I just ran across this article from CNN on one of my favorite chefs. A couple of things that makes my heart smile about Chef Marcus Samuelsson… 1. He was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 2. His mother died of tuberculosis and a nurse took he and his sister under her wing–and took them to […]
The Young Family Farm »
Author Archives: adminI’ve been resting up this weekend with the 3 older ones gone…and I knew if I didn’t put together Isaac Temesgen’s sweet slideshow now–it might not ever happen. It was a real challenge to get it under YouTube’s “less than 10 minute” requirement to say the least;). Please feel free to share…and without further adieu–after […] Oh my goodness! Just had a LOOONG weekend of fundraising and it was such a treat to end it with this precious video and remind myself of what we are doing all this hard work for!! Can’t wait for our turn! 😉 Simply beautiful Andrea. I know I’m going to watch it at least 10 more times (today)! When I think of all the different moments in your journey– starting the process, getting on the waitlist, praying for a court pass, praying again, travelling to get Isaac, meeting his birth mom– it all seems SO long ago already! And yet it was God’s perfect timing, each event of great importance to prepare him and to prepare you for today. May your video inspire many many many more to follow God’s call… WOW Andrea! That is incredible! So happy for your new family of 6! Thank you for sharing your journey. Andrea – it is wonderful!!! I know that I am going to watch it a million times:) Praying for you all as the kids come home – for peace and sleep and tons of joy!!! Give your kiddos huge hugs from us! beautiful! what an amazing journey isaac has already been through in his life! Love it! I truely enjoyed watching your journey with Isaac! You have a beautiful family! Beautiful!!!! So happy he is home. I am a mess. So beautiful. Loved the whole thing and wish YouTube didn’t have the 10 minute limit!! My husband just walked in and asked why I was crying… :o) Absolutely beautiful. I love your photographs – they are incredible. Your family is gorgeous, and your heart is so genuine. oh andrea….LOVE this video! precious! Did you do the video, if so, how or where online did you do it? I am wanting to do something similar for our Isaac! Thanks for any info! Speechless and crying. Amazing, my friend! Blessings to you and a super huge hug! Thank you for sharing that video with us, it is so inspiring. We are waiting to apply for a court date for our 4 month old baby girl – and the enemy just loves to send obstacles our way, but seeing Isaac reminds me, even more, the beauty and importance of what we are doing and that we must persevere. He is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. It has been a joy watching your journey! Blessings my sister. So beautiful. Our son was adopted domestically so it was a different experience, but adoption is always a life changing experience. What an absolutely beautiful, squeezable son you have! His happy, funny smile makes me laugh. Congratulaitons on the end of one journey and the beginning of another! So amazingly beautiful! I can’t wait to share this with my family and friends. God will use your journey to Isaac Temesgen to bless so many people and further his kingdom and bring home more orphans. Blessed to know you Andrea! You have no idea how encouraged I am to keep going after watching this! Cannot wait until it is our turn. Congratulations!! ENJOY!! God is so awesome! So beautiful! Beautiful Andrea!!!! Can’t wait to join the ranks of those HOME with their little ones!! I am getting SUCH encouragement from watching the love in your family unfold!!!! Jenn My heart as well as eyes are full. I love it! We are leaving for our first trip to court in a week and I can’t wait to see my baby girl. another tear jerker! 🙂 welcome home isaac temesgen!!! Andrea, So happy for you, Isaac is such a beautiful boy, his smile lights up his whole face! Congratulations on his arrival home. Blessings for many wonderful days ahead. God is so wonderful!! I am so happy for your family. I cried (of course)… What a beautiful testimony of God’s calling and work in us and through us. Thank you so much for sharing your family, and your adorable new addition, with us! 🙂 -The Starrs in Colorado This is so so beautiful Andrea! Thank you for sharing your video and allowing us to share it too. I can’t wait to go to Hannah’s Hope sometime next year to pick up our little girl! That was so inspiring, wonderful, and perfect. God is so faithful. Thank you for being such an inspiration to me and my family as we move closer to find our little one in Ethiopia. WOW! the sweetness and beauty of it all brings me to my knees. It has been so inspiring to watch your family’s beautiful journey. Thanks for sharing and I cant wait for the next update! Andrea, Love Love Love seeing your story from start to now. Amazing. You are right, it doesn’t get old. Thanks for sharing your story and your heart. And that little man? oh he is a-dor-a-ble!!! I love the ‘crew’ shot of all your kids. That one is a keeper! LOVE it! Congratulations on the new addition!  “Okay—so of course I’m not talking yet…but lemme tell ya…my momma–she can totally read my mind…so check this out…THIS–is my new crew…” “Oh yeah–we get totally O.O.C here. That’s Out. Of. Control. people. And I love it…I thought Hannah’s Hope was crazy–but they don’t have anything on this joint…” “For REAL—these people love to make […] Andrea~This post gave me the BIGGEST smile ever!!!!! How precious!!! I just loved reading I.T.Y.’s thoughts!!! Keep ’em coming!!!!!! Love you all!!!! GREAT!!! Welcome to blogging Isaac. I hope you get a chance to share your thoughts again. That was fun (and you are TOTALLY CUTE in all your photos)!! such a beautiful family, Andrea. You guys truly make me smile. 🙂 Love the pictures and the commentary! 🙂 HAHA! love it!! absolutely ADORABLE:) SO cute!!! This made me smile! They are all so adorable!!! Hilarious!! Love it! Great pictures of all the O.O.C.!!!!! I absolutely ADORE this post!!!! 🙂 Too cute! What a blessing to have some time with Isaac while your parents enjoy the older ones! I LOVE LOVE LOVE that post! He is precious…so precious! Beautiful! Love the pics and the craziness. 🙂 I LOVE it!!! That’s a good lookin’ bunch you have! it amazes me how your photos are SO amazing and like professional! love them! Oh, I am cracking up at all of Isaac’s “sayings”! 🙂 And I just LOVE these pics! Seeing all your kids together is so precious…really, really adorable! What a fun post Isaac!!! You are cute and yummy!!!! I think your crew needs to meet my crew 🙂 I LOVE it!!!!!!!!! GREAT pictures and commentary to go along with them!!!! My husband and I have just started our Ethiopian adoption and I am always excited to connect with someone who has already been there!!!!!!! okay. finally a post that hasn’t made me click off cuz I was in tears and then had to come back to after I regained composure!!!! just started following you when Kristi posted about you while you were in Ethiopia. He is such a ham 🙂 LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!!!!! Jenn that is so stinkin cute and funny! the picture with Parker holding Isaac is melting my heart. 🙂 Thank you Isaac for spreadin the love! Tell yo Momma those pics totally rock! What a cutie! Isaac Temesgen is a serious looker. What a beautiful family picture, thanks for sharing. Your crew is straight up eye candy for the soul! oh my gosh Laney’s smile in those pics are stunning – she looks so much like you Andrea!!! Isaac is sooooo cute! Love the post. I love the pics and your new video! Thanks for sharing with those of us who do not know you but are so touched by your story. We have adopted two little guys (U.S. adoption) and I am now drawn to the country of Africa though I do not know if/when we will adopt again. I have been so “moved” by the videos and blogs of others who have adopted from this beautiful country. You have blessed me- thank you! That just made my day! He is just the cutest thing… I missed so much while I was on vacation. I am going to go watch your gotcha video now! So precious. Gorgeous family and so sweet to see all the little ones loving on each other! As I sit here in my QUIET house (thank you momma for taking the older 3!)…with classical music softly playing and my 11 month old baby napping–I am taken back by the transformation work of the Lord. I stand over Isaac Temesgen’s bed watching him sleep–getting him to sleep was no easy task this morning. […] gosh, andrea. you did it again – made me cry 🙂 thank you so much for sharing this! Beautiful, beautiful…have tears in my eyes! Adoption is such a beautiful picture of God’s love for us…so thankful today that He has rescued me and adopted me as His daughter! Thanks for a precious reminder of that! You have the pure gift of sharing the Word so perfectly, Andrea. I love your writing and your voice. Have a beautiful day!!! oh you’ve made me cry, cry, cry!!! you are such an amazing voice for the Lord and such and encouragement to me! I love your posts….i love your heart! thank you! i loved this! especially when you wrote “Adoption on this Earth and adoption to our King are both so beautiful. And really–just make…SO. MUCH. SENSE. There is brokenness. There is hurt. There is pain. BUT. There is hope. There is healing. AND. There will be JOY. And purpose. All. Through. His. Power.” I love reading what you have to write. God bess you sweet friend. You are one precious person! Andrea…you have no idea how much peace your blog brought me today. We just sumbitted our application to AGCI today, and I’ve been so attacked with all of the fears of raising a happy, well-adjusted african child in a white family. I know that God wants this for us and for his orphan children, and we will be faithful to Him. I saw myself in every one of your analogies, and I thank you for the encouragement you never realized you gave. God bless you and your journey with all of your beautiful babies, and your newest, Isaac Temesgen. Just