missions | Wide Awake Family

The One that Started it All

Posted on November 15, 2011 by kimnjed

I am so happy today. It’s a bittersweet happiness, but less bitter and more sweet.

Last year at this time we had no idea about the orphan crisis in Eastern Europe. We had no idea sweet precious children made perfect in the sight of God were alone in cribs forgotten by the world.

Then “by chance” I ran across an adoption blog that mentioned Reeces Rainbow and my eyes were opened. I thought about those sweet faces all the time. One face stood out among the rest. No matter how many others I looked at, there was something special about this one. So we prayed. We prayed and prayed and God spoke. He told us to go for it- this was our boy. We were so excited! We had prayed for this little one for months. His picture was up on our wall, he was the child of our hearts.

Well, most of you know it wasn’t long until we found out he was being adopted by another family. You can’t pre-select a child from that country, so another Reeces Rainbow family that was already there to meet their daughter met our boy and fell in love. God totally paved the way for them to add our sweet one to their adoption. Oh boy, the emotions that followed! We grieved and we rejoiced. We wept and we smiled. It was totally confusing and horrible and wonderful at the same time.

Shortly after that time is when God started leading us in another direction. I know I’ve said it before, but I believe God led us to our boy to turn our hearts in the right direction. He used our sweet one to open our hearts once again to the plight of the orphans. He knew it would take us fully investing our hearts and saying “yes” to get us to the point where He could then show us the next turn in our path.

Not long after that all happened the situation in our boy’s country changed. He was safely at home with his forever family when the office of government that handles all the adoptions in his country closed down to switch to another system. People who are in the middle of their adoption process are right now just waiting for things to open back up so they can go rescue their babies. If we would have proceeded with adopting our boy, if he had not been rescued by the family God had chosen for him he would be sitting and waiting for us. Worse than that, he would most likely have been transferred to an institution and possibly lost forever. Does our God know what He’s doing or what!!!? This just blows my mind how perfect His plans are. His ways truly are higher than our ways.

Now we are embarking on our grand adventure and he is safe at home with a loving and wonderful family that God destined for him. I am amazed.

I see “my” sweet boy’s face and I know God has an amazing plan for his life. I cried when I saw pictures of him this morning, but I can honestly say my tears are tears of thankfulness. Thankfulness to our God who holds everything in His hands. Praise God!

You can see pictures and a beautiful post about “our” boy here. I will always love him. 🙂

Seriously, God amazes me.

Back in the Saddle

Posted on September 23, 2011 by kimnjed

LOOK WHAT CAME IN THE MAIL TODAY!!!!!! I know, I know, it may not seem like a big deal, but to me this is huge! Ever since I was 13 years old I’ve been traveling the world. All through high school I spent my summers going overseas on mission trips. I chose the college I attended based on their summer missions program. I married into a family of missionaries. Jed traveled to Europe serving with his dad. Jed and I have led several teen and adult teams on missions. We have a huge world map on our wall and people we love all over the world. We fancy ourselves the vagabond hippy type (with a mortgage and 4 kids in tow)….hmmm…..

Four years ago we visited my in-laws in Kosova and shortly after that our passports expired. That was devastating to me. Not just that it costs an arm and a leg to renew them (ugh), but that we didn’t have a great urgency or need to renew them right away. We knew God wanted us here where we are and we weren’t going anywhere soon. He called us to the foster babes of our city and our heart was here with them. He called us to a local church where we have grown, loved, and been loved. It was a fabulous time of loving babies and raising up our own, but it felt like a part of us- or a part of who we dreamed God had created us to be was put on hold- maybe for forever. I know I sound a bit melodramatic, but that’s how I get about my dreams. It’s the high school drama nerd in me. 🙂 We were willing to go and God had us here. What’s up with that???

Fast-forward to January when God starts to stir up a season of change in us, then we commit to the sweetie overseas, then that falls through- but God does not. He is leading us and guiding us in the manner He knows we will follow. He’s smart like that. We don’t know what the end result is, but we know we must obey or miss the adventure of a lifetime. So we’re going. We’re going overseas in April. Yep, that’s right! We’re headed to Eastern Europe to scope things out and see what the Father would have us do. We’re lining up contacts right now, people who are doing awesome orphan care and seeing if we can meet and chat. We don’t want to reinvent the wheel, we simply want to see what God is doing and what part He may want us to play. We’ve got some pretty big ideas and dreams and no idea if they could be reality, but God knows. Perhaps He’s leading us there to meet our next child? Perhaps He’s leading us there so we can come back and put fire under the feet of the believers here in our town? Perhaps He’s leading us there to help for good? We don’t know, but we’re excited to find out!

If you would pray for us we’d sure appreciate it. Specifically we need to know who God wants us to meet with so we can set those things in motion. We’ve put lots of feelers out there, but want God’s ultimate plan to come to pass.

More to come!