Wide Awake International | Wide Awake Family

The Front Lines

Posted on October 15, 2016 by kimnjed

Last night, in the middle of the night, we stood outside the orphanage, unsure of what to do. A young child lay dying inside and never had we felt so helpless. All the details of what transpired are for a later post, as a lot is still unresolved, but last night there was a fight for his life on all levels, and I will never ever forget it. For now, he lives.

Lately we have felt pressed on all sides. Lately it’s felt like the difficulties will never stop and the obstacles will just keep on coming without relief. Several times over the past couple of months we’ve said “Something’s gotta give.” Some days we felt like we just couldn’t take one more challenge. It all just feels like too much.

BUT

Then we remember the big picture. We are not simply fighting an injust system. We are not just battling passport officers and city administrators and higher-ups only looking to fill their pockets. This battle is not against flesh and blood.

We are fighting for lives. We are fighting for precious souls who have been discarded by the world. We are fighting for God’s Kingdom to come in a very dark place. We are fighting for glimpses of Heaven to break through. And we do not fight alone. God goes before us and this is HIS battle.

Right now our team is on the front lines and we are advancing. Look what God is doing!

Our sweet Stephan will have a family! Yes, a family has committed to adopting our little love. It’s a miracle. He will have a future. He will be saved. They are in the beginning stages of paperwork, but they love him and are fighting to get to him.

Two other families are still working hard to adopt Isaiah and Jonathan. They have hit many roadblocks along the way, but progress is being made and we are confident that God goes before them.

The new roof is going up on our Wide Awake property house. Every day brings us closer to bringing our boys out for good.

Next week our family will submit our documents for permanent residency. Once we get permission to stay here forever it will be much easier for us to register Wide Awake as a Ukrainian non-profit. That will be a big and necessary step toward getting our boys out.

Jed and Den, our pastor and board member, met with the Ukrainian Ombudsman for the Rights and Protection of children to discuss Wide Awake’s vision and plans. The President’s office is aware of our team and the work. Relationship is building there and who knows how God plans to use that?

All of this is thanks to God. He gets the glory for every single bit of it because there is NO WAY we could have strategized enough or worked hard enough for this kind of advancement. We certainly would have screwed it all up. God loves our Boys so very much and He is clearing the way for the freedom. HE is doing all of this, not us.

So, it is no wonder that we meet resistance. It’s no wonder that with all of this amazing stuff happening that we meet obstacles of every kind. It’s no wonder that our hearts get overwhelmed and we are hit with trial after trial. It’s no wonder that we get afraid and intimidated and distracted. The enemy will not give up his ground so easily.

Last night, standing in the cold, knowing death was near, we were on the very edge of the front line. We were in the line of fire. Never in your life can you be prepared for a moment like that. Never in your life could you imagine that you would need to convince medical professionals of the value and worth of a life.

Friends, we need prayer like never before. The battle is heating up and much is at stake. We need supernatural wisdom like never before. We need favor with government officials and orphanage administration. We need to know when to push and when to hold back. Most of all we just need Jesus. We need to have his heart and his eyes. We need to remain humble and small in our own eyes, that He might be lifted up. We need to simply say yes and give Him the control. He loves our boys more than we ever could.

Please pray for our new little one who is so sick. I will give details as I am able. Thank you!

Meanwhile, Back in Ukraine…

Posted on August 3, 2016 by kimnjed

We made it! We’ve been back in Ukraine for almost a week now, and all is well. We hit the ground running. I guess I’m learning that that’s kind of our style. We don’t really know how to ease into anything. 🙂 The travel was great (minus a four hour stint in a Kyiv parking lot due to a busted belt on the van…but that’s another story). Our puppy made it with us safe and sound too, for all the curious animal-lovers out there. No one left behind!

It’s great to be back with our team, with our friends, with our church. It’s a relief to know that our family is all together and we’re going to stay that way indefinitely. No more trying to live on both sides of the ocean at once. It may take a while for my heart to settle into that fact. Whew!

The big, huge news is that on Monday we purchased the Wide Awake property!!! It’s official!

The property is in a nearby village called “Ivanivka”. We chose Ivanivka because it’s super close to Zhytomyr, but with plenty of awesome land for sale. We will be within a community and close to the city, but with space to grow and garden, and space for our boys to enjoy nature and peace without being isolated. Our team and friends can easily take the city bus to Ivanivka, and our property is not far off the main road, so it’s easily accessible, since most of our friends don’t have cars.
The property itself is a little under 2 acres. There is an old house at the front of the property, and our family will live in that house after we do some renovating. It’s not a house that would ever be ideal for our boys, but it will suit our family just fine. There are established gardens behind the house, several mature fruit trees, and a big grassy field where we plan to build two more small houses that will be home to 4 boys each. The back of the property is bordered by huge trees. It’s just beautiful! There are several small outer buildings on the property that have had various uses over the years. We’ll keep some of them and tear down others.

