Somewhere Between a Dream and a Door: The Knitted Together Story

A tiny house can teach you a lot about what really matters, but Kim Kasl’s story takes that lesson somewhere unexpected: toward building a faith-based maternity home nonprofit in Minnesota. We sit down as cousins who haven’t truly caught up in years, and Kim walks us through the real timeline, from a 140-square-foot home and homeschooling dreams to a clear calling to support pregnant mothers who feel trapped and alone. 

Kim shares the moment everything shifted: a strange travel job, long hours of silence, and a vision of a future home filled with women and babies, rooted in community, stability, and practical help. From there, we talk nonprofit leadership in plain language, including property hunting, renovation chaos, board development, mentorship, and why “monthly support” matters more than most people realize. You’ll also hear how Knitted Together plans to offer residential housing for moms and babies for up to 18 months, along with mentoring, structured goal-setting, and real-life pathways toward work, childcare, transportation, and long-term housing. 

We also dig into the human side: what mothers actually need, how to honor women whose faith looks different, and what it means to build slowly with wisdom instead of rushing a mission into mistakes. If you care about pregnancy support, maternity homes, nonprofit startups, Christian community care, or simply what it looks like when a calling becomes a place, this conversation will stay with you. 

Subscribe, share this with a friend who cares about supporting moms, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show. If you want to support the work directly, head to nitatogether.org.

0:00 Welcome And Meet Kim Castle

3:51 Tiny House Living With Real Purpose

8:52 A Strange Job Becomes A Turning Point

16:54 Finding The Property And Funding Miracles

25:32 Renovating The Trellis House For Moms

29:03 Why It’s Called Knitted Together

34:46 What Mothers Need Most Right Now

37:46 Faith Differences And The 10 Year Vision

41:30 Learning Nonprofit Life Through Mentors

46:59 How To Support And Final Reflections

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Kim Castle

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Supernaut where we explore the inner and outer dimensions of the self. Today Kim Castle is joining us. Kim started a nonprofit called Knitted Together, which is an organization that serves pregnant mothers by providing providing housing, connection to resources, and a community that supports their family goals. We're going to talk about how that came to be, what starting a nonprofit was like, being one of the first people on the tiny house trend, and her deep faith. Thank you for being here, Kim. I asked you to pick a song for us to listen to before we started. What song did you pick?

SPEAKER_02 0:32

I picked The Goodness of God.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Why did you pick it?

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Ooh. It's um, you know, I was actually praying about it when you told me to pick a song. I was like kind of overwhelmed. There's so many good songs. And I um I'm a worship leader at our church. So I love, I mean, that's not why I love worship music, but I love worship music. Um I feel like that's a calling on my life. It's to be a worshiper. So I started praying about what song I wanted to pick. So it's a long answer, but goodness of God came to mind and a couple others did. Um, and then this morning as I was coming out of sleep, I had I was dreaming that I was in a church, not a familiar one, and we were singing goodness of God. So that was in my head. The lyrics on the, you know how they'll put post lyric lyrics in front of the church? That was a different song, um, The Blessing. It's also an important song to me. But as I was waking up, that was what was playing in my head was goodness of God. So I was like, going with that.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

That's an easy way to know which song to pick. Wow. Do you wake up with songs in your head often?

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Um, if I do, it's usually because I'm practicing it for Sunday or it's challenging and I'm really going after it. And um, you know, so um otherwise it I I have songs in my head basically always. If I mean that's probably not super unique, but that's probably human experience is to always be relating to music in some way or another. But um I know that I am almost constantly singing or humming or making noise. So um I try not to irritate everyone around me, but um, you know, I'll hear myself back. Like the ring camera in the house is going, and I'm I had to play something once, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm singing all the time. It's like you don't know that about yourself. Just happened the other day. I was like, I know, but I don't have to listen to it. I just I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Well, yeah, sometimes I realize that there's songs stuck in my head, but I like haven't realized it for a while. It's like, gosh, this has been in my head for like 24 hours, but I haven't like slowed down enough to comprehend that it's been there. So then it's like, okay, I have to listen that time to get it out of my head or figure out why it's in my head. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Okay, so we are cousins. You're my first cousin to have on the show. Yeah, maybe we could get more all of Grandpa Kelly's descendants. That would be great if more came on. So cool. Um, so I remember like hanging out as kids a lot, growing up, going to your house a lot, um, lots of good memories. But as adults, we don't know each other that well. Um, I haven't probably seen you in like 15 years, unless it's like a family reunion and we don't get the chance to talk. But um one of our other mutual cousins got married on your property. So I went down to Wasika. Is that where you live? Yeah, and that is where your nonprofit knitted together is. You live on the property. So um I got to see your incredibly beautiful property, and then you invited me back to come back and stay for a night. So that was amazing. Um, we'll have to put some pictures on of the land here. Um and all the buildings and everything. So yeah, we will get to how you got this property. It's such a beautiful story, but let's just start from the beginning.

