Going

Most Exciting News!

Posted on by kimnjed

We have some amazing news to share!!

After many months of prayer and discussion, emails and letters, we have been invited to come volunteer at Mission to Ukraine in Zhitomir, Ukraine!!!

Zhitomir, (Zhytomyr) is just west of Kiev, the capital

This is our dream come true.  Mission to Ukraine (MTU) is an amazing place where healing happens. Hope is given.  Jesus is glorified.  What better place for us to learn how to serve the disabled in Ukraine, than from the ones who are already doing it, and doing it with excellence?  We are excited to serve the vision of MTU and help them in whatever area they need it most.

From MTU’s website: 

“Mission to Ukraine is an indigenously run ministry that serve the Zhitomir region ofUkraine. It ministers to the most marginalized of Ukraine – the unborn and the disabled.  

Children with special needs and their families live in a culture that is just beginning to emerge from the Soviet legacy ofdenying their existence. With limited access to state schooling, poor medical care and inaccessible buildings and transportation, the child with special needs is neglected and isolated by society.Mission to Ukraine offers much needed educational and medical therapies, practical assistance, and community.”

After we visited MTU last April we said to each other “We have to be a part of this.”  Now God has made a way and we are standing in awe.  

We are starting with a commitment to volunteer for at least one year, while learning and observing what the Father has in store.  MTU may be a launching place for other things, or a partner for the long-term.  We don’t know, and we won’t try to figure it out (remind us of that in a year from now...okay?).  We are going to serve and give out of our overflow.  God is the one doing this work and we say yes, one step at a time, trusting Him to show us what we need to know when we need to know it.  Scary?  Yes.  Peaceful?  Yes.  Exciting?  YES!!!!  Thank you all for praying for us and for God to reveal His next steps.  He is so good.

Praise God for His amazing way-making.  
Praise God for His plans unfolding for the fatherless in Ukraine.  Praise God for His love that never, ever fails.

Zhitomir Ukraine, here we come!

To read more about MTU you can visit their website here.
Read about our visit to MTU last April here and here.
Other awesome accounts of MTU’s work can be found here.  

Encouragement from "Dietz"

Posted on by kimnjed

All along this journey we have moments where we feel like we are being unwise, foolish or just plain crazy.

Here are a few quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer that have brought encouragement:

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”
(When moving out of our house, selling most of our things and planning to move away from family and dear friends)

“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.”
(Lord, help us to be wide awake and on the edge of our seats)

“There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.”
(We try to search for meaning instead of complaining or just reacting)

“We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”
(As we pray for the institutions, care takers and orphanage directors)

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
(As we sit in fear of the unknown, this reminds us to not be silent)

Kim calls him Dietz, I call him brilliant. Many blessings as you say ‘yes’ to the next thing.

Sunshine and She Reads Truth!!

Posted on by kimnjed

Hello from sunny California! Wahoo! Serious Vitamin D overload goin’ on here. My skin is like “What is that bright orb in the sky…and what so I do with this unexpected warmth?  Amazeballs.


We were given this gift of a vacation, 100% paid for by people who love us a whole lot.  They wanted to bless us before we head across the pond, so we’re off to Disneyland! We’ve been visiting old and new friends all along the way and tomorrow we hit Disney. We can’t wait!!   

This morning I had the incredible opportunity to share our journey to Ukraine with the lovely ladies over at She Reads Truth. I have been so blessed by that community over the past year. My dearest friend Sarah (who just happens to be joining us at Disneyland tomorrow with her fam…what???  Yesssss.) got me hooked and I haven’t looked back.  What a humbling, but exciting opportunity to share about Ukraine and what God is doing. Just thinking about he hearts that might be spurred to action on behalf of the kids we love so much makes me giddy.  Praise God for the chance to share His amazing story.

You can read our testimony here.

Alright, back to fun in the sun!  I can’t even believe we are here right now.  God is just too stinkin’ good.

His goodness is laughable.  Seriously.

 

Yes, Yes, Yes!

Posted on by kimnjed

Things are happening!  God is moving!

