Author Archives: admin Have you ever prayed that? Well, I’ll warn you. Don’t pray it unless you want your world to be rocked–your heart to be changed. Praying that prayer–will mean so many things…priorities change…what keeps you up at night changes…what you leave at the cross changes…and what brings you JOY changes. Because let me say this–TRUE JOY […]  I wrote a post this afternoon–that I just couldn’t finish. I think I need to think on it more and I’ll share tomorrow. My heart is being burdened more and more…and I will have to share my thoughts as well as an amazing way you can join me in making a difference. I SO love […] My kiddos think cheeze-its and yogurt are a delicacy! I’m with you on the gross side, but they love it. 🙂 Cheez-its and yogurt? I’m not so sure about that one… Good luck at the doctor’s visits and physical therapy- Isaac is a miracle! Can’t wait to read your post tomorrow… your blog is always so inspiring! LOL! Frank is to much! Dang girl you are busy! You inspire me! Grosser than Cheez-its and yogurt is chocolate chip cookies in ketchup. Nas.Ty!! Oh…feeling the ear infections, fluid and congestion with you! Living the dr appt’s with ya too! Abby is up every 2 hours and I am now hoping that since our dr. found her ear drum (after removing globs of wax) to discover the infection, we will get some sleep soon when her antibiotic kicks in. Will go to ENT but doc. said tubes-90%. I was thinking of you in the night and praying for your sleep or lack of…strength for the season. It is glorious tho, isn’t it! LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. that I finally got to adopt after all these years!!!!  Parker was BORN! And I became a mom for the very FIRST time!!! Now, I am not so cute in this picture–but everything has a cost…and this one was WORTH every bit! I’ll never forget this moment…(bear with me as I have a moment down memory lane!)I remember wondering how I would feel…or what my […] Happy birthday, sweet boy! You have turned into quite the little man, and I’ve seen firsthand how you take such good care of your little brothers and sister. God is doing a great work in you– and through you, for that matter! We know that from Isaac’s story! Happy Birthday Parker!!! One thing I always say is I am amazed at how fast my life started passing by when I became a momma! Sierra just turned 7! So crazy it seems like just last year she was a baby! That’s so sweet. Happy Birthday to your big guy! Happy Birthday Parker! happy bday, Parker!! Happy birthday little man!!! I hope it is a fantastical day with lots of cake, presents, and at least one or two swords!! Jenn Those look like some crazy fun birthdays! Happy birthday Parker!! first off, let me just say that before I even read your comment about you not looking so good in the shot of you holding parker as a baby, I truly thought to myself how nice you looked and how I could see your little girls face in yours and how happy you all looked! i love the pics of parker and happy birthday little guy! happy happy 6th birthday, Parker!!! what a beautiful little boy, happy birthday to parker! Wow! So many fun phases for the little man, and SO many life changes in your family since those 6 SHORT years ago!!! Look how much you’ve both grown since then 🙂 Reading this made me cry thinking about just how fast life goes by! Look how many additions you’ve made to your family since then!! What fun!! Happy Birthday to Parker, and Happy Wonderful, Beautiful family to you, Super Mom! Happy Birthday, Parker!! Hope you have a great day!! Happy Birthday Parker. Hope you had a great one! Our youngest, Erik (aka, Eddie Joe), was born on 8/16/04….so they are very close in age! Fun thinking back to 6 years ago! “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20 We have ENOUGH! MORE than enough!!! In just […] We love to see God working through His people! Thank you for being His messenger! Wow! I just read all of this! Wow! Just read both posts. Was eager to see what you were up to and how to help, but I’ll look forward to a future opportunity. What an awesome testimony to God’s providence and others’ obedience to His leading… What a mighty God we serve and what a privilege to be part of a serving kingdom! So encouraging to see how God is using you… INCREDIBLE! I am so excited that extra money was raised and will go to help girls who might otherwise drop out of school. That was an issue that had never crossed my mind until I read about it in your post. OY! crazy girl…crazy…that was so fast…I’ll be waiting for the pad campaign next 🙂 kj How did I already miss out? That was fast … God is good! I will be waiting anxiously for the next campaign. Thank you for organizing this! I just finished reading your posts and was all set to donate until I saw you’d met your goal. Yes, please keep us updated as I would love to help if more funds are needed. I just read this and missed out too 🙁 Please let me know when the next campaign starts, I too would love to be a part of it! How awesome the money for the nets was raised!! Wow, I don’t read blogs for two days and I miss out on so much! Please keep us posted about any other ways we can help. Love your heart!  