A glimpse of the Kingdom that's coming.

On Christmas Day this year, while we were soaking up the Hawaiian sun, preparing to trek back home. The Musekgon Chronicle printed a story about our family. We appreciated the opportunity to share a bit about our life, our faith and most of all our God.

A family at Christmas: 'God's plans for our lives were way bigger than our own'

The call came the week of December 12. We had landed in Fremont after accompanying the Grace Bible Men's Basketball team to Florida. 5 days later we would be leaving for Hawaii for a once in a lifetime celebration for A.L and Marlene Karnemaat. Inserted into these 5 days were as you can imagine, laundry, packing. Also included were basketball games, dr. appointments, and all of the other things we might like to do around the Christmas holiday. Caroling, Christmas parties. I had to let go of baking, (this was before my discovery of chocolate covered espresso beans, had I known, baking could have possibly found a slot).

So this is how it happened. Kent called me and said, "Kim, there is a newspaper reporter who got a hold of me and wondered if she could come and interview our family for a holiday story."

After I stopped chuckling, I said, "Really?? When could we possibly squeeze that in." I have often found God's timing impeccable and I've learned so many huge life lessons because of His timing. I knew this was one of those times, so I mentally buckled in and awaited the ride.

We talked about the logistics and decided we could squeeze it in on Wednesday. Wednesday was dentist day. I would happily cancel dentist day, but it is hard to rent a dental office for the morning and with Isaiah's health, keeping a close look at his mouth is pretty important. The children and I departed the house around 7:30, visited our beloved Dr. Cook and returned home with only 1 potential cavity. This may be a record. The reporter Susan Harrison Wolffis was scheduled to meet us at 1:00. We rolled in around 12:30. The house was in "order", we had a brief preparation talk with the kids.

"This is sort of going to be like the social worker that came and visited us before and after Isaiah came to our house." Kent began. "We want you to be polite, answer her questions, but it may involve a lot of listening." He added. We prayed before she got here and we were ready.

Susan came to our door a little after 1, she had such a warm smile and sweet disposition, I knew this was going to be for the most part an enjoyable conversation. 2 hours flew by as she asked us various questions about our family and how we came to be "this family". It was kind of fun as we each had an opportunity to recount different events we've been blessed to walk through. We were sort of just sitting around talking about our family history together with a very attentive listener. She asked about our faith and how important it was to us. As the time ended she was so gracious and appreciative, and it was like we'd been friends for a long time. She mentioned that the photo journalist would be contacting Kent to set up a time to come take some pictures the next day.

Thursday was another packed day for us, we had Bible Study in the morning, (8:30-12:00) which included the children's program, a dr. appointment in Muskegon at 1:00,which would require a prompt departure from Bible Study directly there. Finally, we had a game at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids and we would need to leave our home at 4:00. While sitting in Bible Study I got a text from Kent saying that Greg, the photo journalist would be at our house at 2:30 and he would like to spend the day with us, perhaps accompany us to the game that night. If I had a vote, this particular Thursday would not have made the top 100 days that I might wish for a photo journalist to capture our life on film. But this was the exact day that God allowed.

Greg met us at our house at the appointed time and began clicking. He asked us to pretend he wasn't there. That was hilarious, while I am sitting on the floor in the kitchen amidst 5 pieces of luggage and doing the "re-pack" dance, Greg is clicking away.The kids just kept talking to him anyway, and telling him what to take pictures of. We left for Grand Rapids and spent the evening with Greg, after the game we ate at Applebee's and Greg asked if he could come back tomorrow. I was glad for the dark of night as my face surely would have revealed a reluctance as we agreed this would be "just fine."

As we left the restaurant, Trent took the four olders home with him and went the back way, while we took the littles and went the front way. (This becomes an important piece). 15 minutes into our journey, we realize why Will was begging for his bed at the restaurant. On Alpine he began ridding his body of his tummy ache. Kent was able to pull off but not as quickly as Will was able to purge. Will is one of our children who cannot have anything dirty touching him, so this required dis-robing. The only articles that had no stomach contents on them were his t-shirt (it was under a coat and a sweatshirt) and his underwear. This is how we began our journey home, I found a beach towel in the back end. 15 more minutes down the road, I received a call from Trent,

"Mom, we are o.k. but we are in the ditch."

