Author Archives: admin This has been abnormally a NORMAL week!!! The ONLY outing we have this week to doctors is PT…and she is in for a treat tomorrow when she sees our baby rocking on his knees!!! He can rock for a short time…BUT he is making huge leaps and gains—and there is a lot of cheering and […]  My husband and I were just enjoying a cup of decaf and began discussing football (if you KNOW US you are really wondering WHY we are discussing football!). Well, we live in the South–and it’s the land of college football, but we, honestly, think it’s crazy (sorry football fans–we just don’t get it! I know, […] …I also ‘tried’ to read this families amazing story to my husband and couldn’t do it either… through the tears and the huge lump in my throat… This thing called life… is not a spectator sport! I believe God wants us to hop off our comfy couch and do something. We will be on our knees praying for this awesome family and we’ll check out Baby Zoowan. Thank you so much for sharing… First of all, not a football fan either…so I don’t think your crazy! =) WOW! This is OUR story. Don’t know if you remember … we were headed down the long road to China to adopt our daughter when we got the call about premature twins. One medically fragile. The rest is history. What an honor it will be to pray for this family. Thank you for sharing their story that confirms God’s plans are ALWAYS bigger and better than we could ever imagine! Hey Andrea….thank you for this post! My hubby is also not into football….and it wears him out that all men talk about is sports. “Is there nothing more to life?” he always wants to ask!We don’t have a tv, and the first response people always hae is, “well how do you watch football?” A part of me wants to ask, “well how do you spend time with your family or in the word?” (Not that you can’t do both with a tv:) Actually, when we came to watch you and ITY at the airport, it was soooo exciting for my hubs. He spent a whole 3 hours visiting with some great men (like Krisit J’s hubs and Richard) and never once discussed sports. All of the men there wanted to talk about how much they love their wives and kids, orphan and widow care and their love for the Lord. It was great! He came home asking, “what is we Christians got just excited about joining together and praising, prayer and studing the word as we do for a fooball game?” What a day that will be!!!!! I was thinking the EXACT same thing in the middle 102,000 people at the Tennessee football game this weekend… I bet you have also considered how much money each game brings in. What if we paid $60+ to go to church to cheer on Jesus- or thousands for season tickets. Amazing- So good to know that I am not alone in those thoughts. I loved this post on football! You put it into words so well! I have never gotten it like my husband has and I just love the way you put it, how we need to worship God like how everyone worships football! thanks for this friend! LOVED the adoption story too…WOW! What a story! Much more exciting than any football game – not that I’ve watched any recently! I appreciate you sharing and I will check out the website. What an incredible family – readily responding to the Lord’s leading without doubt or fear. Glad you enjoyed the article… AND, I like Isaac’s hair! 🙂 Love your analogy with football. I too live in the south….and don’t get into football. I agree with you that I am not against it, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all got that excited about church & the body of Christ!!! AMEN!!! Believing with you for Isaac!!! PRAYING TOO 🙂 LOVE the story about the family- read that on someone else’s blog- how incredible!!!!!!!!!! You GO girl!! Yesterday football and today animals!! I SO admire your guts to voice your feelings. I feel the same way about these issues but I am not as bold in my faith. You are truely an inspiration. I’ve wept, rejoiced, and prayed all throughout the reading! Our God is AMAZING!!! Thank you for sharing this testimony! Andrea- I loved your post about football. I am a little opposite in my opinion though. I LOVE football and my husband LOVES it even more. (I even play in a fantasy league with mostly men!) I mean we are those crazy people that throw things at the TV:) But this EXACT thought has been on my heart for a long time. I remember being at a game in college standing there just listening to the roar of 80,000 ish people and just for a second wondered, “what if all these people were screaming for Jesus, with this much passion, this much drive, this much emotion?” I remeber tears streaming down my face. I was also at church a few weeks ago and was just looking around during worship at how tired and weary everyone looked. Why do we not pursue our Maker the same way we pursue such wordly things. It really is heartbreaking, even from a LOVER of sports. Which has made me think even more….I have for a long time thrown around the idea of trying to start some non-profit organiztion for soemthing involving widows/orphans/world hunger…..or something. What if every person that went to a football game on the weekends gave a dollar per game? Do you know how much money that would be? I have estimated anywhere from 1 million to 3 million dollars….PER GAME. I just don’t even know where to start to get something like this started. Volunteers? Buckets for money collection? Advertising? The legality of it all? Getting the money mailed to the right people? Do you have any ideas? But what an awesome way this would be to take something and bring glory back to Jesus! whats the trick for longer hair??? Just finished catching up on your last few posts. I’m SO thrilled for you with regards to Isaac’s crawling accomplishment! I am drying my eyes as I celebrate what God has done by uniting this family with those precious boys. And I too, attended Auburn c/o 2000, and haven’t been to a game since, but LOVE your analogy of passionate pursuit of the worship of God! And, happy to report that we got part 1 of our Pad Project mailing sent to Sarah this afternoon! Love seeing God at work!  