Author Archives: admin SO…we got a wild hair today (no pun intended)…and while Nana (my momma) was in town–we paid a little visit to Pigtails and Curls. And while I had grown to love his tight crazy curls…it was just time to get our first real haircut! Our cutie pie went in looking like this…The hairdresser had fun […]  If you have been reading my blog for awhile–then you know I have a “second mama” who I call Mama Judy. Mama Judy and I met years ago…she called me to take pictures for her sweet family…and I had the honor of documenting her last days with her precious husband before He went home to […] how sweet of your momma judy to do that…she is very creative and crafty! how thoughtful of her and LOVE the matching aprons! love how you guys took that opportunity to sale cupcakes for orphans..precious! Oh what FUN!!! You are so creative… you should write a book. You know, in your spare time! 😉 You ROCK!! Love this idea!! We have a dear friend who has had diabetes since 18 mo old, and we support and walk for a cure every year for JDRF for Kyle. Thumbs up to Parker for thinking of that. =) But YAY too for Wiphan kids. So cool either way.  Happy birthday to you… Happy birthday to you… Happy birthday to Richard… Happy birthday to YOU!Happy birthday to my love!!! Hope you have an AMAZING day!!! Your FIRST birthday as a daddy of 4! Here Rico is with baby #4…who he adores–and insists on getting up with almost EVERY night!!! Here’s to another year of […] Today is Cade’s b-day too. A great day 🙂 Love the PS and your heart. I believe that our ideas of finances and “running the numbers” do NOT count. Jesus fed 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Love your fire Andrea…truly amazing. I also love that you so eloquently capture issues that we are all thinking about. I just finished reading Radical and I am in the middle of Adopted for Life…and I am probably feeling more convicted than I ever have been about adoption. Interesting, because I’ve had this discussion many times with other adoptive moms – about how to respond to this issue, etc. Really, it boils down to the story of God’s adopted of us…there are so many parallels. And…families are always better than institutions…little souls cannot be loved, cherished and shepherded in institutions. Can’t wait to hear more from you on this topic… Amen, amen. I did not realize this issue was even out there, it is hard for me to believe some even feel that way. A wonderful answer to a sensitive subject, an answer based on Scripture, which is never wrong or outdated. Preach it girlfriend! I’m 100% on board with you! We have so much “family” that is against our adoption. After hearing negative for the past year I need to be reminded that I need to just Love them. God is not just calling me to just Love the orphans but the anti-adoption people also. I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say! Thank you for your words! I always appreciate them! Blessings~ YES!! Keep sharing, Andrea! Love your heart, your voice, your knowledge and truth. Hugs to a beautiful day to celebrate your best friend. Amen. I think you may have just written one of your talks for the conference (assuming you will be presenting 🙂 Oh my goodness, my brother said those exact words to me recently when I asked him if he’d consider being the guardian for our adoption. He told me, “It is great that you feel sorry for those people, but deep in my heart I feel that you would be doing yourself and that child a disserve by taking him away from his culture and country. In the long run, I don’t think either of you would be happy.” Really? Are you kidding me? It would be better for a child to grow up alone in an institution without the love of a family? Breaks my heart that this person I grew up with, in the same home, going to church, feels this way. Blessings, Amen, Andrea! I have been thinking about this a lot lately too. Thank you for putting my muddled thoughts into encouraging words… again! love it!!! Cannot wait to give you a huge hug! Love your heart, my friend Love this post! I agree 100%… and I think you are right on, it really is about what the WORD says not what we think is most acceptable. Besides the fact that it is pretty clear in Scripture that God is all about adoption, have these people ever simply asked a child in the instituion…”would you rather stay in your own country, have your needs met, but no one to call mom and dad, and no one to call you “son/daughter”??? or would you rather move to another place and have a Daddy and a Mommy… a family and a place to call home. I wonder what those children would say… I bet I know. Seems to me your heart has changed. Somehow when you are the adoptive mother…God works in a way to allow you to see first hand the healing that takes place in a family. I believe that ADOPTION is GOD’s idea and HIS heart. I am grateful to be part of HIS family because of it. Oh Andrea. All day long I have been singing these lyrics, “EMPTY my hands, FILL UP my heart, CAPTURE my mind with You.” (10th Avenue North, Empty My Hands). That’s where I want to be on this and ALL issues… AMEN!!! Sweet Sister!!!! Love your words!!!! i loved reading this tonight andrea b/c i just heard about my grandmother in law not understanding why we want to adopt internationally from Uganda for our second child instead of domestic again and the things she said…well urked me…so it was great to read your post! love ya! Amen!! Looking forward to reading more!!! amen , sister friend….wow….if i could write that well…i’d never stop…amazing and so TRUTHFUL…I dare someone to say that LL deserved to live in an orphanage the rest of her life…Shame on them…and well…i REALLY don’t DARE them…i just want scary, mean people like that, that have been deceived, to stay away!! 🙂 Don’t even come near my blog…cause we love children at my spot…all children!! 