the church

Blind Date on Sunday

Posted on by kimnjed

Warning, I’m in a bit of a mood.  Not a bad mood, just a quirky mood.  An I’m-not-sure-what-will-come-out-of-my-mouth (or fingers) mood.  You’ve been warned.  Now feel free to read on.  🙂
Today was loads of fun.  I laughed a lot today.  Don’t you love days like that?  
Today I got to go to Kiev Vineyard!  I love that place so much.  Jed was super jealous, and you all should be jealous too because it’s a wonderful place to be.  Hehe

Last year when we walked into Kiev Vineyard we felt right at home, and I felt that even more this time.  I feel like I can just “be”.  I don’t have to be “on”.  I don’t have to be a certain anything.  I am loved just as I am.  I may not understand a lick of the worship or teaching, but I understand the heart, the passion, the love.  Our hearts beat the same as the other hearts in that room and that’s enough.  
     

After church my friends Anya and Sasha walked me to the metro because I had a blind date with an American couple.  Anya and Sasha were pretty afraid to leave me to navigate the metro alone.  What? Me, alone in a city of millions of people I can’t communicate with, on the metro, alone?  What’s to worry about?  Ha!  I wasn’t worried at all.  

They wanted to come along, but I promised I would be fine. After I finally promised to call Sasha when I arrived, they let me go.  I felt so loved!  🙂
The metro is a people-watcher’s heaven.  Seriously.  Old people, babies, people in a rush, people taking their time, people with flowers, people with guitars, Babushkas with big grocery bags.  I just want to squeeze those cute little grandmas!  They’re so stinkin’ cute!  
Annnnnd I made the trip without a hitch!  Aren’t you all proud of me?  

I met Kevin and Debbie Nelson on my blind date and just had the best time.  I can’t say enough.  I love them!  The crazy thing is, I got their info from my friend Kim who’s been praying for them for a long time now, but she’s never met them.  Jed and I thought we shouldn’t turn down any possible connection so we emailed the Nelsons and arranged the date.  Then I was talking with a co-worker at the hospital a week before I left for this trip and she told me she has a cousin in Kiev and I should meet her.  Well, the cousin just happens to be the one and only, Debbie Nelson!  Ha!  Destiny’s child I tell ya.

Kevin, Debbie, and I went to my fave restaurant, Puzata Hata, so I was instantly happy.  We proceeded to spend the next almost 3 hours chattin it up about life in Ukraine and what brought us all here.  I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of the Nelsons because they are just fabulous.  They are real, funny, wise, and faithful.  God first took them to Russia where they served for several years, and now they’ve been in Ukraine for the past 8 years.  They gave me advice on everything from prayer support, to visas, to apartment choosing, to appliance voltage, to grocery shopping.
(You all know I was thankful for that one in particular!) 

I would totally consider a second date with Kevin and Debbie.  Too bad it can’t be tomorrow!  🙂
I managed to make it home to Olya’s apartment without getting even close to lost, and came home to an apartment filled with friends.  Success.

Tomorrow Olya and I head to Zhitomir to check out the future Johnson landing place and to meet with a realtor.  It should be quite the adventure.  House Hunters International anyone?  

Good night all!  A special good night to my Mom.  Love you Mom!  Happy Mother’s Day!  Here’s your present! 

(She wants more pictures of me on the blog, just like I can’t get enough pics of my babies while I’m gone.  Once a mommy, always a mommy)  🙂








Love, Tears, Hope

Posted on by kimnjed

In a land across the ocean there’s a small town nestled among farms and fields.  It has the look of many other towns and villages just like it dotted across the countryside.  Carts being led by cows meander down the lane.  People go about their lives of work and play.  This place is seemingly insignificant, nothing special to look at upon first glance- yet this town holds our hearts. 

Dream come true…

 You see in this town there is a wall with a gate.  Behind that gate our hearts are held hostage.  They have been captured by a group of boys who most people don’t even know exist.  “Our Boys”.  I know we have no claim to them, no right to call them “Our Boys”, but in our hearts they are that.  They are our loved ones, our calling, our dream.  

One day in 2010 God caught our attention and we learned about The Boys.  Since that first moment they have held our hearts.  We have prayed for them, we have wept for them, we have pleaded to God for them.  Last April we got to touch them, look into their eyes, and whisper prayers over them.  I still can’t even believe God did that.  It seems like a dream.  I would give just about anything to be back in that place right this very minute.  Somehow we know God has called us there.  We have no idea what God has in store for us and them…but that place, those boys…He’s drawing us, coaxing us, keeping our hearts soft toward them, leading us there in His simple way that says “You’ll know my plans when you need to know.  Just trust Me.”

Today there is heartache for our dear, sweet Boys we love so very much.  

Today we learned that Sasha, one of the Boys, passed away into the arms of Jesus.  

Sasha

I can’t stop crying.  You see, Sasha had a family who loved him very much.  He was lost no longer! They were working as fast as possible to complete his adoption.  They had just found out last week that they would get to travel to rescue their baby boy in just 5 weeks.  Oh the celebration!  Oh the anticipation!  Oh the devastation.  

Sweet Sasha, who they were going to name Jonathan, would never have the joy of a family here on earth.  Please keep his loving family in your prayers.  They are so grieved, yet trusting God.  Their faith is so inspiring. Sasha was eight years old and had Down Syndrome.  He was not mobile and most likely spent his life in a crib.  Now He is with Jesus- no more pain, no more tears, no more suffering.  

Now we are the ones with tears.  