Oh me oh my–how the Lord DOES work wonders…STILL TODAY. Wanna join Him? Wanna be used RIGHT now to make a HUGE difference? There is no way I can put into words how God has orchestrated these events leading to this post–but just know the Lord is working…in Korah. We have a beautiful 16 year […] Partners in this beautiful life… Loving serving with you my sister! Oh Melanie Strobel…GOD USED YOU MY FRIEND TO GET THIS DONE!!!!!!!!!!! I am AMAZED! girl – I love what you and Sarah and Melanie have done! We just did the paypal thing – working an extra shift this month payed off:) I’ve been reading your blog for a few months now, but have never commented… I guess I’m a blog stalker… 🙂 You inspire me!! We are on the waiting list for a baby girl from Ethiopia. God has given us a heart for Africa. We donated and I linked to this post to my facebook account, so hopefully more of my friends will give too! Thanks for giving us chances to help! YES ~ I’m donating money for nets and beyond. Well done, again, in following God’s Will and not stopping your connections to pull people together to help. We’re IN! We have a teenage son at Korah ( God keeps giving me more boys, every time we sign up to sponsor someone- love it! ) – can’t wait to meet him! I still have two trips to make so keep me informed on what you are thinking next….. Andrea – this is so amazing and wonderful! By the way, are you aware that after a person makes a donation, they are redirected to a site: babyofmyheart/thankyou? I am thinking there is a typo somewhere, because I don’t think you meant for people to be sent there… THANK YOU for heading this up!!!!!! these kids are in my thoughts ALL. DAY. LONG. oh my heart is HAPPY! Since I first heard about Korah, my heart has been breaking. Thank you for providing this opportunity to give. I have been so encouraged by your journey to Isaac. We are currently waiting for a referral for two children and I feel like part of my heart is in Ethiopia. Just bought 2! I can’t wait to see what God does here! |
|
by admin
USE ME!!!! Oh, how I want God to use my family! I have been praying for a project to be part of. Can’t wait to get started, my friend. Love your heart!
What a lovely post and inspiring prayer…
J
http://www.gfinkfamily.blogspot.com
AWESOME post! Love it!
Beautiful. You sound very much like Kay Warren in her book “Dangerous Surrender”.
Oh Andrea, I love your thoughtful, hard-hitting posts. My husband and I discuss this nearly all of the time too, and I am starting to learn to allow my heart to break after so many years of mentally shutting down when faced with all of the information on the pain of others. Keep writing, keep encouraging, keep reaching out and prodding at us! You are such a blessing, and God IS using you.
wow, precious friend! You can put words to what my heart feels… how do you do that 😉 God is encouraging so many of us through your heart. -xoxo
Thank you for allowing the Lord to use you to continue to break my heart for what breaks His as this has been my prayer!
Amazing post… I can’t wait to hear what you have for us. The Lord is really working in my life in ways I never dreamed He would and I can’t wait to see what happens!
Oh how that prayer literally changed the course of our lives and how thankful I am that it did!!
I was going through my typical morning routine of browsing through blogs with my coffee and breakfast and came across your post and couldn’t help but think it was more than coincidental that I read it today. Last night I prayed that prayer (for the millionth time) after a conversation that day with my husband about fear and comfort and a dream the night before. My heart desires that joy you mentioned daily—I want to grab it and never let go. I feel like God has also been reminding me that it starts with one single step forward and He will take care of the rest. Thank you. I can’t help but think this was a God-ordained encounter! Can’t wait to see what He has in store!
you never cease to amaze me! Exactly the conversations we have in our house, the yearning that God has given to our hearts! Yes yes yes!!! Use us! We are praying for what is to come – so excited to be part of His plan!
Andrea, you spoke my heart! We too have recently finished Radical and Crazy Love and we find ourselves asking God, what now? what do you want us to do? How do we live now? Your conversation with your husband is so similar to our conversations…God is definitely stirring in us a desire to do so much more then live out this American Dream!
Andrea ~ Speechless; so amazingly written no additional words are necessary. YES, I am here to be used for the Glory of God. Looking forward to your upcoming posts.