Tiny House Living With Real Purpose

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Um, the tiny house life. You were on the TV show.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

The TV show Tiny House Nation. It was that was in 2014. And we were kind of just like surrendered to God. Like, what do we do with he we felt called to homeschool, and if we were gonna homeschool, we it was like, can we go from being a two-income family to a one-income family? What does that look like? And how can that mathematically, logically, doesn't really work out very well with my husband. We he was uh in school and now he's an assistant principal at an online school, but he was in school to become a teacher, special ed, and all this other stuff. Um, he was in school for so long, anyway. Yeah, we were like, well, mortgages are expensive. So um, so we reduced to a tiny house, and I was just learning about tiny houses, and we were committed to doing that, moving into a tiny house. We thought we were gonna build it on our own, which would have been a giant mistake, and I'm sure we never would have actually achieved anything. Um, but um, in my research about tiny houses, I found a um a casting, uh casting call. Yeah, and so we're praying about that, and um God opened that door wide open, and so it was a wonderful experience being cast and shooting, and then um it got to be a big family, a family event anyway, also, which everything's a family event. Um, our my uncle Pat Matson, he was our builder, so that was a really cool experience. Um, and all kinds of family came in during the build. They wrote like Bible verses through the framing of all the walls before the sheetrock went up and stuff like that. Really cool, really cool memories around the tiny house. And yeah, so we sold our house, downsized. It was 140 square foot footprint on the tiny house, and we lived on a campground, two different campgrounds totaling a year while we looked for land and found a beautiful place in um Fairbolt, Minnesota. Fairbow on Robert's Lake, and we lived there for five years, and it was fantastic. The kids were four and five when we moved in, um, 11 and 12-ish when we moved out, and we put the tiny house on Airbnb. And oh, we love Airbnb. That's a really good time. So we still have the tiny house. I love being on the lake at the tiny house. It's lovely. Yeah. Are you still staying at sometimes? Like we'll get away, otherwise you're Airbnb out. Yeah, it's it's pretty back-to-back. It's most fun in the summer, but sometimes I'll go for like a little retreat night, or I'll send Story and her friend or something like that, or you know, we'll just do whatever. Um, and have a fire and stuff like that, or just be quiet if there's just like a time to wanting to be just step out of your life for a little bit. Just like all the guests, they're kind of like going on this little retreat. So lovely. Um, yeah, but I'll I always say we kind of stopped all of us going in the summer and staying multiple nights. We're the worst guests. We trash the place and it's really hard to recover after that.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Does it just feel like home when you're in there again?

SPEAKER_02 6:43

And you just like, yeah. We just like unload and just like use everything. So many guests come in, like it's almost like they nope, sorry. It's almost like they don't even touch anything, they're just like looking at everything, like just enjoying the space. And some people, you know, you can tell they've moved everything. We're the people who move everything, touch everything, destroy everything. Yeah, but anyway, we love being out there, anyways.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Yeah. So it was five years in there, five years in the tiny house. Yeah. I bet you want to take those memories back for anything. They're so good.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Yeah, we love the tiny house. And yeah, there's so much purpose in there was a lot of purpose. It wasn't just another house, it was like we were real close to each other. So anything that needs to be addressed needs to be addressed now. Um just uh a a whole experience in your space and your family dynamics, and um it's just really good. Really good lesson in like your stuff too, how much stuff you have, how you organize it or manage it, and what's important, what's not. It's fun to be. I liked talking about how um I had such a small amount of stuff, but everything we owned was my favorite because there's no room for anything else. So that's kind of cool too. We loved we loved minimalist family style minimalism good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

I was gonna build one and I was gonna go as a cozy minimalist was gonna be like my theme. Yeah, my theme words for it.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Um, but yeah, so purposeful because I spent a couple summers living in a camper, and everything you do has to be with purpose, like grocery shopping because there's no room to keep everything. Like there's only so much fridge space and cupboard space and everything. But yeah, I'm sure you guys just bonded so much, like being in each other's space like that for so long.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Yeah, it was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah. Um, so then what happened next?

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Well, it was in that time in the tiny house where God kind of um he gave us a peek into a calling he had for us for the future. And that's all like about how the nonprofit started. So that's the story you want to hear? Okay.