After all LONG crazy week—joy has come in the morning!!! I am so thankful for hard moments–because boy do you rejoice in the good!!! Today has been an INCREDIBLE day—and we’re only half way through it!!! We still have one of our VBFF’s Buzz Lightyear water parties to go to AND THEN screen-on-the-green with all […] A girlfriend of mine had to drive from Maine to Arizona with her baby in tow and says she counted Mum Mum wrappers at the end of the trip and there were 17! The pics are awesome! Glad y’all enjoyed such a great day! I am so excited for the Jets to play the Paladins next week. We can give the babies a playdate and have fun watching the boys play together – albeit against each other :(. I definitely need to get tips on how to get a baby to eat MumMums. I have been giving them to BA sporadically for months and she apparently doesn’t like them… Maybe Isaac can inspire her! 🙂 Thanks for sharing your joy and pics! Beautiful post. In every way! Glad your week improved!! My Delaney loved MUM MUMS too. They were one of her first self feeding foods. In fact we found a box we didn’t know we had and she has been enjoying them again! We will continue to keep your fam in our prayers. what a fun day! it’s sweet what pals parker and laney are…love those last pix. I love, love the pics of P&L! 🙂  I am convinced that I have the absolute dearest friends. Romans 15:1 says Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. I just want to say how humbled I am by my friends and their love. No matter how silly or trivial or even how real or uncertain—my friends have […] So love your updates! I suggested that Summit VI have a “Meet your Favorite Bloggers” breakout last year. 🙂 It would be SO MUCH FUN to have a blogger gathering!!! Hmm….we’ll have to keep praying about that one! So glad you got to enjoy a cup of coffee and QT this morning! Abby is sleeping through the night AFTER a 11:30 p.m. wake up, upset and digging at her diaper. So hoping she doesn’t have a UTI. But, since she is tracking with Isaac guess I better watch out for that…LOL! Blessings on your day! Jenny Would LOVE to come! 🙂 Love your inspiration from God and your family. He is a very cute 1 year old on that bike 🙂 Andrea: What sweet pictures. My little guy has a pedal tractor too – he’s a farm kid so it’s fitting 🙂 Awesome pics of your gorgeous kiddos! You are not unfairly biased… they are all beautiful!!! A few days ago, I felt worn out. Okay–even yesterday I still felt that way. I had been “holding it together” for awhile and even the added craziness to our lives I had chosen to be excited about…the therapies and helping our little man achieve new goals. Then, one thing followed another…fevers, ER visits, UTIs, […] I kept reading to the end (smiles) and I am so very honored to know you and walk beside you. I am learning by you, and I don’t have similar situations in my life right now … but I see you. Praising God for answered prayers of a renewed heart, Andrea. =) You all have been in my prayers today! Love you and your heart! I am a friend of April’s and have followed your blog. I have been so touched by your family and your story – as it continues to unfold. Thank you for offering so many people the gift of perspective, the story of kindness and grace, and the realization that all of us can make an impact on others through our faith. Thank you for sharing the ups, downs and joy that your days bring. Love it! Love you and praying for strength to pour over your family!!! Praise God for little Isaac!!! AMEN! Sometimes the world creeps in stealing our joys. Sometimes things go wrong…or seem impossible- HOLD ONTO FAITH & HOPE!!!! God is still moving those mountains! Thank you for your amazing, beautiful, and faith filled honesty! One day at time and remember those beautiful words from Phillipians…I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST JESUS WHO STRENGTHENS ME! I have SO lived these feelings, Andrea…and my heart is burdended for you. It is hard, hard, hard when the Lord brings situations to us that are not what the world sees as “typical” but HE is truly most glorified in these times. I am praying for your weary soul, for sweet Isaac, and rejoicing that God gave you some bright spots today! Love to you! go look at my post and look at LL one year ago and one of my girls are using their feet to hold her up so she doesn’t fall over…she was supposedly 10 months old…but my dr. says now that he thinks she was 15 months old and couldn’t even sit up…look how far she’s come and we didn’t even know to worry about it…he just says now that he’s always thought she was older…so…he’ll be driving you crazy and running around yourhouse destrying it in ONE YEAR toO 🙂 kj I just love you, Andrea! The end. “Their running is not my goal here—instead it is to teach them to run to Him with the feet of their hearts”…my own heart ran to god when i read this. i may have never read a more beautiful sentence in my life. what a beautiful sentiment of what we really want as parents. not that we will for one second stop believing that this boy will run like forrest and it will be all over this blog. but that in all things, we will trust in god’s goodness no matter the outcome. “Maybe he isn’t at a stopping place–just a resting place…where I also now find myself”… YES. not stopping. not giving up. not giving in. just resting. resting in His goodness