Very beautifully written.
Blessings to you.
Suzanne
freedomhollowfarmkiddos.blogspot.com
Absolutely beautiful!!
I have been praying this same request. “Use Me”. I want to help.
We have these same conversations and struggles. Looking forward to partnering with you on some projects in the coming months. Love you, Andrea.
oh, wonderful post…loved every word of it, kj
You are right- that prayer: “break my heart for what breaks yours”- will CHANGE lives. It changed mine. Thank you again for your words, Andrea!
I related to every sentence of this post! Thank you. It is so encouraging to know that others feel the strain too. Keep posting!
You are such an inspiration! Bless your heart!
I had a conversation like this one with my hubby last night! It seems that God is stirring a lot of hearts about how to help “the least of these”. Thank you LORD for quipping a wonderful woman of God like you to give us the means to help! Can’t wait to see how we can help in real, BIG ways!
I continue to be awed by the tears that flow when thinking about how “I” live…how I choose to live…with so many who do not have choices. I left a part of my heart in Ethiopia last year and continue to be drawn to “mans inequity to man” throughout the world. Thank you for continuing to bring it to the forefront!
Andrea, again.. all I can say is “WOW”… this is exactly how i feel I just can’t seem to come up with the words to express it… you are so talented at how you express your thoughts and feelings, they speak straight to my heart!
I am reading David Platt’s RADICAL… this is so in line with living for the Gospel the way Jesus intended vs the comfortable way we have twisted our “christian mindset” to be. Lord send me!
We (as a family) started praying this prayer about two years ago and let me just say that God has rocked our world in a huge way. He has asked us to step out of our comfort zones in many ways but He has graciously given us the strength through his Holy Spirit to be obedient to HIS will for our lives. I love your heart. Thanks for sharing!
http://www.ourlives-bice.blogspot.com
I sat leaning in closer and closer to my computer the more I read this post.
You said it better for me than I could have myself.
Thanks you for being so eloquant with your words and for striving to show this world what TRUE JOY really feels like. May me and my family find it truly.
God’s Greatest in the days ahead.
I catch myself asking “how do we balance it?” “Where is the line?” and then He whispers “you don’t and there isn’t?” It is ALL for Him. Hard. hard. hard. But please Lord show me how you want to use me! Thank you Andrea for always being so honest and encouraging. I can’t wait to hear about the projects and walk side by side for His glory!
I’m in!! Can’t wait to see what you have planned! Another prayer that you need to watch out for is “give me a life of eternal significance.” That’s the prayer that God used to lead us to adoption. If you ask, He will surely answer!! =)
Andrea.
Absolutely the best post you have ever written and there have been some special ones. I am selective on what I link to on fb but this one is going on today.
My husband and I have struggled with this since returning home in January with our two Ethiopian daughters. We know this world is not our rest, but our rest will come in Heaven when we are surrounded by the glory of God. We have now teamed up with http://www.starved4hope.org to beging supporting a school of 166 children in Ethiopia and we feel that this is just the beginning. We are so excited to start living a life that brings glory to God as we daily die to ourselves. Can’t wait to see what God will do next!
Wow! This post is EXACTLY how we have been feeling since we started our adoption journey over a year ago. Thank you for putting how we all feel into words!
i want in! let me know what I need to do!
I put “break my heart for what breaks yours” and I ended up on this post on your website. Yes, I have prayed this prayer, and He has taken me into other’s pain, mostly emotional and mental. I have suffered in this way, too, and so with the affliction I suffered with, I could have compassion, and then out of that comes the prayers or whatever other actions He leads me in. My husband and I are involved with a ministry called InJesus’Name.org, which is focused on supporting the Body of Christ in impoverished nations. Our hearts are turned to the widows, orphans, rock-crushers, lepers, disabled, etc in mostly India, but in other countries as well. It is so refreshing to see that He is putting this joyful burden on others’ hearts as well, and that His ministry of giving, encouraging, compassion, and loving in action is being done, through the few laborers He talked about. Let us not become weary in well-doing, as the ones not in “fairyland” need the ones of us who are. We have been blessed to be a blessing, and not to hoard it unto ourselves. To Him be the glory! Keep on, keepin’ on,my sister and brother; the finish line will be here before you know it, and He will keep you until the end as you trust in Him.