Wide Awake Property | Wide Awake Family

Homestead Happenings- April 2019

Posted on April 30, 2019 by kimnjed

I think “Homestead Happenings” is super cheesy, but I can’t think of anything better to write, so I guess we’re stuck with it.

What’s happening on the Homestead? SO MUCH!

VISITORS. A couple friends from Germany arrived on Saturday and ushered in the season of visitors! From now till mid-August we’ll have pretty much constant visitors around here. I feel a tad bit overwhelmed by it, but mostly really excited about it. Jed’s parents AND my parents are both visiting this spring/summer and we are so ready to see them. My parents haven’t been here for 5 years and ~~so much~~ everything has changed since then! We live in a different place. We are in a different church community. We knew basically none of our friends at that time. And we have 5 new family members since their last visit! Yeah, life is a bit different now than it was 5 years ago. I’m very ready for them to see our life in action and to know all the people here that we love.

BUILDING. The construction team has been hired and the land-use has been approved by our village. Next week ground will be broken for the next home on our property! This is a huge next step. The home will be a duplex, that will be two forever homes for more of our friends from the institution. We don’t know yet which of our friends will live there and we don’t know who will live there with them, but that’s okay. God knows all the details and when we need to know He will make it clear to us. We are praying for God to put it in the hearts of the ones who will join us in this work and give their lives away, and that they will be ready the the time comes. Please join us in prayer about that!

Evie exploring the building site 🙂

ADDITION. I mentioned before that a couple friends from Germany arrived on Saturday. They came to help us build an addition on to our house! I say “us” like I’m doing the building…haha. We all know that I’m not lifting a hammer. They’re helping “us”, as in Jed, and I’m just trying to keep everyone fed.

Our house has 4 rooms upstairs: our room +baby, the girls’ room, the boys’ room, and an “office”/guest room. The downstairs currently has 2 bedrooms. One room was Boris’ bedroom and the other room was for Anton and Ruslan.

After Anton and Ruslan arrived it was quickly apparent that they would not be able to share a bedroom. They were both so full of fear at night and the presence of another person just made things worse. It took us many months to get Anton to sleep at night and his many night-wakings kept Ruslan awake. They would play off each other and amp each other up and it was a recipe for disaster. They were both not sleeping and they were both grumpy about it. Jed and I were pretty grumpy about it ourselves (to put it lightly). Ugh. That was a painful time.

For safety and healthy boundaries’ sake, Ruslan and Anton do not go upstairs at all. But we needed to separate them, so we put Ruslan in Boris’ room and moved Boris up to the office. The problem though, is that Boris is not safe on stairs. He can’t go up or down stairs without significant help, so he can’t access his bedroom during the day. We have a video monitor in his room so we can see when he wakes in the morning and go help him down the stairs. Each morning he waits for us, since he knows he can’t do the stairs alone, but we’re always afraid that one day he will just decide to exit his room alone. He is right at the top of the stairs and he would fall so fast. His bedroom situation is totally unsafe, but so far there has been no other option.

But, that’s about to change! This week our friends are here helping build an addition to solve that problem! The addition will expand our living room and create a bedroom for Boris downstairs. It’s noisier and crazier than usual around here (if that’s possible…hehe), but it’s all for a good cause and I can’t wait for the end result. We will all rest better knowing our B-Mo is safe at night and that he can get up in the morning whenever he wants.

Thank you, Friends!

SCHOOL. In the midst of it all we’re trying to wrap up the school year around here. Hava and Seth should finish up local school sometime toward the end of May, and Addy and Ezra should finish up their curriculum in June. I’ve been researching which curriculum we’ll do next year and it’s been really fun. It was very last minute when we decided to homeschool Addy and Ezra and of course homeschooling Seth part-time was a total surprise, so I didn’t get the benefit of doing much research. I’m excited about what I’ve planned for next year and have already done all the ordering so our many visitors can pack-mule all our books here for us. 🙂

So there’s a little peek into what’s happening around the old Homestead. I promise to share photos of the finished addition and of the progress on the new home. Stay tuned!

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Wrappin’ up a Doozy

Posted on December 24, 2018 by kimnjed

I think I can rightly, without a doubt, call 2018 the biggest year of our lives. Wow. It was a doozy y’all. (Okay, I never say “y’all”, but it just felt right in the moment) 2013 and 2014 were big. We moved to Ukraine at the end of 2013 and then 2014 was our first full year here. I thought those years could never be beat- but I stand corrected. In those years, when we got overwhelmed by Ukraine and it’s differences and struggles we could just close our door and have our own little American island. When days at Romaniv were hard we could run home and love our kids and try to compartmentalize a bit. Not these days! Little America no longer exists. Romaniv has come to us. We are fully immersed and we are being changed to our core. Praise God. And….help us, God! 🙂

Boris joined our family! Technically, Boris came to us in December 2017, but you get the idea. Much of 2018 was spent integrating Boris into the family and helping him become human. Boris has changed us, challenged us, brought us to our knees and brought us more joy than we ever expected. You can read more about that journey here.