🙂 great post, kj I agree. ‘Culture’ does not trump the Gospel. I’m anxious for your rant. :o) I’ve felt this undercurrent for the last several years, and it needs to be addressed. It’s being fueled and pushed by UNICEF, and I see it popping up here and there in the blogosphere even more frequently. There’s a fine line between adoption & rescue that needs to be tread softly–in my opinion. I think we should be very careful not to project or intend to be RESCUERS, as our motivation to adopt. We’re mommies, first and foremost–we adopt because we want to grow our families. That we happen to be following a mandate of “pure religion and undefiled” is important, but I see so much trouble in the future for our children if “rescue” is our focus. I hope I’m not making a complete mish-mash of what is in my heart. I’ve been reading spatterings of growing resistance toward evangelical families adopting, by those who seem to really resent the Church’s rather open push toward adoption. I think we must be very careful to not give them fodder. To be circumspect. To be well-read on post-institutional issues. To keep it real. But on the other hand, we must not be cowed into accepting their worldview, simply because it’s more strident. I’ll be praying for you as you formulate your storm. We NEED to see it addressed and hit head-on. <3 (about Sparkles…our goldfish) me: (realizing the murky water REALLY needed to be clean) “What are we going to do with that thing? Rich: “We could clean it. OR we could flush him down the toilet.” me: “Oh Rich! That’s awful. He would die!!! I mean…he would die–he would—wouldn’t he?” Rich: “Oh—no! He wouldn’t. He’d go […] UM, a little disturbing but funny. We recently flushed a fish that wasn’t quite dead, yet. It was dying though. Now my 2 year old tells everyone that our fish went to be with God by going down the toliet. Oh this makes me giggle! I’m right there with you! We had a thriving tank with 3 little fish in it for a while and then, one by one, they started to die. Only 1 (nameless) fish remained and the filter broke. That was 3-4 months ago and this thing just keeps on living! No one notices him, my husband feeds him and tops off the water when needed and the little fish just keeps on swimming! Even after a week of vacation and no food? He’s a robofish! I’ve wanted to put that tank away for a while now…perhaps you’ve inspired us!? Oh this post just makes me laugh! We could have had that conversation word for word in our house. We’ve been thorough a few fish now. Life’s too busy and we really aren’t pet people. I tried to keep from smiling when I said to my husband the other day that I wanted to get a bird, just to see the reaction he’d give. Smiles. We’ve gone the fish route for my son too and I must say that watching them die a slow, ugly death isn’t good for the little ones either. =) Too funny! Love it. We had a newt once. Yep… and I had three boys under four. I so wish I could remember his name. Perhaps a newt could be your next pet. 🙂 Call me before you make that purchase. I’ll talk you down. Adventure of a lifetime – definately! =) love it!!!! Definitely with Nemo”:) haha that was too cute! :0) Nope. He’s dead. Either stuck in your septic system or in the towns sewer and waste treatment. For future reference the ‘humane’ way to euthanize a fish is to put him in a bowl of water and freeze it. A dear friend gave our son Nathan a goldfish for his 6th birthday! She laughed and we groaned. We thought “Buddy” (as he was affectionately named) would die within weeks but alas after almost 2 years – he lives on! Many, many times when I look at the cloudy bowl that needs to be cleaned (again!) I am tempted to flush away but my little boys would notice all too soon and be very sad. Hope your kiddos don’t notice the fishy is gone! You crack me up. We were lucky as my husband had access to fish drugs that you can just put in the water to kill it. Our daughter just though it died naturally. Ha, ha!! Too cute! We have no pets…there is no way I could take care of a little animal right now! I am sure Sparkles is just fine! 🙂 So funny! We have two fish aquariums right now, one in each of two of our boys’ bedrooms! Reminds me of one of our last fish… I went to clean out the tank so I poured the water into the toilet… except Mr. Fishy ( actually I think his name was Nemo, as most of our fish are named Nemo! ) fell into the water too! I tried to “fish” him out and he swam down the drain, so i just decided to flush him! (: And here I am TRYING my hardest to keep my kid’s fish alive and they all die. It is now tradition to just go buy new fish every birthday. Wish I had your fish luck! TOO FUNNY!  REMEMBER last Sunday when God worked out the details for me to run into someone who lives in Nashville who volunteers for Korah…in my little ole town in Georgia? WELL…here is my new precious friend Danielle feeding one of the twins that was born in the dump at Korah…how precious are they??!!Danielle is on the […] Hi Andrea! I’ve followed your blog since this summer, and have loved watching your journey of faith. We’re an AGCI family too and brought our 4 year old daughter home in January. SO, I have to tell you…..I read about the ‘Created to Care’ retreat and felt completely drawn to it. I have such a passion for adoption and love to connect with other moms who share my passion. But, I really dislike women’s retreats. So, I pondered and prayed, and then- it was full! I told my husband about it, and unknown to me, he put me on the waitlist. So yesterday I got the email that all the wait listed women could register and I did! Now I feel SO excited, and I’ll be traveling from OR to join you guys! I really think God must have something for me there! Blessings to you for pouring your heart into this when you have so much going on in your life! AMAZING!! Do you know any more about these baby twins?!!!! Wow that is so wonderful! Awesome! |
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by admin
Oh my goodness, he looks so big…sooo cute!!! I love the pic of him and your mom!!
oh, he looks so cute…love it, kj
He looks great! Yes, he looks older, but still JUST AS CUTE!!! Have a fun day with the kiddos!
oh wow your right, it does make him look older. I keep wondering when I need to do something with my isaac’s hair b/c he is 4 1/2 months and already his hair is getting very long, but its still soft and not course yet so I just am leaving it for now! :0)
he DOES look older, but still so so cute!!!
I have a hard time with haircuts too! Just makes them look older 🙁 I also don’t like long jeans- makes them look older too! I mean- I just all my babes to keep being little babes…..and then they remind me that they have to grow up? What? Really? OK….
He is adorable!!
ahh that is precious! and what a cool hair salon! i wanna go there. 🙂
What great pics of his first haircut!!!! I wish I had a rocketship chair for my kiddie clients! =)