A QUARTER-CENTURY JOURNEY
OUR STORY
twenty-five years of leaving — finally ready to stay
We're opposites in almost every way — personality, coffee order, how we solve problems, even how we approach therapy.
It's exactly why we make a good team.
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26
YEARS MARRIED
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16
MOVES
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30+
COUNTRIES VISITED
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3
CALLED HOME
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1
DEPORTATION
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0
PLANS TO LEAVE
Defining moments that shaped our journey.
PIVOTAL
MOMENTS
2000
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Fort Worth, Texas
It started with a wedding and a yes. We married, were appointed to Russia, and spent the next year preparing — training and growing our family — before we ever boarded the plane.
2002
ARRIVING IN RUSSIA
Ivanovo, Russia
In early 2002, we finally arrived — filled with hope, excitement, and just enough courage to go. Ivanovo taught us dependence. On God. On our teachers. On strangers who became friends. We stumbled through the language, fumbled through the culture, and learned that showing up willing is sometimes the most powerful thing you can be.
2004
FOUND OUR FOOTING
Yaroslavl, Russia
This is where we began to settle in. The language began to click. Relationships deepened. Community took root. We learned that real impact isn't loud — it's consistent. It's showing up. It's staying.
2008
The Unexpected Pause
Oklahoma
A long, hard lesson in waiting — how to trust when the path isn't clear, how to be still when everything in you wants to move. We didn't love it. We needed it.
2010
LIGHT & DARKNESS
Saint Petersburg, Russia
It stretched us in ways we didn't see coming. The days were long and the winters were dark… so dark. When the sun finally broke through, we noticed. When the flowers grew, we celebrated. We learned to see God in both the light and the darkness.
2016
Deported
Toronto, Canada
Fourteen years in Russia ended with 72 hours' notice. We were deported — accused of being something we never were. We left a home, a community, and a life we loved, and started over in Canada. There was real loss. Grief. But also growth.
READY TO STAY
North Carolina
After twenty-five years of leaving, we're finally ready to stay. We've traded our suitcases for counseling degrees and a licensed practice, as we continue our calling to walk with others through their hardest seasons. Here, we're putting down roots: a home, a practice, and maybe even a few bees and chickens.
TODAY
Each place challenged us,
changed us — not always in ways we understood,
not always in ways we would have chosen.
But together, they tell a story of
dependence, growth, waiting, endurance, and renewal.
The places have changed. The mission never has.
Kristie & Keith Sullivan