I asked Kent to pull off and as I began to try to understand where Trent was and relay this to Kent, Will quips from the back. "Mom, I'm gonna puke!" (Seriously, I couldn't script this stuff , it is amazing). I hand the phone to Kent, open the door and try to help Will outside. He looks at me and says, "You want me to come outside maked (naked)?"

"Yes, Will, so sorry but we need to have this outside." As I grabbed him and placed him squarely on the pavement in the 30 degree chill of night.

5 minutes later we are back in the van heading to the "back way" where the other car is stranded. I grab the 4 kids, leave Trent and Kent to wait for the wrecker and make it home with only 2 false alarms from Will. He did however continue to have troubles through the night. This was sad news for our team who was scheduled to depart for 12 hours of plane rides in 2 days.

Mr. Greg returned the following day and several of our "on the scene" reporters let him know all that he missed. We completed our afternoon and bid our visitor farewell. While in Hawaii one of my cousins let me know that he saw some pictures of our family on MLive. I didn't realize until then that Greg found his way into almost every area of our home. Wow, who knew.

Team Karnemaat, by Greg Lindstrom

The reason I feel compelled to tell a bit more of the story, is the story was beautifully written and for the most part we were pleased with the way God was displayed. Afterall this was the opportunity that He had brought so we figured He could take care of how He was featured. Since the story appeared we have had so many sweet comments and praises from our friends, family and community. We are truly amazed, that is why you need to know 2 things.

1. We are so very human, just like you. We have faults and failures. But mostly we have a great, BIG God who understands our weakness and uses us anyway. We didn't hope that anyone who read that article would feel the compulsion to go adopt. We didn't agree to do the article so that anyone would think, Wow aren't the Karnemaats just the craziest family you've ever met. We did the story because we felt that God had brought the opportunity to us and we wanted to be obedient and allow Him to do whatever He wanted with us and those who read it.

“God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity when we plan only the things we can do by ourselves.” -A.W. Tozer

God has asked some things of us that seemed impossible, and they were. But the minute we said yes, we will follow, He's always provided everything we've needed to accomplish that task. God always finishes what He starts and He wants people who are willing to follow and know that they can't get to the end unless He shows up. He ALWAYS does, because He never leaves. That leads me to #2

2. If there is anything in this life that we have done, it is only a result of His movement in our hearts and lives. It's His work. We can take no credit for it. Our prayer is and has always been to respond to His call with, "Here I am". Abraham responded that way when God asked him to sacrifice his son, his only son, Isaac. (Genesis 22) I haven't always done this successfully. There are times when I have tried to petition God for an alternate route, one that would surely bring Him more glory and frankly would be a lot easier for me. He has denied those requests. Sometimes I understand, sometimes I don't. I doubt that I will understand His plan for Isaiah's illness until heaven, I just won't get it. He doesn't need me to get it. He needs me to know that He will always be enough. If there are harder days ahead, I'm pretty sure there are, God wants me to wait patiently for Him. On that day, He will be there. He will also be there for every moment between now and then.

I love this song that I've been introduced to recently, it describes what I'm trying to say so eloquently.







I was poor I was weak
I was the definition of the spiritually
Bankrupt condition
So in need of help

I was unsatisfied
Hungry and thirsty
When You rushed to my side
So unworthy
Still You gave yourself away...

That's the motion of mercy
Changing the way and the why we are
That's the motion of mercy
Moving my heart

Now I'm filled by a love
That calls me to action
I was empty before now I'm drawn to compassion
And to give myself away


Living for the lost
Loving 'til it hurts
No matter what the cost
Like You loved me first
That's the motion of mercy

God give me strength to give something for nothing
I wanna be a glimpse of the Kingdom that's coming soon...Francesca Battistelli, Motion of Mercy

So that's it, God moving in our hearts has allowed a host of unimaginable events and people into our lives, and we are so much richer because of it. We know Him and His character and His heart in a deeper way through each of those adventures.

My prayer tonight is that

you see Jesus,


you see His heart and



you want nothing more than to follow His path for your life completely, with every turn and bend and surprise He has in store.



Everytime you do I see a glimpse of that Kingdom that is coming and I can't wait!!