Introducing the Wide Awake Podcast!

Oooooooh yeah. That’s right. We’re starting a podcast!

We wanted to try something new in 2022 and decided that trying our hand at podcasting could be a really fun way to keep on sharing the story of Wide Awake. Because, why not? 😉

I’ve been a longtime fan of podcasts. I think they are a really fun way to learn new things and a really great way to tell stories. I’ll still blog a bit, but the main way I’ll be sharing the story of Wide Awake will be on the podcast. 

What you can expect: 

• We’ll put out two podcast episodes a month. This weekly newsletter will continue, and I will always link to new episodes of the podcast here in the newsletter.
• We will transcribe the podcast onto the blog. If you aren’t a fan of listening and would rather read, we’ve got you covered. 
• The podcast will soon be available wherever you normally listen to podcasts. So make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!

I think this will be a really fun project for us. I hope you enjoy! 

Wide Awake Int. Trailer Transcription:

“Hi Wide Awake Community! This is Kim, and welcome to the Wide Awake Podcast. I’m so excited to be sharing all of our stories with you this year in a new format.

If you’re new to Wide Awake, if you don’t know us, I’ll let you know that we are in Ukraine and our vision is to bring hope, love, and dignity to people with disabilities. We’re doing that through deinstitutionalization. We’re working to bring our friends out of institutions and into family life because we believe that every person is valuable. and every person deserves to know the love of a family here on Earth.

So, that’s what we’re all about, and we’ve been sharing our story for 10 years! Actually, I just went back and looked at our blog today and guys, I’ve been writing on this blog for 10 years. Ten years!! I started it in June 2011 and I just.. really , it’s no wonder I need a new adventure, a new format! I’m so tired of blogging. 😂 I’m not going to completely abandon it, but I really want to try something new.

Back when we started the blog, My husband Jed and I, and our four kids (we thought our family was so big… yeah, it was so tiny!) were living in Oregon, and we were starting the process to adopt a little boy from Ukraine with Apert Syndrome. At the time, they said for anybody who’s adopting it’s a really good idea for you to start a blog just to let people know how your process is going. So of course I jumped on the blog bandwagon! And if you remember back in 2011, everybody was blogging. It was the thing to do. Everybody was there. And now in 2022 I guess everybody’s podcasting, I’m jumping on that bandwagon!

You know, sometimes something amazing or something super funny will happen here and I just want to tell you about it. But then I sit down to write and it just falls flat. It’s just, it’s just not the same. And so, I’m really excited to share our stories with my voice. And I hope that it will bring new life and an interesting new way to share what’s happening here.

What you can expect from us is we’re going to put up new episodes, two times a month, and we’re just going to tell our story. I’m going to start next week with our origin story. I’m just gonna start from the beginning. How did we end up here in Ukraine in a tiny little village with goats and chickens and cats and dogs, and a lot of adult men with disabilities? I never would have guessed that 10 years ago!

I know some of you have followed us for a long time and you already know how we got here, but I just think it’s really good to go back and remember. I think I actually need that reminder. Sometimes I can get kind of stuck in the day to day, the everyday life stuff of parenting and groceries and cooking for everybody. And I can just kind of lose sight of that passion that we had those first couple years. I really want to relive that. I want to go back and remember how we got to where we are.

So we’re just going to start at the beginning, and then we’ll see where it leads. I’d like to interview our team members. I’d love to hear what you’d like to hear about! Go ahead and ask questions, request topics. 😊 I’d love to know what you’d like to hear. The main purpose of this is just it’s just another way for you to join our life and our work here; to share our joys and our sorrows here. I hope that you’ll enjoy it. I think it’s going to be really fun.

You’ll be able to find our podcast anywhere where you normally listen to podcasts. Of course, you’re going to need to subscribe so you don’t miss anything.😉 Also, if you prefer to read instead of listening, we’re going to try to transcribe the podcast so that they’ll come up on the blog in a written form for anybody who prefers not to hear my voice. I won’t judge you. Ha! So we’ll see here next week for the origin story. And I hope you’ll join us. This is going to be a really fun adventure. Bye!”