08/09/2026
It's been a really hard week, my friends.
There's this fine line between love and grief, when troubles come. Sorrow and joy can sit so close together that it's hard to find the separation. And there's a significant difference between actual peace and the unruffled appearance of calm and serenity.
I have learned over the years that peace rarely looks like still waters.
This week, peace looks like receiving that heartbreaking phone call and trusting that someone you love is now safely home with our Lord.
It also looks like waiting for a PET scan, knowing the results will outline the way forward through an unknown landscape.
Right now, it looks like continuing to search for answers for your child when every conversation seems to lead to another question.
Then again, it looks like holding hope for a new opportunity when nearly every other part of life has slipped into uncertainty.
And for me right now...peace looks like admitting that I am tired.
I have been much quieter here, this week, as life has asked more of me than I have known how to give. My beautiful mother-in-law passed away on Thursday night. My beloved father is facing a serious cancer diagnosis. My brilliant son is still experiencing health issues while searching for answers concerning his treatment. There is true grief in our family, fear around the edges, and so many things we don't know.
And yet...there is love. Deep love. There are heartfelt prayers mixed with our tears. There are moments of laughter that are surprising. There is good coffee poured into familiar cups. There is morning light that follows the darkness. And there is our good God, still present in the midst of all of it.
Mercy At Dawn Coffee is approaching nine months, and I have been asking myself what this little company is really meant to be.
It was never about advertising, though I have enjoyed the creativity...being a "coffee fairy" and managing a team of woodland animals and kitchen appliances. Curated imagery and videos. But it was also never supposed to be some kind of performance, or a collection of polished and perfect pictures of my life...nor is it an exchange of empty engagement for the sake of likes and shares.
It was meant to do good. To fund a mission for life affirming care for women and babies.
It was also meant to create a place where weary people could sit for a moment without judgment. It was a space where good coffee could become real kindness. Where honest words and friendship could remind someone that they are not alone. And where one personâs ordinary morning might become another personâs moment of mercy.
I don't know exactly what happens next for this business. I can't pretend that everything is flourishing, because it isnât. I am tired, discouraged, and thinking about many things.
But I still firmly believe in this mission.
So maybe peace isn't about certainty...because I just don't know what that looks like right now.
Maybe peace is simply knowing what still matters when nearly everything else feels uncertain and the path ahead is obscured.
And I still know what matters most:
Love still matters. Kindness still matters. Truth still matters. And that person sitting across the table? They still matter.
Because mercy still hits different at dawn. Every single day.
Prayers and hugs from Kimberlyâ¤ď¸