A Strange Job Becomes A Turning Point

SPEAKER_02 8:52

So only think a second. I just really like funny opportunities. I wasn't even looking for anything special or whatever, but Craigslist. Yeah, really open. Craigslist at the time was where I hung out. I like the free section a lot. Anyways, I was perusing Craigslist and I found this. Um, no, I didn't hung out there all the time, but whatever. If you're gonna scroll something, I was on Craigslist. So, um, momentarily every day. And there was this like weird job opening to go, I don't even know how they described it, but I ended up taking this job where I was gonna fly out and I did this, and I didn't even know what I was actually gonna be doing. Oh, because you were a photographer at that time. No, I was a wedding photographer before the tiny house. Oh, okay. Yeah, I stopped shooting when I when we started homeschooling. Okay. And that really opened the the path toward the tiny house. Okay. But yeah, I was a wedding photographer for seven years. I loved doing that. Oh, I loved it so much. But this was like this was like a strange opportunity. I what I was doing when I left, um, I got picked up at the airport, and my weird little job was supposed to be for three months that I was gonna drive around or like a chauffeur, just drive a car all day long. While my passengers, who were um Mandarin Chinese speaking um travelers or whatever, they were also they I think they I mean they lived in China and they came over to research. This is a whole lot of whole mess. They were like researching um this new well, they had a product like a cell phone that they wanted to see how it functioned in our data, like how fast it would be and stuff like that. As if they were like, say they were, I don't remember the name, but say it was like Samsung and they wanted to see how they did, how Samsung phones did on the um on our data networks, I guess. Um, and so they needed to be driving either downtown in the city area or residential area or like out in the country, and each day was different. And so they just kind of gave me a task. I was gonna be drinking driving around downtown Baltimore or in the country in Kentucky or whatever. And I thought I was gonna leave for three days, come back, resort everybody, like do the laundry, get the groceries, meal plan and everything, and then set the kids up again. Like I had one Sully at Nana and Papa's and story at grand-grandpa's, and like mix them up and then I'd fly out again. That's what they told me when I left. But they were confused, everyone was confused. And once I was gone, it was a couple days into it. I was like calling Ryan saying, I don't think I'm coming back. This is really weird, but I'm pretty sure I'm not I had like one outfit on me. I was like, Sounds like you were kidnapped. It was a little like being kidnapped, no. Um, I was gone for almost three months and then then came back. We but we went to like it was like Dallas and Denver and Kentucky, Baltimore. I think that's about it. Maybe I don't know. Um, it was kind of a weird whirlwind. But it was all God because it's almost like God took me out of my life and said, Okay, you and me, I've got some things to share with you. And so um I would try listening to music as I'm just driving all day long, but it would make me I like get all pumped up and drive a little too fast. It was like they wanted me going a little bit under the speed limit. I couldn't talk to the people in my car. There it was, they did not speak English. So anytime we had to communicate, we're using Google Translate. So I'm driving and I just picked sermons. I picked an audiobook or two, but mostly it was podcast sermons and stuff. Um, because that just kept me just kind of perfect pace, you know. And um I think it was uh about two months in that God gave me it was such a it was really interesting because it was like a two-part vision. The first day that I like had this emotion, God like put an emotion on me. He was like having me, he brought the tiny house to mind, and it was like he was having me grieve it, like, like let go of the tiny house. And I was like, okay, I was experiencing this emotion, like like grief, but it was it was definitely put on me because it wasn't coming from anywhere inside. I was not sad to move out of the tiny house, even though we love it. I was always telling people we're not gonna live there forever, because everyone was always like, you know, you can't live in that house forever. The kids are gonna grow up. I'm like, I know, duh, like every house, you move when it doesn't work for you anymore. It wasn't, I was very objective about the whole thing. So it wasn't, it wasn't a big deal to me. I did not think that I was gonna live there forever. But it was part of what he was, he just wanted me to kind of separate myself from the tiny house for a minute. And it was very interesting to have that um emotion put on me. I'm like, okay, I'll aggrieve that. I don't really know why, but okay, I know I'm not gonna live there forever. It's fine. But then the next day, in the middle of just like, I was not talking to God, praying, it was just driving and listening to a sermon, I'm sure, but it had nothing to do with the sermon. And like I was given a vision of a house that it's like it was like full concept, full knowledge of the concept, all in one bubble slam. It's not like part one, part two, part three. It's just like knowledge of a whole concept. And so I was in a house that I knew was mine and ours, me and Ryan and the kids, and it was definitely not the tiny house, it was a future house. Um, I could see the house, I could feel it, and then there were women and babies in the house with us, and I could see them in the space. And I heard like for women who feel like abortion is their only option. And so it was just like it's like this emotion hit me that was like, I get to do, I get to do what? Like, what? Wow! Like it was this, I am so honored to carry something like that. That's what you want us to do, was like just awesome, so exciting, so cool. Um, and so I'm immediately weeping. So poor people in the backseat, no idea, of course. And I'm not gonna try to explain all of this gobbledygook to them. Um, you know, language that whatever, language barrier. So I'm just weeping and thinking, that is just absolutely nuts. How exciting is that to have like a purpose and a calling on your life. Um, so that evening I'm sitting in this hotel room just meditating on it, you know, and I hear God say, I put this on your heart for future and prayer. Okay, cool. Future and prayer, awesome. So I got to call my husband that night and say, Guess what? Guess what God showed me. It's so cool. And um, and the coolest response, Ryan, is like, that sounds like a nonprofit. And it's just so cool how God works because I am not a very organized, structured, I'm more like, let's just do it kind of person. And he's very formal, administrative, you know. So of course that's how he would respond. But so in me, I'm like, oh, nonprofit, what? No, I just wanna, I just wanna open our doors, you know. But I immediately knew, like, God knows who my husband is, God knows who I am, and he and he knows us as a set. We're not, you know, separate, we're very much one. So he knows exactly what he did when he gave me that vision, and I'm sharing it with Ryan. And Ryan and I will carry this out together, right? Um, so for future and prayer. And I guess it's about time now. We're in the future. That was in 2018. It's 2026 now. Um, yeah, immediately what we did is just start praying on it, and you know, we talked a lot about what that will look like in the future, and we joined the board at our local pregnancy options um life care center and just got our feet wet. We just wanted to start learning all about anything we could absorb that might have to do with running a nonprofit that serves women who feel like abortion is our only option.