I know we‘ve said many times, but it still holds true;

 “Do the next thing.  Say yes to Jesus.  Live a life of yes.”

These children need us to act.  These children need us to not turn away because the need is too great.  These children need us to look past our ideas of what our lives would look like and be willing to veer left. These children need us to be the hands and feet of Jesus on this earth.  If not us, who?  If not now, when?  

These children need us to live lives of yes.

Not lives of waiting until all the circumstances are just right.  
Not lives lived in fear of the unknown.  
Not lives spent building our own kingdoms.  

If we are listening to Jesus and saying yes to Him, the circumstances are right- even if they don’t look it with our human eyes.  “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”  Isaiah 55:8
If we are trusting Jesus and saying yes to Him, He gives us peace when we are fearful.  He gives us boldness to step out into the unknown and even joy in the journey.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33


If we are saying yes to Jesus we are interested in building His kingdom, not our own. “May your kingdom come. May your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  Matthew 6:10
“…not my will, but yours be done.”  Luke 22:42

I don’t want to be harsh.  I hope and pray I don’t sound condemning, I just have to speak out.  These children need a voice and because I know them and love them, I simply must speak for them.   

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Jeremiah 29:11
That verse is not just for you and me.  That verse is not just for the able-bodied.  God has purpose and plans for all people.  He has a hope and a future for all people.   

We recognize that orphans with special needs are our “yes”, so we’re going to be pretty outspoken about their need.  But the bigger point of all of this is that each of us say yes to whatever it is God is asking of us.  If it‘s not this issue- then find your issue and go do something about it.  Act.  Say yes.  Don’t hold back.  Live life to the fullest for Him.  Your life, and the lives of others depend on it. 

Between Advents: Come Lord Jesus

Posted on 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.  🙂

End of an Era

Posted on by kimnjed

Along this journey to Ukraine there are many things we have had to let go, or will have to let go.   This month we are letting go of something very important, and along with that comes the end of an era.  We are letting go of our foster care license.  Of course we know we can’t still be state-certified foster parents while living in Ukraine, and we haven’t been open to taking any kiddos since we made the decision to move our family to Ukraine, but…we still held on to our certification.  We were still foster parents. 



We ran into our certifier (our fabulous assigned “go-to” person at DHS) at the store a week or so ago.  She mentioned that she has been following our story through our blog and is excited about what God is doing in and through our fam.  Hi Judi! 🙂  She asked if she should just go ahead and close out our file, and we had to tell her yes.  If we were to stay certified we would have to have DHS come out and check out Luke’s house, Luke would have to be fingerprinted and all that jazz.  That would all be okay, except for a promise we made to ourselves when we first started fostering.  

Back in 2006, when our foster parenting journey began, we promised ourselves if we took a child into our home we would keep them in our home, no matter what, unless someone else decided they should move.  We wouldn’t give up on a child when the going got tough.  That was tested a time or two, but with God’s help we kept our word.  If we were to take a child at this time I’m not sure we would be able to keep our word.  When you receive a child from DHS you never know how long they will stay with you.  Seth was supposed to be a “short placement”, and here he is, 2 1/2 years later, our son for life.  🙂  We plan to move in a year, so we just know we can’t take any more foster kiddos at this time.  

Foster Baby #1- always extra special to us

So, I guess this is so long to an era.  Our foster parenting era has been life-changing, to put it mildly.  I’ve said it before and and I’ll say it again, foster parenting is one of the best and definitely the most difficult thing we’ve ever done in our lives. (Yet!)

 It shaped our family, it grew us as people, it taught us reliance on the Lord instead of our own strength (still learning that!), it built our faith, it gave us a son.

Yes, there are problems with the foster care system.  Yes, it is tiring.  Yes, it is putting yourself out there, knowing your heart will be broken.  Yes, it is infuriating.  Yes, it is worth it.  

 

Because if you can look past the broken system and see the broken lives that God has given us, the church, to care for, it’s a no-brainer. 

The children are worth it.  They are worth fighting for.  
The parents are worth it.  They are worth loving and believing in.  



 
The system is broken and it fails people every day.  That is a problem.  But the bigger problem is that God has given the responsibility of caring for these lives to His Bride, the church, and we have passed them off to the state.  People will fail.  BUT God’s love never fails, and no matter who they are and what they’ve done or have failed to do- no one is beyond hope.  No one is beyond His grasp.  The state can’t fix these lives and these broken situations, but God can.  He can mend, heal, lift up, restore- and He asks us to be His hands and feet.  


We have come to the end of our fostering journey (for now!).  As we exit stage left, I would just ask you to prayerfully consider your part in caring for the orphans in your town.  How can you be His hands and feet to the broken lives around you?  

Could you foster?
Could you give respite for a weary foster parent in the thick of it?
Could you bring a meal to a foster family?
Could you donate clothes or gently used children’s gear to your local Child Welfare office?
Could you pray?

Our torch is being set down, will you take it up?  
Trust me, if we can do it, broken and human as we are, you can do it too! 

Just be prepared to never be the same.  🙂


You can read more about our story of foster care here:

Foster Care Ponderings: Part 1, Our Story

Foster Care Ponderings: Part 2, Our Story

Foster Care Ponderings: Part 3, Biological Parents

Weekend at the Farm

Posted on 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.

  
Thank you Ben and Melanie for all the food, chats, and lovin’.  We can’t wait to come back!!!! 
We just need to rest up a bit first.  🙂

PS: Our camera is not to be found since our move…hence the sketchy phone pictures.  I promise to do better next time!  🙂