I hate war movies. My husband, on the other hand, loves them. Watching Band of Brothers with him…may be his love language. Not too long ago, I walked into the living room to find my husband folding clothes (my love language) and one of the Brothers movies was on. I did my best to watch […]
The Young Family Farm »
Category Archives: Learning Last year, I spent some time studying the journey of the Magi, and just like my recent post on Joseph (a must read on his perspective if you missed it…if you only read one blog entry from me this year read that one)–and just like Joseph, their story is miraculous but often overlooked. Also last […] Those pictures are priceless! Glad you had a good Christmas! We are back from Bali and I am way behind in the land of blog. What a great place to start … with this post. Love the Magi Journey ideas and oh … that ITY! i first have to say…blessing after blessing…i have so enjoyed following your blog and journeying with you and your sweet family! And once again i am going to take our family on the “journey of the wisemen with you!” …what a fabulous idea! And i too…LOVE Carol Brazo’s book…”No ordinary home”. I discovered her about a year and 1/2 ago and wow! blessing. So..my question for you is…where did you do your research of the journey of the magi? Blessings to you! look at him!!! seriously…a miracle boy. love the idea of the journey of the wiseman. is there a day by day devotion to go with it? We also have traveling wisemen around our home. The kids love it! Love the idea of how we see Jesus every day. What a great idea. 🙂 I too am in awe of our family how it has grown where we came from this past year. AND YES!!!! Isaac is the cutest little man 🙂 !!!!! Go Isaac!!! Kristin and Jen…I just do the research myself and pull from every source I can find. I will be posting each night our devotional for the next 2 weeks–so feel free to just follow us a day behind if you begin your journey tonight (doing something similar to what we did last night…just introducing the journey). I just can’t type much until all my littles are down for the night:). oh andrea – he is just precious!!! Merry Christmas! Cannot wait to SEE you in a month!!! He is just so stinking cute .. and I love him in a hat shows his cute cheeks! What a neat idea. I struggle so much with doing structured things like that with my kids. My almost four year old has the attention span of a fly and seems to get all squirmy everytime we try to do a devotional. We flunked out of the Ann Voskamp Jesse tree devotional this year because it became frustrating to try and get him to stay focused 🙁 Next year I’ll try something simpler. 1 Thessalonians 5… “Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant […] LOVE this and needed it today. I’ve had one of those days and lost my cool with the kids a few times:( Love the scripture that states: Test everything. Hold onto the good. Avoid every kind of evil. Been thinking about and praying for you today! Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus…whew did I need this today. I was wallowing in a pitty party as I nurse a husband who just had ankle surgery while managing a house that seems in complete chaos…need to spend some time with God and this verse…letting it sink into my heart…don’t think joy or thankfulness ever crossed my mind today. Thanks Andrea. God wants us to focus on – HIM in prayer. thanksgiving, and joy because HE is our EVERYTHING!!!! RELEARNING THAT DAILY! Thank you for this exhortation for all of your readers! Thank you for sharing your heart and honoring God’s faithfulness in the process… His love endures forever!!! Wanna know the ONE other thing that melts my heart besides the heart of orphan? The heart of the widow. I do believe you will read in scripture—that these two melt the heart of our God too. My friend, Shannon, is in Zambia right now loving on both orphans and widows. This post from Sunday […] Completely ~ takes your breath away and makes answers so simple. Beautiful people with amazing spirit. Learning from them is vital. Yes! Yes! Yes! Thanks so much for reminding me of this today! I loved your friends post…those pictures are well…no words! I have been wondering what some of the ways are that we can reach out to widows and follow the Gospel here in the U.S. It’s not as talked about but I know there are hands on ways that we can show love. Would love to hear from you if you have a list of these.  I have to be honest and say Friday was a tougher day of our adoption journey for us. Now that Isaac is legally ours—my heart longs for him SO MUCH MORE than I ever knew…a deeper longing…one that I have only experienced once as a mommy (when we had to come home from the hospital […] what beautiful, beautiful words. He IS so faithful, and His plan is so perfect. i just want everyone in the world to feel this,to feel His love and to know He is exactly what we need. Nothing less, nothing more. He is perfect. And what He has for us as believers is perfect. We were at the Windsor this weekend in Americus…That is my family homeland where Shockley is the 6th generation namesake…we were there because Shockley had a HOBY youth leadership conference at Georgia South Western University. Oh , I am so sad we did not run into your family ! Praying that this next week will be AMAZING!!! Needed that reminder myself. Was very excited to hear about your friend Christie- God is so faithful! PRAYING! YAY!!! Shout out to Britney! How special is that! When she won our Adoption t-shirt giveaway (13 shirts!!!) I knew God had a plan in there somewhere He would unfold. What a special weekend and special connections. Oh my goodness..I am laughing at how similar we are tracking right now. I had such a hard week in my wait and the Lord did the same thing to me (well…not Georgia-ha!)