Finding The Property And Funding Miracles

SPEAKER_02 16:54

How did you find the property? So we were living in Fairball in the tiny house when we had this vision. And um, knowing it's not the tiny house, we're not knowing exactly when God was gonna guide us to this property. I never felt like he wanted me to get a realtor and get going. I never felt any type of urgency at all, just kind of a waiting period. Well, he said the word future, so you're like just waiting.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

And so, yeah, um, in that time frame, in the waiting, um, we moved out of the tiny house. A tornado came, and it was, I mean, that's kind of a sidetrack story, but really ultimately we moved into town and put the tiny house on Airbnb, which was really fun. Um, and while we were living in town, I enjoy realty.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Do you like look at real tea ever? Not as much as some people. I know that's a big thing for a lot of people, or they just go scroll every day. But oh, not every day, but occasionally. I like looking at lake properties and I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

I'm always curious. So I just am interested, curious about Realty. So I was doing a little scrolling on Realty, and this property came up that was a campground um on a lake nearby. And I used to think that I wanted to own a campground, run a campground. I think it'd be super fun. But campgrounds cost like millions, even the little, little supernature-y, nostalgic little campgrounds, they can at least cost a million dollars. But for some reason, this campground, like 10 miles away from our house, had um a restaurant, a whole like single family house, and all these like campsites, all for $200,000. And I was like, that's the house alone, plus a restaurant, plus all these campsites. How is that? Only $2,000. Well, we're buying a campground. So I was like all in 100% in this big amazing idea. We're gonna buy a campground. I literally woke my husband up. I was like, Ryan, I'm calling the realtor in the morning, we have to buy a campground. Um, so very exciting. Um, we talked all about campground ownership life for about 24 hours, thinking I'm calling my sister saying, You want to run a restaurant? Like, this will be so fun. What'll look like? How will we do it? All it needs is marketing, like so fun. And then after, you know, we're totally steeping in this idea, we took a step back and said, Okay, obviously, this isn't the vision God gave us, so let's just side by side look at campground ownership life. What would that be like compared to not what we're living right now, but what God has for us, um, like hosting women in this nonprofit that he wants us to run. So we decided to find a piece of property that would just be a placeholder for conversation. So we can kind of give uh pros and cons, what's it look like back and forth? Um, and there were, I think, like three places that looked like possible just discussion properties. And I picked one and it had bird's eye view pictures, like a drone maybe had taken some pictures, and it had some barns and stuff. Um, spoiler alert, it is the house that we bought for night together. But anyway, I did not know that at the time. It was just a just a discussion place, and I could pull it up on my phone and I would, you know, share it with Ryan, pull it up on the desktop, and everywhere else it said not for sale or unlisted, whatever, but on my phone it was for sale. And it was like I gotta just check it out. I just gotta go look. So what we did is we drove through the campground and sat down at that restaurant, and Ryan and I just were like very flat, like totally uninspired. Like, I really wanna love this, and I really wanna so bored. It was like this blanket of boredom. It was so weird. And then um my sister and cousin Lissa were uh visiting. We took a drive out to see this other property and we pulled into the driveway and like couldn't even breathe. Just our breath was just like we just like soaked in for a second, and it was so beautiful, and it was like, oh my gosh, this is it, this is it. This is like just it was just such a it's hard to describe the feeling of like tingling. Um we're just like excited and anticipation. So I'm like, okay, there's no for sale sign. So they stayed in the car, and I'm like, I'm just gonna go see what I can find. And I like started walking toward the barn and I'm like, that's the house, that's the house, that's the house. I can't really even look at it. It was so real and so like so intense to even be in the presence of what I knew we were headed toward, you know. Um so, but then this lady was coming out of the house, she's like, Come here, um, you know, I was like, Oh, I'm running up there going, Is this house for sale? And she's saying, Yes. And and um kind of wanting to invite me to the craft show that was this coming weekend at that property. So she runs a craft sale at this glorious property. I think there's eight, I always lose count. It's out nine buildings total, eight outbuildings, whatever, all the barns and sheds. There's two houses, and so um, I mean, it's a super long story, I guess. But long story short, that was the property. We drove off going, okay, well, who even cares about the campground idea? Totally did not even care, didn't even give it another thought. That was what we were doing. We're gonna buy this property. Um, nothing mattered, didn't matter how much it was, or if God wants us to be here, he'll make a way. And he did. And it took a whole year from pulling in and finding out if it was for sale or not to actually purchasing it. So we negotiated the price, um contingent on the sale of our house. So we negotiated the price and then we started working on it. She wanted to sell it after her next spring sale, so that gave us time to like paint and we put up a fence and we painted like literally the ceilings, we did redid the floors, the outside, the inside, every single thing. We just kind of um overhauled the our really old funny house. Um, and yeah, so negotiated a price, and then the housing market went crazy. And the house that we bought for $100,000, we later sold for $189,000, which was the down payment, like helped us with all these things. It was just God providing that we would negotiate a price before that and then have the provision for it right after all of that. And there were times when like the mortgage guy was saying, like, this is impossible, you're not gonna be able to buy it. Um, she's not even gonna be able to sell it because they couldn't find any comps. It was such an odd different property with all of its buildings and everything. Um, but God made a way when there was like I think he just loves the word impossible. God is like impossible. You know I got this. I'll show you. Yeah, so so fun to watch God work and just like step back and say, I don't know what's gonna happen, but you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

So so wild that nobody you couldn't pull it up as for sale on any other site, right?

SPEAKER_02 24:14

She didn't have a for sale sign up, it was just on my phone. So she did have like a quiet sale because she I think she just didn't want the whole world knowing because of the sp the the craft show that she has, right? So I don't know how, even when I brought it up to the realtor, he had to like dig for it. He was like, I was gonna find this place for you guys. It's like so funny. I don't know how you can have something for sale but not have anybody know about it. I don't really understand the whole logistics of that, but anyway, yeah, it was like being preserved for us. God had a whole plan. And you we can see now, even he keeps revealing little things like um how he's been preparing that property for knitted together. So, like the house she she in 1979 brought over a house from a neighboring property, put it on a foundation there. Um for the craft show for like more places to put more stuff to sell. And she had so many buildings, it was crazy that she needed more space. But um, yeah, that house right now is being renovated to be an additional house so we can serve women in the main house that's there already. The big huge house is gonna be for the moms. And we'll meet we'll be moving into what we call the trellis house, and it'll serve staff right now. Sometime it'll probably serve moms too, but yeah.