Evangeline Joy was born! Oh our sweet little Evie Joy, joy-bringer-extraordinaire, we had no idea how much we needed you. We could only see the unexpectedness of her arrival, but God foresaw the necessity of her arrival. In the darkest of moments Evie has been good medicine to the soul of every member of our family. We can not thank God enough for our sweet bundle. You can read about my Ukrainian maternity experience here and Evie’s arrival here.

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Land was purchased. Praise God for our friends from the UK Vineyard and their amazing generosity! They gave a big ol’ chunk of money and we were able to purchase the property neighboring the Homestead. A road was built to access the back of our land and now we have space to build 3 duplexes for more of our precious ones who are waiting in the institution. We hope to break ground in the spring! More on that at the bottom of the post.

Summer in the USA. It was such a blessing to our hearts and such refreshment to our souls to be able to spend the summer with family and friends in Oregon. So many good memories were made and so much English was spoken. It was awesome! Ha. We also did a successful reconstructive operation on Vlad’s feet. You can see photos of the awesomeness here.

Ruslan and Anton joined our family! This one was a biggie. I’ve tried to always be very honest with you about the journey. That honesty includes sharing part of the struggles. It’s no secret that adding Boris, Ruslan and Anton to the fam has been the hardest thing we have ever done. But I want you to know that there is plenty of joy along the journey as well. In some seasons the hard overshadows the joy, but that is when we lean in hard to Jesus and ask him to carry us. We have zero doubt that this is exactly what we were created to do with our lives, so even though many days seem dark- hope shines through. We love our guys and see them growing little by little each day- becoming more and more human. Praise God, the Redeemer of the broken. You can read more here, here and here.

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What’s Next? Why, thank you for asking! We are planning to break ground for the three duplexes when everything thaws in the spring. Then, as long as the money is there, we’ll hit the building project hard. Each side of the duplexes will be a home for 4-5 of our friends from Romaniv, along with those who will be family to them. We’re talking about providing forever homes for 24-30 more of our friends! EEEEEEEEK!

We have budgeted $160,000 for each duplex. Right now we have a very generous MATCHING GRANT from our friends and partners at Hands of Hope. They will match donations up to $80,000! Yes, that means if we meet the matching grant we will have the funds for one entire duplex!

Sooooo, if you’re looking for a place to give end-of-year donations, we will gladly accept them. 🙂 Let’s help more of our friends learn what it is to live in love and safety each day of their lives. Let’s help more of our friends to become humans after a lifetime of being treated like animals. Let’s help more of our friends experience the love of a family: brothers, sisters, mama and papa.

We’re ready for ya 2019. Let’s do this thing!

Click HERE to donate!

Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for walking this journey with us and helping to make it possible for our boys to know life. We are forever grateful.

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Wide Awake Homestead Update

Posted on February 1, 2017 by kimnjed

I haven’t written much about it lately, but work on the Wide Awake Homestead has continued strong and steady. The process is slow going, and we are learning much patience, but someday soon it will be livable and all this impatience will be a distant memory. 🙂

To see pictures of what the house was like originally, check out this post.

When we first purchased the property we thought we would only need to install indoor plumbing, update the electrical, and renovate the upstairs (it was just one room without insulation). But, that was before we realized the roof needed replacing. Once we knew that we decided it was better to replace the upstairs while the roof was off and the walls were open.

So, considering all that needed to be done, we’ve come quite far!

At this point the new roof is on along with an all new second floor. The guys are laying the flooring in the upstairs and putting the tongue and groove wood on the walls upstairs as well. The electrical is complete and heating is done except for the bathroom and kitchen floors which will be heated tile. We’ve decided on the tile for the kitchen and bathrooms and are ready to place our order. We have a work crew working full-time (doing great, high-quality work!) and Jed also basically works full-time purchasing items and keeping things moving. Nothing happens quickly or easily in Ukraine, so his engagement in this building process is necessary.

What’s left to do? Walls and ceiling need to be finished upstairs and down, flooring needs to be completed upstairs, downstairs flooring needs to be laid, plumbing and septic system need to be completed, and then all the finishing things like kitchen cabinetry, bathroom fixtures like tub, showers, and sinks…

The outside insulation, stucco, and siding also needs to be completed, but we can work on that this summer after our family is already moved in.

We have big hopes of moving in this spring…maybe April??? Please, please, please let it be so! We are dying to move in and have a place of permanency so we can begin the work of bringing our boys home. Oh what a day that will be. 🙂

Originally we had planned to build an addition onto the back of the house and use that as a home for the first boys. Then we learned that in order to build an addition we would need city approval to begin ANY renovations at all. So we decided to make more bedrooms in the upstairs of the house for our family and use the downstairs bedrooms for the first of the boys.