and love. wetting the couch with your tears. shamelessly letting others serve you. and turning to god’s word for your strength (you are a champion to me in this). I am a friend of Kristin Burleigh (adopted Markos through AGCI) and am mom to three girls, one adopted, two biological (4, 3 and 1). We live in Seattle, WA. I have been following your blog for quite some time and gain so much strength from your posts. You are so honest and it is truly a gift to me. Thank you! As you share, you are helping prepare my heart for the future. We are not sure what is in store for us as we consider growing our family through another adoption, but I know I will go forward, very prepared. Thank you for sharing your soul and your family. It is not a coincidence that I read your blog daily. Peace- i think lots of us momma’s find it easy to compare our stories to other momma’s stories and find our own lacking, especially when things get tough. i’ve just also been reminded that my value doesn’t come from anything but HIM alone. i am his creation i was born in God’s thought. i delight his heart because he made me, knit me together for his perfect plan. he made you too and what a beautiful life he has woven together for you! blessings & strenght to you! olivia Another beautiful reflection of the Lord’s work in your life and your obedience to Him. I feel blessed that somehow I didn’t see this post last night. What a great way to start my day!! I got up extra early to prepare for a long day at the hospital for more tests for BA. Yes, the endless appts are part of the journey God has chosen for each of us, but it is indeed a privileged calling to raise a child who requires more care than his/her peers. As you beautifully stated, we mommies are SO blessed with the fruits of our labor and we learn a LOT of patience in the process! Hang in there with the PT… they get stuck and resist and everyone gets frustrated, and then their development spikes and you’re working towards the next goal! Keep persevering my friend… Can’t wait for a playdate! Thanks for blessing me with your heart this morning! sweet andrea…the Lord has blessed you with such a beautiful heart. your honesty thru these struggles will help so many other mommies and families. i pray the Lord will continue to strengthen you and show you His purpose and grace thru all these hard days. i can picture little isaac running down the soccer field and the tears streaming down your face…what a day that will be! Thank you for sharing your heart Andrea! My baby brother has lots of special needs, including CP and neurological issues. Doctors said he would never sit up. With prayer and joy, my mom had him sitting up by the time he was 3, and WALKING by the time he was 9. He defied every “hope” his therapists ever had for him! To God be all the glory!!! Sweet friend – thank you for the beautiful reminder to keep Him as my focus – definitely needed that today. You are in our prayers, for strength for today, for healing and rest for Isaac, and for His joy to permeate your day – You all are going to soar like eagles!!! (again – my favorite verse:). Also – I must thank you again for your sees cd that you send months ago – Hannah and I have been listening to it every morning – starting our day in the Word:) Very encouraging, Andrea! Yes! I read all the way to the end. Wow, this is so powerful! Your perspective is so insightful and you my friend get the big picture!! I am so proud on you and continually encouraged myself. xoxo-Rachel I, too, read to the very end. Not sure how I found your blog although I have two children adopted from South Korea so adoption was probably the cause, but this is the first time I’ve commented. I just wanted to say this post was so encouraging and such a good reminder that our trust and faith is in God alone. This is a song I take comfort in. I wanted to share it with you. Your post is beautifully honest! My husband and I have begun the adoption roller coaster, and therefore we searched for blogs in reference to Ethiopian adoptions…God most certainly put your blog in our “path”! I am so thankful to read your blog as your honesty, love for Christ, and love for your children are wonderfully expressed. Thank you for sharing your heart with us blog readers! 🙂 Thank you for being so honest and sharing your true heart. So often we want to be an encouragement to others but not at the risk of revealing our “weak moments”. Your honesty is encouragement! Wish I lived near you…. I love to hear your heart. And by the way, your little man is adorable. Thank you, Andrea, for pointing me again to put my trust and faith in God alone. It’s so easy to get distracted by worries and fears and I’m so guilty of putting this adoption process in the Lord’s hands and then taking it right back again. I needed to be reminded to trust my faithful God, knowing He sees the total picture! I’m praying for you and for sweet little Isaac. I can’t wait to see God unfold the good plans He has for that precious little boy! Just wanted to let you know my son has hypotonia with NO underlying cause. We also had to see a neurologist and all of that just to be sure, but there is no reason. He started walking at age 2. He is now 4 1/2 and his motor skills are about a year behind his peers. He struggles especially with fine motor. Most importantly though….it doesn’t stop him from being a normal, active, crazy 4 year old! It can be hard at times with all the therapy and the frustration…..I just try to remember that Our Father made him just perfect in his eyes. Isaac will be just fine. Thanks for your awesome, funny, inspiring posts. I love them…. |
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by admin
Really cute photos!