Renovating The Trellis House For Moms

SPEAKER_02 25:32

So who's all on the property now? Who's there right now? It's still our family as we so me and Ryan and Sully and story, as we are we midway with renovating the Trellis house. Um, so much has happened this summer. It now, I mean, it it it was a house that never had plumbing. So the electricity was terrible, the electric work or whatever, no plumbing. So now it does have plumbing, water has been piped in. Um, it has HVAC electricity. That's almost all wrapped up. HVAC's wrapped up. All the siding's down, we're putting new siding up. Um, it's getting new windows really soon. I'm not sure when that is, a couple weeks. And I think insulation scheduled. Um, I think we're about 15,000, 10 to 15,000 away from our goal for finishing all of this. And that's been like an $87,000 goal, I think. So septic's supposed to be going in, I think this coming week. Um, we had an amazing, generous donor at our church just read a check for the $18,000 septic. So it's been wild um and rapid this past year. Although we purchased this house five years ago, four, four and a half years ago, or something like that. So now it's like things are really moving right now, and we'll have women um we'll be accepting application from applications from moms this once this once the trellis house is done. So this summer by fall.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

For sure. So exciting. Yeah. So it will provide residential housing for new mothers and their babies for up to 18 months.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Yeah, and that's like really general. Every mom will have different goals, different needs. And as soon as their goals are met, needs are met, and they have, you know, a job, transportation, daycare lined up, um, and a place to live, you know, they'll be moving on, making space for another mom. So it's really hard to say because some moms might only need a couple of months, and some might have someone finishing a degree, you know, it could be it'll just be different for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

Yeah. Yeah. But then like scheduled mentorship and structured goal development, transportation, all of that. Yeah. So programming and housing and mentoring and just community.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Must have been so fun planning all of this and like creating and dreaming and it has been super fun.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

Um, when we first purchased it, you know, when we first were like looking at the closing date, I was freaking out, thinking, like, we have like one month, I'm gonna have moms in like immediately. Now, but um God was like, hold on, chill out, girl. Which is really important because I don't want to force the timeline. And like we have teenagers, Sully just turned 18, story's 16. So, like making sure we like just have time for us to all get used to the whole idea and move into it really slowly and purposefully because um we've just learned like maternity homes like this, when they just like explode into being without giving it time to establish, there's a lot of mistakes that can be made. Like, we really just want to be very purposeful and take our time and do things with wisdom and guidance and not rushing into anything and making sure that when we open the doors to moms, we're really prepared. We're really, really prepared and ready to go with them so um we could just serve them well.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Yeah, when you can put all your trust in God and like just let Him plan it out that well it works out right, right

Why It’s Called Knitted Together

SPEAKER_00 29:03

that way. Yeah. How did you come up with the name Knitted Together?

SPEAKER_02 29:07

I I cannot actually remember. I think I think it was just like I know the verse that it references, like you knit me together in my mother's womb. Um, so I think it was just like well knitted together. And I searched, is there anywhere else in the Bible where there's knitted together? And I'd have to pull up the verse. Maybe you have it in front of you. Um oh, are you actually? It's like um, I want them to be knit together by ties of love. I want them to be knit together by ties of love, understanding the mysteries of Christ.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Yeah, so on your website, I had screenshot. The Colossians 2-2-1 says, I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ Himself. Yeah. That one?

SPEAKER_02 30:03

Yeah. So that's like really speaking to the moms, like knit together, um, understanding that there is a strong community backing them, right? Yeah, yeah, that's so good. I love that that was there too. Two verses with knitted together. I was like, oh yeah, knitted together is so good. Yeah. We've debated it a little bit, but really once it kind of landed that knitted together, it was like, well, that's pretty perfect. Right. Yeah. I love the word together. I don't know why. I've just always loved the word together. Um seems silly, but when I was a wedding photographer, I did like together. I think what was I do? Like I think I was doing togetherness photo shoots or something like that. Because some are families and some are friends, and some people just want to, I don't know. Um, I just think the word together is good.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

Yeah, that's a beautiful word. Uh, was there a moment where you knew like this has to happen no matter what it takes? Like, was it hard at first? Like, do I keep going? Like, but was there a part where it was like there's no going back now?

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Oh, yeah. Um, well, anytime I get really out of whack and I start thinking that I need to do things in my own strength, when I I'll I'll recognize when I get a lot of really overwhelmed or like anxiety or whatever, I'm like, hold on, I am trying to do this in my own strength. I gotta like really surrender it to the Lord because He's way better at everything than I am. So um, um, and sometimes, sometimes you just look at the property even and all the work out there, and it's like, yeah, we can't go back. There's no going backwards. There's so much work to do. But yeah, but it's it's really like joyful, like it's really fun work. It doesn't feel like I mean, sometimes it's really hard and we're exhausted at the end of the day, but um, I mean, there's all different kinds of work I could be talking about. There's like hosting events, and so much of my job as executive director, co-founder is like relationship building with people, sharing this story and um just talking about it a lot. And um, I love talking to people about it because I get to hear their like their personal story. It opens up people to want to talk about, you know, birth or babies or God or even things that don't even sound related. Um, but they've got a related story that they're invested in um people, you know. Um, but yeah, and sometimes it's really physical work, like right now. Um, Ryan has been working his butt off. He's like the this house that's on the property, it's all lath and plaster that needed to come out. And so he has filled, I think we're on the fourth 30-yard dumpster um full of lath and plaster and debris and stuff, and he comes in like just caked in dust and debris. Um, but so lots of physical labor, and then just it's like a labor of love. It's really exciting to do. We are so excited to see the fruit because right now it's just like the front end work, and it'll get harder and it'll get easier and it'll get more beautiful and more exciting. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Was everybody in your life supportive when you decided to do this?