BEAUTIFUL!!! I come to your blog every night before I head to bed, and I am ALWAYS inspired! You mean so much to me, Andrea, although we have never met! Your sister in Christ, Bobi Girl … you’ve got a best seller in you! Beautifully written! beautiful ! so sweet andyou all are in my prayers. I’m just going to echo Jenny’s words…crying and more crying! Your words are so beautiful and He has given you such an amazing gift to touch others. I love the mental picture of you leaning over the crib with your cheek on his…precious. Throughout my day you are in my prayers. Shan a beautiful post describing a beautiful moment with you and isaac and a beautiful reality. Well, if you prayed for my relief today—your prayers were answered in the form of my sweet mom. Not only did she travel around the world with me last week to bring home our Isaac Temesgen–but she swooped in town from the state next door and surprised me! She kidnapped not 1–not 2…but 3 little […] YAY! Thankful for Momma’s like yours who know when to love through direct helping. Enjoy the quiet time with your husband and Isaac. OOOhhhhhhh! Go Mrs. Pierce!!! What a wonderful surprise!!! Have a great restful weekend! Love you girl!! Thinking about you lots today and so thankful that God sent you some “reinforcements” in the form of a loving grandmother. Praying you can rest and restore, and then return to the front lines ready and equipped once again!!! Thanks for sharing the tough times with us too because we get to see God’s amazing goodness in hearing and answering prayer. mommas are the BEST! so glad yours is helping out!!! Praise the Lord for moms who step in when we are at our max! So thankful you are getting some rest this weekend. I prayed for you today throughout the day. I SO wish I lived closer and could do something more tangible to help. I kept thinking all day about how I would love to bring dinner, run some errands for you, take the big kids to a park….but, for now, I’ll continue to pray. Enjoy your littlest one this weekend! Rest up sister! What a wonderful Mom you have! Lifting you up in prayer. I’m praying that you will be able to recharge and “refill” this weekend. Hugs to you! Aren’t Moms the best!!! I am so thankful that you are going to have this special time with Isaac to “recharge your batteries”… I cannot even imagine how exhausted you must be! Planning a trip to Atlatna this fall to visit a high school friend there, hope that we can meet face to face! You are such an inspiration to me! Oh, by the way… just recieved our first call today from AGCI….they got our preapplication! (: I have been following your blog for about the last month or so…Congratulations! I have 4 children 6 & under, with our fourth being adopted in April. God’s blessings to you and your family! Yay!! That is so wonderful!! So glad your mom just knew to swoop in and help! I can’t wait to see that slideshow!! Oh I hope you take full advantage of this time to rest up! that is awesome! sounds like something my momma would do too! May GOd bless her for what she is doing for ya and I hope you and Isaac gets lots of precious time together and you can get a little piece and quiet! :0) Oh what a great momma you have! So happy for you that you can rest knowing your littles are in the care of their grandmother and you can focus completely on bonding with sweet Isaac! I continue to pray for you and am so thankful for you continued blog entries during this time….it helps me to know what is in store for us:) wow..what an amazing momma you have….so jealous 🙂 kristi Grandma’s are the best! Yay for your mother! What a wonderful answer to a prayer. I am sure your other three had a blast too! Glad you got some much needed rest. |
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by admin
Love this post!! So well said! Soooo thankful that God has called us on this journey! Just posted Isaac Temesgen’s video on my blog! I LOVE it!! What a precious baby and precious story!
You made me cry all over again watching your video!! But I will do it again, and again. =) No words to match what you said regarding the stats. Here’s another statement that hit me today from a woman named Amy commenting on Sixtyfeet.org
… God is watching His precious ones all.the.time. Can you imagine His heart breaking? He must ache knowing that we live in such filthy excess and watch and do nothing. Please do something. Everyone can do something.
Hi late night friend! I realized you and I both seem to do most of our blog/online stuff at night…i’m guessing for the same reasons too…our Isaac’s! :0) LOVE the quote you mentioned at the end! I will check out your video! I am doing our gotcha video right now and hoping to be done with it in a day or two! :0) Already tonight my husband and I were watching what I had done and he was even crying! :0)
Thank you. Really, thank you. We’re just on the brink of praying about adoption wondering where, when and how. We’re more than challenged by your precious story and just this morning I was convicted by your words. I even posted about it.