aww…that is so cute how parker wanted to help his daddy and that little john deere is SO cute!
We have that tractor and my husband has the boys do the same thing! So funny!
Those are so sweet! My little boy LOVES doing yardwork with Daddy – must be a guy thing!
Hello. My mom started reading your blog and has gotten me hooked. I have felt that I needed to share our story with you as there are some similarities…we adopted our first child – Isaiah (it means “the Lord saves”) from foster care when he was 15 months old. It was written on his medical chart “this is a severely defective child.” He was given three years to live…moved to many different locations…had a dx of CP, meningitis, deaf, blind, MR, defective kidneys, heart and lungs – I’m a feeding therapist and began seeing him when he was 3 mo old – he had a g-tube and lots of eating issues…He had curvature of the spine so badly (from neglect) that he could hardly sit and back surgery was suggested. His one arm did not work because it had been tucked behind him and not used regularly. It was suspected that his kindeys would calcify by his third year. Anyway, I’m crying now because our son in 5 now…he’s perfect…I feared that he would always have trouble walking – he runs so great, plays soccer, climbs trees, races and jumps – I feared he would never talk…that’s really hard for an SLP mommy – he argues and sings and talks all day long now…he can see and hear and is beginning to read – his organs are all perfect…I tell you this as an encouragement…I pray that your outcome is the same…I actually know it will be…we have a son who is loved for all of his abilities all of the time who was perfectly placed in our family because of the Lord’s plan for him…you have that too…your son is beautiful (we could argue about the cutest…our son is Guatemalan and our daughter is biracial…and they are both incredibly beautiful) – I pray that this comment today is encouraging from a mom who has been there as a mother and as a therapist – the days are very hard and the progress is hard to see…but our God HEALS…I have thought much about the hurt of the Father in what children have to endure…it must be great…He has a plan and a purpose – today during Bible time I asked my son what he thought God’s purpose was for him…he confidently replied “He made me and I am beautfiul”
So precious!! Love seeing the Denton’s little girl! She is so cute!
Hi, Andrea! I found your wonderful blog and story thru the blog world of “this one looks neat, let’s check it out” and I have never regretted it. I read your post on football mania and I agree why don’t we and what if we all cheered for God and pursued Christianity like we want those 50 yard line tickets. My husband and I do agree that you need to atleast be a graduate of the paritcular school/team you obsess over. We aren’t big football fans either, but only because my husband coaches basketball. I just wanted to throw this out there so you might see how my husband uses his job and college basketball to promote the way God wants us to use his abilities and knowledge to serve HIM. Not all coaches feel this way or are Christians,so I am going to speak from and aobut our hearts. Many student/athletes have never been introduced to Christ and coaching is a great way to do that to some that “ball” is everything and the only way to a formal education. My husband may not preach the scriptures each day at practice, but the little things like examples, accountability, and fellowship can plant the seeds of what being a Chrsitian is all about. I just wanted to shed a little light on how a sport to some could be an avenue for the players to learn about life and our Savior. We feel God put us on a campus with a team for this reason. Please continue your wonderful entries. You always make me feel like my many emotions as a parent are normal and it is all okay. Have a wonderful day and I pray for you a full nights sleep 🙂