SPEAKER_02 33:04

Good question. I think yes, everyone's been supportive for sure. Um, probably more supportive than I anticipated, is how I'd answer that. I think people have a lot of questions at first or had a lot of questions at first, especially when I couldn't see it. I couldn't see where it would be, how it would be funded. Like all of the questions had no answers. And I just knew we were supposed to do it. And so when you're in that place, that is definitely gonna bring a lot more skepticism and like maybe concern, because the people who love us want to see us successful, right? Um, and so I think that out of love and care and concern, um, there's been, you know, brief hesitancy, but when you get to hear, like, when you get to see God work, all the testimony and stuff really brings affirmation when when I don't know, when God shows up in ways that you could not fathom the problem being solved and he's solving it, it just makes you really more surrendered to like, if God's gonna work, why would we put a stop to this? Why would we even question it? God's so cool. Um, so so my short answer would be wild support. Like so much support and encouragement and love and care, and people showing up and being hands and feet and even advocating or being like ambassadors telling the story about what's going on and what God's gonna do in anticipation, and it's just been really good.

What Mothers Need Most Right Now

SPEAKER_04 34:46

It's really fun.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

What support do you wish more people had for mothers?

SPEAKER_04 35:01

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

What does a mother need most that nobody's talking about? Do you know? I don't know if nobody's talking about it, but a partner.

SPEAKER_02 35:12

It's pretty sad that there is women who have to face these challenges on their own without. I mean, if there was no need for knitted together, that would be the most beautiful. If the dads showed up and wanted to be a part of their kids' lives and no one was being encouraged to end their pregnancy at all, you know, that would be the best.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

But since that's not always the case, we get to like be there when mom is like I think oh sorry, like pregnancy is so beautiful and like such a fragile, precious time to like become a mother is such a cool time, right?

SPEAKER_02 36:03

So, like I think I mean, even when you think about labor, how much support is needed? You can't just like you can people face it alone, but um you know, do you do you remember like being in labor and having like when the doctors or nurses are asking you questions, you're just like, how do you even answer those questions? Like, you need some I could I couldn't even speak when I was in labor, I couldn't even make a noise. It was like I needed someone's ear literally right here, so I could whisper to them. Because like you need so much support. You're doing humongous things, you're doing really challenging things when you're mothering a brand new baby, um, and like facing motherhood on day one. That's such a sweet time. So it's like such an honor that we will be able to get to come alongside women and just speak life into them and encourage them and remind them that they can do it and all that. So I think I think we do need to just remember how how precious that is, motherhood. So I mean, some people are all about the babies, and I just really love, I just I'm excited to love on mothers though, because it's it's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

Yeah, usually for baby shower presents, I get the mother a massage instead of the baby things. Like the babies have enough stuff, right?

SPEAKER_02 37:27

Yeah, yeah, and there's like an abundance of stuff when it comes to babies, right? Stuff, stuff, stuff. So much stuff we could get. But to like treat mom to a massage, that's so cool. Just a reminder that she's so important and she's gonna be facing a lot and working so hard.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

Yeah, that's such a good gift. I love it. Good idea.

Faith Differences And The 10 Year Vision

SPEAKER_00 37:46

How do you hold space for women whose faith looks different than yours? How do I or how will I?

SPEAKER_02 37:52

And I just as long as people are facing or not facing, but as long as people are like seeking truth, that's so important to seek truth and asking questions. I think asking questions is really important. And then I think all our faith is a little bit different, but we know what the truth is. We can always be be reminded be reminded of the truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And so um we can always point to our creator, the people who the people, the God who loves us so much that he would die for us. Like we can all dig into the truth, um and making space for people who have different uh faith in us. I think just discussion, like talking.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

So if netted together becomes everything you dream of, what does that look like in 10 years?

SPEAKER_02 38:55

We have one location right now that's barely starting, right? Oh, I want to multiply. I'm excited to multiply. Me and Ryan, like getting to found this together and start it together and see what God's doing is so, so exciting. Um, but um we already all often talk about what it looks like in 10 years. Like, what's God gonna do in five years? How are we gonna, how are we gonna grow in the space? How are we gonna grow beyond the space? Um, and so right now when we make decisions with our board, we talk a lot about um what is what is the most healthy for knitted together in the long run and in with longevity. We want, we want to be able to move on and pass it on to whoever's in leadership, but you know, coming into leadership, we're not gonna be the best, you know, executive director set forever. Um, so so we make a lot of discussion, we have a lot of discussion around um what it'll look like in different stages and seasons. Um, I mean, I would love to have a few locations in Minnesota and um and maybe beyond. We'll just see what God does. I don't know, but we hold it um with open hands, just knowing like whatever we could c uh, whatever we can fathom or um imagine is just pales in comparison to what God can do with it. So we just want to be ready for whatever He has for it.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

Yeah. So I think like a strong vision is important, but how important is that for this? Do you kind of keep it open to wherever God leads it, or are you like going back to your why and your vision a lot for decisions?