The plan of attack, after deciding on a contractor and work crew, is to tackle plumbing, kitchen, and heating. The floors have to be taken out to do the heating, and right now there is no indoor bathroom or kitchen, so those three things have to be done before our family can move in. Once we are in we will begin work on an addition to the back of the house. The addition will be home to the first four boys who come out of the institution!

So, we’ve got our work cut out for us! The house is old, but structurally sound. The property has great potential, but a lot must be done before anyone lives there. It can be a bit (or a lot) daunting when we think of how much needs to be done fairly quickly, so it’s imperative that we just put one foot in front of the other, one day at a time. Yikes. In the meantime we’re renting an apartment that we lived in during our first year in Ukraine.

We are so thankful to each one of you who gave to make this property a reality. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for believing in the vision. Thank you for loving our boys and for loving us. Thank you for your YES!

For more pics of the land check out this link: https://wideawakefamily.com/2016/05/17/wide-awake-property/

An Invitation

Posted on May 25, 2016 by kimnjed

We would like to invite you to a very special event!

Thursday, June 30th at 7pm we are hosting “An Evening With Wide Awake” at the Kroc Center in Salem, Oregon.

Our family’s time here in the US is quickly winding down and we are itching for an opportunity to meet face to face with the ones who have helped to make all of this possible. I can blog the heck outta this thing, but there is truly nothing like being in the same room and telling stories, live, in person.

If you are in, or around the Salem area we would absolutely LOVE to see you there!

We’ll share about where we’ve been, and where we hope to go in this next year: land purchase, freedom for the first four boys, interns, adoptions…and all that good stuff.

And just to sweeten the deal a bit, I’ve got to tell you that our friend and partner Denis Dmitrov will be there too- all the way from Ukraine! Denis is our pastor in Ukraine. The church that he pastors, Christian Youth Church, is where we, and almost 100% of our volunteers attend. Christian Youth Church has taken on Romaniv as a ministry of the church and it is a miraculous partnership that only God could have planned. Denis will be visiting the US for the first time ever and we are super excited for Wide Awake supporters to meet him and hear a bit about the work from his perspective.

So, please come! Invite a friend! This is the perfect opportunity for people to be introduced to what Wide Awake is all about. I can’t wait to see you and give you a big fat hug (and I’m not even a hugger…that’s how excited I am about this).

If you have any questions about this event, please don’t hesitate to ask. You can comment here, or email me at kjohnson@wideawakeinternational.org

Wide Awake Property!

Posted on May 17, 2016 by kimnjed

Jed came back to Oregon on Friday after spending the last month in Ukraine. He had a great, full time working with our church community, interns, spending time with the boys, working on a special project, meeting with partners, and generally just gettin’ stuff done.
One HUGE, major, important thing he has been working on during his last two trips has been scouting out land for us to purchase. The dream of Wide Awake is deinstitutionalization. We want our boys out. In order to get them out we have to have somewhere for them to live, right? Right. We don’t want them to live just anywhere. We want them to live in nature, surrounded by beauty and land and gardens and fruit trees and people who love them. We want them in a neighborhood, not in isolation. We want them to have occupation, purpose: working the land to help provide for themselves as they are able. That dream requires a special piece of land, and Jed has been on the hunt for the perfect place.

We think he’s found it!

The land he found is approximately 1.3 acres and will be a great beginning spot for our first three Wide Awake homes. It is in a village a couple kilometers from Zhytomyr, has an existing reeeeeeeally old home on it, and space to build 2 other cottages. Thanks to our outrageously generous donors and outlandish end-of-the-year giving, we have the funds to purchase the land and renovate the house (it has no indoor plumbing…yikes!). We plan to add an ADA standard addition to the house as soon as we have the money for it.

Things are getting very, very exciting.

The current plan is that Jed will return to Ukraine mid-June to purchase the land on behalf of Wide Awake. We are also beginning the process, as a family, to obtain Ukrainian permanent residency. Because we are the parents of a Ukrainian citizen, we have the possibility of permanent residency, and that will work in our favor on many levels.

As a family, we are planning to return to Ukraine at the end of July or the first week of August. The idea is that we will live in the old house and four boys will live in the addition with loving caretakers. There are four boys, actually men, who turn 35 this year. We need to be ready to intercept them before they are sent to an adult institution. That means we need to move quickly and be ready for them come winter.

It’s crazy. It’s all becoming more real every day. There are many, many logistics to work out as far as care of the boys goes. Three of the boys we hope to bring home are non-interactive. If you were to visit Romaniv you would not notice them. We weren’t even confident of their names until they were confirmed on paper. The nannies didn’t know their names. They are some of the ones who sit on benches all day every day, alone in their own minds. They are not very receptive to human touch and do not respond much to interaction of any kind. The fourth boy is social and interactive. Everyone knows him and loves him. They are all survivors. Anyone who has lived that long in Romaniv is a survivor and we believe their potential is great. You know, we are ready to love them just as they are. We have hopes and dreams for them: hope for healing, dreams for full lives, but if all they ever know is that they are safe and loved and they never resp0nd to us as we dream- that’s okay. They are our sweet boys and we love them. They deserve the best.

