Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya, Tobi, Eli and Jakob

This post is a continuation of an account of our recent trip to SC/GA. Part one is found here, part two here and part three here.

Late Monday afternoon, Andrej and I left the kids in the capable hands of my parents and headed to Atlanta. We weren’t even a few miles down the road when Andrej shared that he had a knot in his stomach. Relieved that I wasn’t the only one sad to leave Kaiya and Tobi behind, I too admitted the knot in my own stomach. We have never left the kids overnight. Even when I was in the hospital for Tobi’s birth, Andrej came home each night to be with Kaiya, so we haven’t had much practice with leaving them for more than a few hours. However, we knew it would be good for us, good for them and good for my parents. 

Our first stop was visiting our dear friends, and former teammates in Slovakia, the Desnoyers. We had a great time seeing their precious kids and catching up with them as it had been almost a year since they came to visit us in Michigan. We crashed in their guest room for the night, and both Andrej and I had a hard time falling asleep because we knew the next day could be potentially life changing for us.

We woke up early Tuesday morning, said goodbye to our friends, and drove across the city to meet up with the Ledbetters. Nate and Melissa are friends from Michigan that moved to Atlanta nine months ago to partner with FCS Urban Ministries to love the poor and oppressed people living in an inner-city neighborhood known as South Atlanta.

This trip was more than just visiting with friends, although that was a highlight. For us it was to spend time in the South Atlanta neighborhood, meet people and mainly listen to God. Andrej has for a long time wanted to get involved in urban ministry on a deeper level than volunteering. That desire only grew stronger as he got to know Nate and Melissa, through helping them develop their website before they moved to Atlanta.

We both feel like God has called us to love and care for the poor, but moving our two young children into the midst of poverty and the dangers that come along with it, left me digging in my heels in our safe suburban neighborhood here in Michigan. However, over the past six months as we have been praying, reading different books and talking with the Ledbetters, we both feel God moving within us to do something. The reason we traveled to South Atlanta was to see if that something we feel God calling us to is there in that neighborhood.

I can’t yet say if we are one hundred percent clear that God is calling us to move our family to South Atlanta as we are still, over a month later, processing all that we experienced during our day in Atlanta. We do know that through the Ledbetters, their sweet neighbor Ms. Mary, Bob Lupton (the President of FCS Urban Ministries), Pastor Leroy Barber (from a church in the neighborhood), our friends the Crains who were living in the neighborhood completing a one month internship and the countless others we met, wisdom was spoken into our lives. We didn’t receive the clarity we were hoping for, but we are so much closer to understanding our calling.

Meanwhile, Kaiya and Tobi were having an absolute blast with their grandparents. As we were eating dinner, Andrej received through his phone some pictures of Kaiya holding a fish. We later learned that Papa had taken her fishing and was pleasantly surprised that she enjoyed it as much as he did. He said that Kaiya wasn’t afraid of the worms they used for bait and happily held them wiggling in her hand.

In addition to fishing, Kaiya and Tobi rode on the tractor, four-wheeler and went swimming at a friend’s pool. Mom said it only took Kaiya a few minutes to figure out how to keep her balance in the water with just arm bands on, and then she was swimming all around the pool. Tobi however, did not enjoy the pool as much as Kaiya and much more preferred to be held.

Andrej and I left Atlanta around 10:00 pm, and drove most of the two hour drive home in silence, each of us quietly processing all that we had learned and experienced. The closer we got to my parents’ house, the more I realized just how much I had missed the kids and could not wait to be back with them. I knew they would be asleep, and as silly as it sounds, I just wanted to be under the same roof as them.

Wednesday, our last full day, was spent playing with the kids, swinging in the hammock and trying to verbalize some of what we had learned in South Atlanta. We ended the day by tackeling the fun task of packing for our early return flight home the next day.

We woke the kids the next morning at 5:00 am, and needless to say they were not very happy about it. Our flights home, while not completely stress free, were on time and we arrived home just before lunch. It was good to be home, but both Andrej and I felt that the trip was quite a whirlwind and we could have used a few more days in South Atlanta and few more days at Papa and Babka’s to just relax and be together. I’m sure we will find ourselves down there again soon, and next time we’re driving!