SPEAKER_02 40:37

Um, I think both. You you really do need to stay grounded. You want to stay on mission, right? Um, and make sure that anything you do is reflecting up reflects your vision, right? Um, vision and mission. Um, but yeah, God He reveals pieces at a time, and I just expect that He's gonna continue to reveal different stages and seasons for Nidda together because what it looks like now or what it's about to look like does look different than what I pictured when we first got to the property. I had a lot of questions. Like, if we live here now, how how do where are the mothers gonna be and where are we gonna be? And I just couldn't sort it all out um in my own human reasoning, and so it took just God's timing and slow um revelation for it to come about, even as far as it is. So I just don't I don't want to limit it, you know.

unknown 41:29

So yeah.

Learning Nonprofit Life Through Mentors

SPEAKER_00 41:30

So how's it been um doing the nonprofit part? Is there anything that you wish you had known before you started that part of it? Like has it been complicated?

SPEAKER_02 41:40

Anything I wish I'd known? No, I think we just have to be learners all of the time. We're like constantly learning. Leaders are learners. Um, so um I don't even know how to explain that or how to talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

What was the question again? What do you wish you had known about starting a nonprofit before you started? I knew nothing about being a nonprofit.

SPEAKER_02 42:08

I knew nothing about starting a nonprofit before we started a nonprofit. So it has been only exclusively learning as we go. Um, so that's a good, good thing it's been slow because um we've been learning as we go, applying what we know um as we go. Um, we have so many mentors and connections and partnerships that speak into us. And anytime I have a question or have something come up that I really don't know how to handle, I can reach out to um many people. I have many mentors speaking into us, people who have been running um nonprofits and um maternity homes for 10 years. And I think my other mentor is something around like 40 years, I'm not really sure. Um, so when it comes to hosting a gala or um creating procedures or resources, like best resources for even uh running a board or any of that, um, I have lots of resources. There's so many resources out there, and they're all either, at least what we've experienced so far, very um affordable, attainable, accessible, or very free. People want to share their experience and give us wisdom. Um, no one's holding anything back from us. It's just like so, in a way, it's simple, easy. Um, I guess that's not even, you know, it's just not like I don't need this credential in order to achieve something on my own. Um it's a whole network of people starting on uh knitted together. You know, it's not just me and Ryan at all. Um really cool that Ryan has a background in administration, though. He's an administrator in a school, and all of his uh education around that has been very helpful.

SPEAKER_00 43:57

So it's just been one step at a time. Time and then you're creating this army of people dedicated to seeing this happen. Right.

SPEAKER_02 44:06

Yeah. Like if it if it was just me or me and Ryan starting a nonprofit with no assistance or like resources, it would just be done and never happening a long time ago.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

But you like how did these come, like just your personality and your job as going out and finding people and making connections?

SPEAKER_02 44:23

Yeah, um just being uh seeking information constantly, yeah, wanting to research and find more information. Um one resource that we've loved is the National Christian Housing Conference. It's um it's now called the National Christian Housing Community and Conference, so whatever. Um, but we've gone three years. The fourth one is this fall, and we'll be going again. Um, but so much information there, a wealth of information and people and strength and partnerships there. Um, and when I first walked into my first maternity home that I ever stepped into, it was Esther House in St. Paul, and I met Amber, who is the co-founder of and executive director there, and she invited me to come to what was my first conference at um the national Christian housing community. Um, yeah, and when I opened up the website, there was like a grant, a grant that they had for paying for your first or your your conference. And I think it was two days late, but I was like, I don't care. I just started typing and I won that grant, and it was like, okay, we're going there and um learned so much the first time. The first time it was just like being dumped into a whole culture that I didn't know existed around maternity homes and meeting so many people who also are starting or just started a maternity home and also had no idea that God had that for them, that that was in their future. Like I didn't grow up saying, I'm gonna be the executive director of a maternity home. Like I would never have even thought of that. Um, and there were so many people who had that very like experiences. Um, and so so many people are going into this just by faith, you know, like learning as they go, being spoken into by other people who've had experiences, you know, 10 steps ahead of us and can can guide. So it's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 46:12

Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you so much for following the signs and being courageous enough to trust the process and um making this happen. It's so inspirational. Thank you. Is there anything else you wanted to say about it? About knitted together? Yeah. I don't know. Or that you were thinking we would talk about. I didn't know what we were gonna talk about then. So I don't know. Um anything like notes on your phone that you said? Anything else you want to bring up? Not about Knitted Together, I don't think.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

I just love it. I'm excited. I can't wait for it to get started.

How To Support And Final Reflections

SPEAKER_02 46:59

If anybody, if you want to pray for Knitted Together, pray over the moms, the future moms, future staff, board, um, all the steps, all the um logistics, legalities. There's so much um that has to kind of come together. Um so when mom walks in the door, she can focus on what she needs to focus on, you know. And so prayer and support, um, monthly support, if you're if anybody's thinking about supporting, that monthly support is so important to make sure the typical bills are paid and that we can have staff consistency, consistently staffed um without you know having any fear of what's gonna happen in six months or whatever. Like, so you know your budget is accounted for as you go. That's not something I guess I had thought about with running a nonprofit. You just figure, you know, if there's support, there's support, but the monthly support is really important.