So just to let you know your words are appreciated. Keep writing!
Andrea– When I first told a good friend of mind about our Markos, the first thing she said was, “Do you know about Marcus Saumuellson? I love him!” I immediately looked him up and discovered the things you wrote. So cool. Thanks for sharing!
Andrea, we have walked this journey together through each other blogs and to finally have our boys home is such a blessing. Your words have comforted me along the way! Thank you! I love all your videos! they brought tears to my eyes! As I still have family in Woodstock I hope some day our paths will cross! Praying for you and the transition home! Check out our video if you haven’t seen it yet on our blog .. feel to post if you want .. take care and thanks again for your words .. they always melt my heart!
Wow. Remind myself frequently that sleep is overrated anyway!! The visual of driving and driving is too much to comprehend……..
Beautiful, beautiful. Wiping away tears as I am typing. Words do it no justice.
Cried through the whole slide show. Isaac is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!! What a treasure he will be to your family!
I love your video. Thank you for sharing. I am going to link it to my blog.
He is so adorable Andrea… loved seeing his journey. AMAZING that he gained 10 lbs that fast. Wow!
I thought I’d introduce myself. I follow your blog and haven’t posted much. Your blogs are very encouraging. I appreciate your transparency. You are stepping on some toes with this post and I love it! Keep speaking the truth sister. Love the video and you have a beautiful family…you are right it is a perfect picture of the gospel!
Blown away by your comment of driving and continuing to see orphan after orphan, my heart aches for them. Your gotcha video makes my longing desire to hold our new little girl even stronger. I especially broke down when I saw you holding him up to the computer and showing him to his the rest of the family. I know that not only is the adopted child being blessed by this but it makes the other children realize a whole new definition of family. I say that having a sister who my parent’s adopted. As a teenager I knew I would some day do the same. Praying for your dear family and for many more families to be made complete!
Love the video Andrea! Thanks for sharing with us. I have been praying for you and Isaac and that each day the routine gets easier and more sleep comes–although I know you’d trade sleep for precious time with any of your kiddos. You’re right. It’s always worth it!!
I never tire of watching Isaac’s “Gotcha Day” video. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy, busy day to create and share it with us. It’s amazing to watch him grow in the love that surrounds him. I wish so very much that I was younger and healthier, because I would certainly do my best to decrease the number of orphans. Praying for all the widows and orphans every day. Hugs,
WOW! I really needed this today, Andrea! Have been feeling a bit discouraged as we begin this embark towards adoption, but you have confirmed for me that we are doing the right thing! God continues to use you to bless me! Love you!!! ps. sent your gotcha day out last night to my mom and a few friends, mom said I had her crying! Such a beautiful video and a beautiful baby boy!!! (:
LOVE IT!!! Just posted about you on my blog today! 🙂 So glad your blog is keeping updated…I look forward to reading your posts! Praying in Abby’s passport this week!!
Blessings,
Jenny
Wow, that was a wonderful… thank you so much for sharing your journey with us!
That was a good cry for me! 🙂 You did a great job with the video. I am so excited for your family on this great adventure God has for you.
It has been an absolute joy to be a part of this journey with you via the blog world. I have learned so much from you Andrea and am so thankful for you and your family and for sharing in all that God lays on your heart. This video was just precious and perfect and just made my heart sing!
…I wasn’t made for manicures, vacations or even the luxury of a good night’s sleep. I was made to store my treasures in heaven and to shine Jesus out of my heart. Yes, yes, yes!!!
I just found your blog through others and I will continue to follow it. I just watched your video and I have tears coming down my face! We adopted our son from Vietnam last May, but we considered Ethiopia. We still look to adoption #2 and the possibilities. We would love to adopt from VN again, but we aren’t sure. I still feel a pull to Africa. I have read a few blogs tonight and you are rekindling that fire in me again. I will be saying some prayers. Your family is beautiful!!
I’ve been following your blog for about a month now…I found it through Kristi’s blog. The Gotcha video is incredible and I just wanted to let you know that people’s lives are already being touched through it! We have been a waiting family 18 months now and hope to be bringing our baby boy home from Ethiopia within the next 7-10 months. It’s been such a long wait and videos, like yours, help with the wait! What a blessing little Isaac is! Your family is beautiful! God Bless You!