So, one step at a time we move forward. There are many unknowns, so please pray for us that we are not fearful and that we will simply listen and obey. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when we think of the big picture. We really need to hear from God.

We can not thank you enough for giving of your love, your finances, and your prayers. This would be absolutely impossible without people praying and giving money. There is no way we could do any of this on our own. THANK YOU for journeying with us. It’s about to get crazy up in here, so stick around and enjoy the ride!

If you would like to give a donation specifically for the Wide Awake Building Fund you can do so here.

The First Time

Posted on April 20, 2016 by kimnjed

Four years ago today we met our boys for the first time.

On that day we had no idea that those beautiful boys would become the loves of our lives. We had no idea they would become our mission, our dream, our passion, our dearest friends.

Jed and I had arrived in Ukraine just days before on a crazy adventure. We landed in Ukraine knowing not a single person, nor a single word of Ukrainian or Russian (don’t try that at home). All we knew was that God was calling us. He had children in Ukraine that we were supposed to respond to somehow. We had been praying and dreaming and looking at pictures and it had become clear that we HAD to travel to Ukraine to see for ourselves. We had to smell the smells, see the sights, touch, feel, listen. Only then would we know God’s next steps for our family.

Our first day in Ukraine

We made a handful of email contacts, “We want to serve children with disabilities…can we come see what you do?” We stayed in hostels, fumbled with public transportation and had an adventure we would never forget.

On the day we were to visit Romaniv for the first time with our now partner organization, Mission to Ukraine, we had butterflies in our stomachs. I remember Jed and I both wondering how we would feel when we met the boys. Our hearts had been broken for orphans with disabilities in Ukraine, but we had never actually met any of them. What if we got to the orphanage and were too overwhelmed? What if the sights and smells and sounds would be too much for us? We so desired to give our lives to them, but what if our bodies rejected that dream? What if our humanness held us back?

I remember when we walked into the first room, empty of things except benches against the walls.

And boys. So many boys. Our babies.

They walked toward us with arms outstretched and soon we were swarmed by them.

It smelled so.bad. The smell took my breath away.

The boys looked unlike any people I had ever seen before. The neglect was unreal. I had moments of panic as they reached for me, unsure how to respond to them, unsure of what they would do.

The sounds assaulted my ears: moaning, crying, and shrieking intermingled with laughter and words I didn’t understand.

It was completely overwhelming in every possible way.

And yet.

I remember so clearly the moment when Jed and I made eye contact through the crowd. I glanced over at him wondering if I could tell from his face what he was thinking. Personally, I was both totally freaked out and totally in love at the same time. My heart was exploding and I knew. I just knew THIS was what God made me for. I looked over at Jed, his body surrounded by boys on all sides, and our eyes met. His eyes were full of tears. He nodded at me like “Yep, this is it.”

I wonder what we would have said if God had let us in on the little secret that we had met our future son that day? Wow. 🙂

IMG_5731-0
The rest is history. After that trip we came home, founded Wide Awake, left our jobs, passed off our church responsibilities, sold everything, and moved to Ukraine.

We thought we would serve at Romaniv for a year and then maybe move on to an institution further south, but after one year we knew we could never leave. We were made to love those boys. Our lives were not complete without them. Our children had grown to love them. How could we walk away?

And so, we press on. We step forward with the dream to get our boys to safety. It is our joy to serve them as long as God allows us.

I am in awe of all God has done in four short years. He has raised up a team of young people to join us in this beautiful work. Their love and committment to the boys is incredible. He has given us relationship and favor with orphanage administration. He has brought along partners to support the work. He has given us interns and teachers. He has moved the hearts of adoptive families to come rescue their sons. He gave us our Vladik. He has provided funds in miraculous ways and Jed is in Ukraine right now looking at land to purchase for the first group homes. Our God doesn’t mess around!

All the awesomeness that God is doing, we couldn’t see any of that on that day four years ago. We couldn’t foresee how He would care for us and pave the way. We couldn’t imagine how His love for the boys would trump every opinion that said nothing could ever change. All we knew was that God was asking us to say yes. We can’t see what He will be doing in four years from now, but it’s okay. All he is asking is for us to say yes and to keep walking.

So today, all you need to do is say yes. You don’t need to know all the details. You don’t need to have it all figured out. Just listen to what the Father is saying and join Him in His work. SAY YES! This life is short and we only get one shot at it. We don’t have time to focus on our own comfort. This life is but a blink of an eye.

Look with eternal eyes. Be brave. Have faith.

It will be scary. It will be hard. It will be uncomfortable. It might smell bad and be really noisy and dirty and messy. Oh but the joy, the joy that comes with that mess is worth it all.

Don’t be afraid. Say yes today and trust your Father.

He is good.

IMG_4156 - Copy photo 2 (27)