SPEAKER_00 47:57

I don't know. And so people can um sign up for that on nitatogether.org.

SPEAKER_01 48:03

Yeah, that's very cool. Okay. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 48:07

Well, now we are on to the segment where I reveal to you how your closest friends and family described you. I uh reach out to um some people and ask them to give me some adjectives and then I put those into themes, and I do this because I think we're just really bad at seeing ourselves while other people see us.

SPEAKER_02 48:27

Yeah, okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

So your first word is beaming.

SPEAKER_02 48:31

Beaming? Oh.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

Because three people said positive, two said joyful, two said whimsical, bright, sunny, sunshine, effervescent, Pollyanna, which means excessively optimistic.

SPEAKER_04 48:47

Oh funny.

SPEAKER_00 48:48

And lovely, beautiful, hilarious, fun, and gurgacious. That's great. And your second word is rooted, because two people said faithful and spiritual, godly, faith-filled, worshiper, blessed, content, steadfast, servant-hearted, and nurturing.

SPEAKER_01 49:08

So sweet, so kind.

SPEAKER_00 49:10

Third word is driven, two said passionate and ambitious, industrious, energetic, energizer bunnyish, persistent, capable, successful, and independent. Your fourth word is gifted because three said you're a visionary, two said resourceful, intuitive, courageous, willing, and gifted. And fifth is generous, because two said selfless, encourager, helpful, kind, mentor, motivational, heartfelt, and sincere.

SPEAKER_01 49:46

That's a lot of words. Thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:48

And somebody uh who described you as whimsical said it's whimsical in a more realistic way. She has proven that by making some of her wild ideas realities, she's a dreamer and a doer. She's a winner. So I wrote you a synopsis. It is some people pray for a better world. Kim built one. Beaming, rooted, unstoppable, the kind of woman who hears something and doesn't stop until it exists. This is what it looks like when a calling becomes a home.

unknown 50:21

So sweet.

SPEAKER_00 50:23

So please remember you are not these words. You are not your thoughts. You're the space between the words, the space between the thoughts. You're the one who knows you have thoughts. Observe them, reflect on them. But no, you are not them.

SPEAKER_01 50:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 50:37

So where do you think you get all this positivity from? Have you always been this way? I can't remember as a kid, like we're so young when we hung out. I mean, we're always doing stuff, but like moving all over the place. Yeah. But where do you think your positivity comes from?

SPEAKER_01 50:54

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_02 50:56

Just I don't know. I remember thinking when I was a kid, like, why wouldn't you be optimistic? Like, why would you? Why like it feels better to be optimistic and I don't know. Um, I don't know, Jesus. The goodness of God. I don't know. I mean, I live in expectation for good things because my God is good, and why would I anticipate or expect doom and gloom when God loves me and cares for me and created a beautiful world for me? And so I've just choose to live there and believe that.

unknown 51:38

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

Um, so when your grandkids are your age, what do you do right now that you hope that they do?

SPEAKER_02 51:59

I think I think listened for God's voice. That's not something I did when I was younger. I didn't know you could do that. I didn't have a clue that that was a thing at all. But once I learned that and then it became my reality, it like blew my mind and my world. And um and um I think that created the difference for me between like living in my own strength and depending on my own plans or controlling um and planning everything to be just how I want it to be, but then um a switch to um anticipating what God has for me and and just desiring his will for my life. Um and that's way more fun. So life should be super fun. God has good plans, and so seeking his plan and will for your life is really exciting and good. So I think that that's for for my own kids. I want them to hear God's voice and seek him. So I would hope that that would be how their kids live too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:05

How about what do you do right now that you hope your grandkids don't do when they're your age? Do you have any any vices? Anything you don't like that you do?

SPEAKER_02 53:22

Golly, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 53:24

Um too much Craigslisting?

unknown 53:28

No.

SPEAKER_02 53:30

I don't know. I think of staying up too late. I stay up too late all the time. Better sleep schedule.

SPEAKER_00 53:35

Yeah, that's so silly though.

SPEAKER_02 53:36

Um that's something I struggled my whole life.

SPEAKER_00 53:38

Yesterday I woke up and my ring said that I was no longer in any sleep debt for the first time in forever. Like, I got like eight hours and 50 minutes, and like I was so determined yesterday. Like, I am never gonna get in sleep debt again. I'm always gonna get as much sleep as possible. And then last night I only got five hours. Oh no.

unknown 53:58

So bad.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

Sleep debt is what your ring calls it. Yeah. When you don't get enough. I used to try to do those things, but I had a watch once. It kept me up all night. I was like always worried about it catching on things. Yeah, yeah. The ring is a lot easier than a watch. Yeah. Yeah. I just that's a weird circadian rhythm. It's hard to stay with everybody's normal schedule of life when I'm all out of whack. But that's the same thing. But I know like the most successful people get up at like five in the morning and stuff like that. And I read the books and I aspire, but man, it is not easy to do.

SPEAKER_04 54:31

But I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 54:32

I don't know if that's a good answer. I bet there's a better answer out there.

SPEAKER_00 54:37

Well, um, a reminder, everybody, it's knitted together.org to go and show support. And thank you so much for doing this, and thank you for the brightness that you bring to the world. Thank you, Beth. Thanks so much for coming.

SPEAKER_02 54:51

This was really fun.

unknown 54:53

Okay.