The Young Family Farm »

Praying for you continually,Andrea. Dr. Rick Boden is an infectious disease doc and I wish you would see him. I believe God works throuh his hands. Please know you are being lifted in prayer and the Angels and Saints are surrounding you with their love and comfort. Pax and hugs,Marci

Such precious, refreshing words from God. Love that passage!

When you’re healthy and ready to begin the adoption process again, in His timing, He’ll provide those funds to bring your little girl home! Everything is His anyway…He’ll provide.

Praying that this new doctor has some answers for you!

Andrea, I know you don’t know me but I just wanted to thank you for sharing a piece of your heart. Our adoption journey started the same month that I was diagnosed with some serious hyperthyroidism and so we immediately had to stop everything and wait.
I, too, remember watching the money that we wanted to use for adoption going to drs instead.

But what you wrote at the end about someday looking back and hoping to be thankful for this? That is so glorifying to your Heavenly Father! And in my experience, I absolutely have seen that to be true. I wouldn’t have chosen this timing and this path but all that God has done through this has been beautiful and worth it. (Not because the pain was beautiful, but because Jesus became more beautiful to me through it.) And even though I’m not 100% healed, I am healthy enough now to be getting ready to apply to agencies for our domestic adoption!

Praying for you in the wait.

Oh Andrea…thanks once again for sharing your heart and God’s heart too. You have been an inspiration to me for such a long time, and just know that we are lifting you up in prayer right now.

We too, have been through the wringer with auto-immune diseases – sometimes waiting and waiting for a diagnosis and sometimes just walking through the gritty, day-to-day existence of living with pain and body parts that don’t function properly. Granted, in our case it’s my husband and not me, so I’m coming from a different perspective. I do know what it’s like, though, to wonder how in the world all of the health problems and expense are going to dovetail into the adoption that you KNOW God has led you to. I know about stretching yourself through hundreds of tests and plenty of procedures and surgeries. I know what it’s like to pray for healing, to be anointed with oil, and to be WAITING on God’s promises. But I also know that God is FAITHFUL, and that sometimes it is the hardest things that show you just how big and amazing and complete He is. It has been in the moments when I’ve needed His help just to breathe through the panic that I’ve learned the most about who He is and how much He loves me. We would never have chosen the road of sickness and disease, but I believe with all my heart that God turns Satan’s evil into amazing beauty, and because of that, we’ve had experiences that I wouldn’t trade for the world.

“My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never by shaken.” Psalm 62:1-2

Can I thank you for ministering to my heart in the midst your own questions and hurting?

We’ve gone through alot of medical questions in the years leading up to our adoption and even some during. We too, have spent large sums of money on tests that seemed to go no where and that seemed so useless in the scheme of our heart’s cries and the needs and the hurting we saw in others and across the world.

Yet can I say that God has used these experiences . .. and smaller bank accounts to strip back layers in my heart and life and showed me much security I found in a padded savings account and more than I had ever wanted to admit? It’s been humbling and hard at times to face the truth of that.

But what I have loved is being able to watch GOD fund our adoption and claim no credit of our own. It has required so much more faith on my part to take this journey without the end in sight and God has amazed me by His provision where I never saw it coming. I don’t mean to imply this is the lesson you need to learn at all – but God used it in my own life and it has been humbling seeing Him provide through others. In fact, I love how you already see His faithfulness in giving you a means to meet your current needs. I’m confident He’ll provide the future ones too.

I think that’s what I get excited for you guys. . . to see how God is going to continue showing you His face, His faithfulness and His provision still to come. It’s what I’m trusting in our own story and will be praying for you in yours.

And tonight? Know you are in our prayers. That as you face your own struggles amidst so selflessly giving to others that God will just surround you with His peace, His encouragement and His HOPE for what’s to come. That you can find the strength to love your littles to the extent your heart feels for them and that your family will be blessed for the love it’s shown so many.

blessings . . .

Thank you for sharing! What a beautiful reminder that God’s plans are for our good. (He makes all things beautiful!, I am currently wearing my retreat tee shirt with that message.)

I too have struggled with auto-immune issues, and know the stress of dealing with 5 specialists who are all puzzled and giving conflicting messages about how to treat the current situation. I pray that you will receive relief from the symptoms and healing from whatever the real cause turns out to be.

As a fellow homeschooler, do not sweat the movie day. We all need days like that, even when we are healthy.
Blessings,
Julie

hang in there. praying for answers first and foremost! and then when God gives the green light, i will have my adoption financial website up and running and you can be one of the first to use it!
robyn

so true sweet friend. His plans are {always} greater…even if it doesn’t seem like it at the time!! i wouldn’t trade the past year for anything..as you know, it has looked much different than we thought..praying you get to see a glimpse of clarity and the why behind it all!! much love!