The idea is that our family will sleep in 3 of the upstairs bedrooms, and we’ll use the fourth bedroom up there for an office/guest room. There are 2 bedrooms downstairs and those will be bedrooms for the first of the boys we bring out. So when we consider the first couple of boys we need to think of our kids and our nuclear family and who will fit best into our direct family life. Make sense? It’s different having boys in an addition or a cottage right across the sidewalk and having a few boys living right in the home with us and our little ones. We will need plenty of wisdom when it comes time to pursue paperwork for guardianship of those first boys.

We are super excited to have a couple of our precious ones living right in the home with us! I think it will help their adjustment to be living with us and included directly in family life. It is right and good and we are so lucky. As our kiddos grow and move on we can use the bedrooms upstairs for more and more boys.

As we build we need to think of the boys and what changing needs they will have as they age. They won’t stay young forever, and we want this homestead to be their home FOR LIFE. This is not a temporary solution. This is home. Because of that we are working to make the homestead as accessible as possible, considering wheelchair accessibility and such. The main floor of the house will be 100% accessible, as well as the other homes we will build on the property.

The plan at this time is that our family will move into the house as soon as it is livable, hopefully this spring. We will then move forward with applying for guardianship of the first boy or two. It remains to be decided if we will bring out two boys at the same time, or one at a time. God will have to show us that and give us plenty of wisdom.

As soon as renovations on the house our fully complete we will begin work on the next family-style home and move on from there. The current property can sustain 2-3 more family-style homes.

We have much to consider as far as who will live in the homes with the boys and what model of care we will adopt. There are different variations and we have not made any decision about what that will look like. We only know that we want the boys to live in the context of family and we don’t have a desire to create a mini-institution. Each house will be an independent home and family system. We don’t need to know all of the answers right now. Just as the journey has gone thus far, God only asks us to keep stepping forward. He’ll give us the wisdom and answers we need when we need them.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask! Thank you for your support in prayer and finances. We could never ever do this alone!

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.

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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!

A Week in Photos: August 7th

Posted on August 11, 2016 by kimnjed

I think I’ll try to get back into posting photos of our daily life here. I know lots of people (besides just the grandmas) are interested in our daily life, and posting weekly pics forces me to get on here and share even if I don’t feel like I have a heckuvalot to say. 🙂

The kids are adjusting pretty well to life back in Ukraine. Seth acts as though we never left. Ha! He easily picked back up with little friends from church. Ukrainian life with all the walking and more naturally active life suits him just fine. Hava, Addy, and Ezra are all doing fine. School hasn’t started yet, and we still haven’t nailed down exactly where they will go and which grade everyone will be in, so they’re still in our family/church bubble. Things may get a bit more dicey once we get closer to beginning school…we’ll see. I’m nervous about it, but what’s new? Today all is well, so I’ll just be content with that. Vladik is doing great. He was pretty emotional and regressed quite a bit in our first week here, but he seems to be coming back to his old self. I could do a whole post on that…maybe I will!

Bluebell is adjusting to Ukrainian life as well! It’s killing her to not be able to just run and run and run. But, we have LOADS of stray dogs in our neighborhood so she has to be on the leash at all times. We take her for several walks a day, but I know she misses her freedom. Soon! Bluebell will LOVE village life! We are so glad we brought her. I see the kids going to her for comfort and joy often throughout the day. What a blessing. I could do a whole post on that as well! Maybe I will! 😉

On Sunday night a bunch of our church family came out to the new property to check it out and to pray. It was awesome! We felt so loved, and it was massively encouraging to see so many people from church interested and engaged in what God is doing. It was a beautiful time.

A friend from church, Andriy, brought his camera along and took some cool pics while we were all out at the property. I love them!!! There are SO MANY super old things left at the house. Like serious antiques. It will be so fun to use them in decorating. EEK! I’m horrible at that kind of thing. I need Fixer-Uppers International!!! Seriously though, our house would be so super fun for someone who is good at that kind of thing. It’s like a museum!

We have a small team here this week from the UK Vineyard, and one friend from Ventura Vineyard. Oh man, we love those guys so much. They’re mostly here to help the Ukrainian Vineyard pastors, but a couple of the team members are Speech and Language Pathologists and they came just to support our interns at Romaniv. They have all been such an encouragement to us. They also makes us laugh a ton, so that’s a big bonus. We are so thankful for their love for Ukraine and her people, and their love for us. We don’t want them to leeeeeeeeave!!!! (I don’t have pics of them all, but you get the idea. They rock.) Thank you Jim, Jeremy, Josh, Sophie, and Ali! 🙂

And, of course we have our boys. Our sweeties. Our urgency to get them out grows more every day. It’s hard to trust God’s timing, but we really don’t want to push ahead on our own. We are certain to fall flat on our faces if we get ahead of ourselves. So, one foot in front of the other we say yes. And in the meantime we try to give them all the love we can while they wait.