The Kingdom Is Faith and Family

🤰🏼Story time!

Here I am, 16 weeks pregnant with our fourth little one! We didn’t know if we’d have another, with constant transition and the many challenges it is raising a family abroad while working in ministry, having a baby from our own capacity wasn’t an option, it had to be Him who spoke and gave. That is all we knew. 

Rewind to spring of 2024, we knew we were moving to pioneer and live in the countryside of Japan. We began vision trips to see where that would take us. Aaron one day came to me and said, “I’ve really been praying and feel we are to have one more child.” I was surprised and honestly scared of the thought, pregnancy hasn’t been an easy one for me and feeling weak in my body during pregnancy and postpartum was challenging enough, but add on the burden of language learning and transition, it seemed too much. But we prayed, I trusted Aaron heard God and we tried. In prayer I heard a name and as I walked past Aaron’s Bible, it was open to the book of the name I had just heard. Aaron was surprised and hadn’t been reading in that location. Shortly after I had a dream in the night that I was pregnant with one baby but got pregnant with the next just a few months later, I knew both were good but carrying the second child would cause the first a harder time and less growth being born at the same time. Overall the feeling was, it was good despite that and both would be okay. “Could this be the conception and birth of a new ministry AND another child?!” I wondered. The door of my heart opened a little more to the idea of another life.

Many months pass, each time trying while feeling nervous and uncertain for my heart, but still leaning in. But no baby. A year passes by and now I’m certain, it must be God who gives this gift and it must be his timing, if it's His will. Baby or no baby, lack or abundance, we will choose contentment and trust. It’s now spring in Japan, we’ve found our future town and everything from our life is being packed into boxes as we prepare for a 4 month trip across the world, after leaving our home of the last 4 years. Soon we will leave Japan to Australia and around America, nearing 30 homes in that short yet long span of time. Coming “home” to Japan, 4 months later, yet not home. We must find a new one. We must start over again. I dream in the night of the birth of our next child, very vividly, and it was shortly after our move to Uchiko. Surely this wouldn’t be his timing? But the dream, so vivid. The door cracking open more. 

We spent the most refreshing and beautiful week in Australia, soaking in time around a big beautiful table where got to sit back and watch the legacy of family do it’s thing, it was marking. I knew this is what we are made for, the kingdom, it is family. Over and over throughout scripture I began to see how He wove it together, Him as the Father, us as His children, and the church as brothers and sisters- a kingdom Family. When the world says beginning again and having more children "slows you down" or "stops the important work", the word says, "Children are a gift, a blessing from Him." We see Family was and is still His idea. Even if another child came, it would add to the kingdom, not delay or stop the “important work”. God solidified his heart for family here. My heart stretched more and continued to open, moment by moment while grasping more God's heart.

Landing on US soil, meltdowns and jet lag cries at 1am, I heard the Lord- "you can do hard things. You were made for this. Just one more." Now it’s Sunday morning and we are worshipping, again the little whisper, “I want you to have another child. Open your heart.”

“But God, I don’t normally need to know I’ve for sure heard you but this time, I really need to know this is you. This timing feels scary. My capacity low. I need confirmation,” I respond. I quickly pack up to leave and as I walk out of the room a woman runs after me. “I’ve never been here before,” she begins, “I heard God say to come to this church this morning. I was a missionary in Japan and I wanted to say before you leave, I see a baby in your womb and God using this child in this next season.” Boom, confirmation within minutes. But if that wasn’t enough God furthered it with a friend dreaming in the night “I saw you taking a pregnancy test while in America before returning home, it was positive!” She didn’t know a thing. But if it was God, it has to be his gift and his timing. Now my heart is open, still scared and uncertain but open nonetheless. 

Months go by, traveling and moving is constant, not really trying but trusting, and now here we are- less then three weeks from flying across the world again and this time to find and move to our new home, Uchiko. I’m not late on my period but it’s dad's 81st birthday celebration with my family in Georgia. Why not just test and if it’s positive, it’d be a fun surprise gift I think. Another grandchild… 17th I think. As I wait, I whisper “your will be done”. Minutes pass and a positive word appears on the screen. He gave His gift in… His timing. Shocked that it was now, just weeks before heading home, undone and thankful for the gift. 

We shared the news first with our children. “What’s in the bag as a gift? It’s really cool,” we say. They take guesses. Liam first, “uhh dynamite.” Ella’s up next, “a new toothbrush!” At least they got the shape right. “A candy wrapper,” Remi chimes in. Apparently we give cool but strange gifts. As we share the news of the baby, they are overjoyed. Remi a bit unsure and asking to shrink back into our baby but also excited for a baby that’s “hers”. 

The last couple weeks were a blur as we had the joy of sharing with our family stateside and then our missional family, Iris. 

Now at just 6 weeks pregnant we are boarding the plane with more luggage than we left with on our move to Japan five years earlier and our three children for 30 hours of travel. After landing we had less then 24 hours before Aaron was headed on his way to Uchiko to find us a home and pave the way for us to move cross country two weeks later. The week that unfolded was one of the most challenging times, jet lag with three kids, solo parenting and… first trimester nausea coming in like a bomb along with insomnia. Wow. It was the hottest week of the year but I knew having my first ultrasound before leaving Tokyo was my next important step. I had begun bleeding and the dizzy spells were coming with intensity. A friend came to babysit the kids and I decided to go for a 7 week ultrasound without Aaron (while he was still in Uchiko). All the doctor would say was a few words in broken English “I see no baby.” “Come back 2 weeks for abortion or natural pregnancy.” No answers for the bleeding or solution for the dizzy spells, just the word “nothing.” No fetus, no heartbeat, an empty womb but a friend of faith beside me. As she sat there she began to say, “I feel you need to look back at the words spoken from God over this baby and believe them.” 

The next two weeks felt like forever as I had tissue and spots of blood coming out as I wiped. This was a miscarriage right? As I shared with professionals I knew, each confirmed this was what the beginnings of a miscarriage would be. For two days my symptoms of nausea began to fade. I could hardly believe the week we were packing up everything and moving to a rural part of Japan with what was to be a child prophesied and given to us just weeks early, now being miscarried. My head spun in wonderings of what that week would look like, how could we pack up and unpack and drive cross country while my body pushed out a dead baby. Where would I go? Who are the doctors? How will I speak with them? What will happen in my body? What about the words spoken? What is this? It was quite confusing, yet still many stepped up and prayed. Many spoke up and said, “don’t loose faith.” It was now 2 days before moving, my follow up appointment had arrived. Within moments of the ultrasound beginning, I saw it, the heartbeat! And a perfectly healthy baby measuring exactly two weeks later- 9 weeks old.

I can't say for certain what all happened that day, except that this child already has quite the story and our faith was stretched as the grace of God and his kindness carried us. We now have a baby arriving March, 2026. And this is just the beginning of this child’s story. I can’t imagine what else will be written. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that His timing and ways are not our ways, they’re higher and mysterious and trustworthy and above all, His Kingdom is Family and Children are the gift.

McKisic baby #4 due March 27th 2026!