next to his purple face.  I asked if his mother had named him.  “His name is Seth.”  I remember being relieved.  I like the name Seth!  It’s always fun to have a foster babe with a name you like.  It’s like a special little bonus.  🙂  The nurse that discharged Seth to me was Mary, a dear family friend who was a key figure in 2 of our biological kiddos hospital stays.  Mary was the nurse to check over Ezra right after he was born, and she was the nurse to discharge us from the hospital on Christmas day when Havalah was born.  I should have guessed right then that with Mary present, God had something special in store for us.  (Shout out to Mary Musick, RN extraordinaire!!  You rock!)  Seth was discharged to me, and home we went, kids eagerly awaiting his arrival.
Seth, on the day we met
I remember walking in our house and setting Seth’s car seat down, Jed looking at him, commenting on his color.  🙂  We had no idea I was introducing Jed to his son.  What would have been different in that moment if we had known?  It’s funny to think back…we just had no idea.
Seth was a difficult newborn.  He was SUCH a poor feeder.  Ugh.  Meth babies are often poor feeders and Seth was the worst I’ve ever met.  He would suck and suck on the bottle and less than an ounce would be gone.  He simply had no coordination in his suck.  He had the shakes so he needed to be swaddled all the time.  He also reeked to high heavens. OH MY WORD.  He smelled so bad!!!  I can’t even describe it.  It’s like he was detoxing through his pores.  You know that lovely, fresh new baby smell?  Seth didn’t have anything close to that.  He smelled nasty.  Poor little guy.  Baths didn’t help.  Lotion didn’t help.  It just took time, and eventually he smelled fresh.  I’d never experienced that intense of a smell with a drug-affected baby before.  Poor stinky Seffers.  🙂

 

We didn’t take Seth in with the intention of adopting him.  In fact, when we took Seth everyone involved thought it would be a short placement because there was family involved who wanted him.  Nothing materialized with the family members and it wasn’t long into our time with Seth that we realized something was different.  Maybe it was because we didn’t have any visits with his bio-parents.  They were both out of the picture from the get go, by their choice, so that felt very different from any of our other foster experiences.  We had no contact with any family at all, so from the very beginning we were Seth’s whole world.  I remember when we first met one of his family members when Seth was about 5 months old.  It was at a court hearing and at that point we found out that the family member intended to adopt Seth.  It was a real shocker to us, and I think that helped us to realize how much we loved our boy.  The months that followed were full of ups and downs, triumphs and heartache.   It was some of the hardest times of our lives.  I wish I could go back in time and reassure my aching Mama Bear heart that everything would be okay, God had it all under control.  I remember several times when people in authority said it was impossible for Seth to stay with us and our friends prayed their guts out.  They prayed and they had faith when I didn’t.  They held up our arms, they cried with us, they loved with us.  It was the roller coaster of a lifetime.  A roller coaster with the best ending ever.

Seth’s Adoption Day!

To all of our friends who stood so close beside us during that first year and a half, THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for having faith when we had run out.  THANK YOU for praying, listening to our drama, and loving us.  THANK YOU for loving our Seth!!

Seth David

 
 
My Dear Sweet Baby Seth David,

Two years ago we met for the first time and I had no idea how my life was going to be changed forever.  I had no idea how much I would love you.  I had no idea how many mountains God would move to keep you in our family.  I had no idea how proud I would be to be your Mommy.

I hope you always know how much you are loved and cherished.  I could never have dreamed I would be blessed with such a treasure as you.  I love how you take out your pacifier to give me a kiss before bed.  I love how you hug Havalah when you see her crying.  I love how much you love chickens and the trampoline, trains and cars.  I love the “whoosh” sound you make when you find one of Ezra’s light sabers.  I love your beautiful blue eyes and your stick-straight blonde hair.

Your name means “Chosen” and if I had to do it over I would choose you every time. 

Love, Mommy