We’ve had some pretty exciting recent developments concerning our move to Ukraine.  I can’t share them yet, because things aren’t official, but you better bet I’ll share just as soon as I can.

They like to rub it in

This journey of Yes has been quite the wild ride, and it just keeps getting better!  

No matter where you are, no matter what is happening in your life right now, I encourage you to say Yes to Him.  Your journey and your Yes will look different than mine, and that is part of the beauty.  Just do the next thing that He asks of you.  One step at a time, one Yes at a time.  Many steps of Yes will make quite amazing journey.  I’m sure of it, because that’s the kind of God we serve.  There will be bumps, but keep on keepin’ on.  Just do the next thing.  DO IT!!!   My dear friend Sarah put it so beautifully.  I literally felt like a cheerleader as I read her post..yes, yes, yes!!  The cheers could be heard far and wide.  Please take a moment to read her journey of Yes here.  You will not regret taking that moment. 

To hold you over as you stalk our blog for more info on our move (wah waaaaaaa), enjoy some pictures of life lately along our journey.  Here’s to hoping I have great news to share with you soon!!

I’m kind of obsessed with browned butter in cookies.  You should try it.  Right now. 
Look at my new necklace!  Nothing like wearing dreams around your neck.  Love it.

Look what Daddy brought home!  Sugar overload amazingness.



I live in a Lego Factory.

And for your viewing pleasure…Mr. Smarty Pants:



 

Carried

Posted on by kimnjed

Pardon the stream of consciousness blogging, but the main purpose of this blog is to document the journey, and sometimes I just have to spit out my thoughts as they come so I can look back and remember.  

So, back in September we sold most of our worldly possessions.  Then in October we moved in with Luke.  Then came the Holidays.  Then came emergency surgery for me.  Then came now.  

With the emergency surgery came loss.  We lost our little baby that day.  I wasn’t going to blog about it, but it’s all part of the journey, and I know someday we’ll look back and see God’s hand in it, so I guess I feel like it’s important to say a little something about it here.  God’s grace and His hand have covered us so completely the last couple of weeks as we’ve grieved the loss of our baby.  We still grieve, and I know that road may be long, but I don’t doubt His great love for us.  I don’t doubt His plans for our family- every member of our family- even the precious one in heaven.  I don’t doubt the the promises He made and I know He will complete the work He started. 

Wonderful friends brought us meals the past week and a half as I recovered from the surgery.  One friend from church shared pizza and some beautiful words of encouragement.  She said that God is going to fill the empty space in our hearts with a dream.  

It’s already happening.  I’m dreaming about Ukraine.  My heart is broken anew for the little ones who waste away.  I grieve for their lost childhoods.  I ask Jesus to linger at their bedside and speak tenderly to them as they sleep.  I pray for great change to come in Ukraine- hearts to soften, more believers to rise up, greater faith.  My heart is broken for my baby, but in that brokenness God is reminding me of what else breaks His heart.  He’s filling up the empty space with His dreams.    

I know the enemy would have loved to use our great loss to derail us.  No way.  Not happening.  My heart aches for my baby, but my spirit aches for Jesus.  Wherever He is going- that’s where I want to be.  In my human mind I don’t see how anything good could come from our loss, but in my spirit I know better.  I have to trust that He sees and He knows.  I see how He has perfectly orchestrated His plans to bring us to this place.  He has prepared Jed and I for this since we were children.  Our baby has never been beyond His grasp.  This was not an “oops” in the heavenlies.  

Passion is rising, hope is rising.  The pain is there- sometimes so strong it feels suffocating, but hope still rises.  I refuse to be derailed.  I choose to be changed by this and my heart to be molded by this.  As one friend encouraged, I’m “riding the wave”.  I’m not muscling my way through the grief, but riding the wave.  Trying to rest my soul and mind, doing my best to let God minister to me in the way He knows I need it.   

I’m looking forward to the day when I can look back at this and see how He carried us through.  
He truly is good.  He truly is loving.  
He’s got our baby, and heaven looks brighter to me because of it.