! Took me away where I could refocus on Him. Had an amazing time of worship and prayer. Built back up for waiting on His Perfect Timing! How sweet it is to trust in Jesus! What a blessing it was to see all of you this weekend. We need to do it more often! I wish we were still sitting under those south ga stars worshipping together! Have a most wonderful week. So glad you had a lovely weekend….the Windsor is a beautiful hotel…my mom took me there for a mother-daughter weekend years ago! Beautiful words of truth!!! And yes, the waiting to travel is the most incredibly difficult part of the journey. Thankfully, as I just read this, I know that you already have your travel dates!! 🙂 And I remember Jed and his property in Ellaville!!!!! That was such a fun weekend!! I actually ran into Blair at the grocery store last week! 🙂 Such fun days… Beautiful. Perfect. Thank you. So good to meet you at the Strange’s lake and SOOO excited to hear y’all have travel dates. I (and our tuesday morning group) will continue to pray for your family and sweet Isaac, as you travel and bring him home!!! |
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by admin
Thank you for this, it is exactly what I needed today! Thank you thank you thank you!
Wow, Andrea. God is shining straight through you. Thanks for sharing your honest fears and longing to obey. Thank you.
I get this, more than I wish to openly admit. I say I want to be open to God and His plan for caring for the least of these, but only if it will fit into what I think would work.
Oh we were just talking about this yesterday afternoon! Thank you for sharing Andrea!
I feel ya girl! I’m sooo there with you, the fear thing, no regrets, steeping out into unknown territory, kingdom living…Its a daily battle for me. Thanks for the reminder that even though there can be a lot more pain there is SO MUCH JOY!!! We get to be used by God Himself as His hands and feet and along the way witness some of the most amazing miracles.
Thank you for sharing! You are singing my song…right there with you strugggling and wrestling! Thank you for putting it into words!
Thank you for such a raw and honest post! (they always are) this really spoke to me.
Once again God speaks through you to exactly the thing I have been praying about, stepping out in faith yet fearing what others may think all the while. My heart bleeds when others hurt. I just wrote in my prayer journal today that it doesn’t pay to fear others judgement. Each person has people they envy or think of as better than them just like each person has those they may judge for different reasons. Maybe that’s why God tells us not to judge or envy. As long as we LISTEN to what he tells US & ACT on it even when it doesn’t seem to make sense. For me what God lays on my heart so often doesn’t make sense to me & oh how I over-analyze it, but it sure makes sense to the other person when I just do whatever he calls me to do. You never know how even the smallest things you feel led to do or say may have a huge impact on another who is struggling. Gal6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. John 16:33 I have told you these things so that you may have peace. Seriously girl-reading this blog is better than watching a sermon! Keep it up!
Thank you for jump starting my heart! your words shake my heart .. I’m praying for you and your next right steps .. God already knows them and who cares what other people think .. all that matters is what God thinks .. I’ll be praying for you! Thanks again for keeping me reminded of kingdom living not earthly living!
Thank you for sharing that… I don’t know what our future holds–we’re taking it one step at a time, but I also want to live without regrets. I also know that this adoption journey is changing us and opening our eyes in ways that are hard, but GOOD. And I am super excited to see what happens in our lives because of it. 🙂
T.H.A.N.K. Y.O.U. The last prayer line was key for me. I think many of us can say we have thought/done the same (perhaps different topic) but same way of living/thinking/doing. Thank you for your raw honesty. Beautiful.
Thanks for sharing. You’ve spoken directly to what I’m struggling with at this very moment.
Hanging out with you next w/end could just be dangerous…in such a good way! Not sure my hubby gets what he is sending me too! 🙂 That adoption bug could ignite again!
AMAZING yet again! Your words always come at the most perfect times! I SO needed this today!!! Cannot wait to share this with my husband tonight! I can so relate to the thoughts of living life not knowing what I know now, worried about all the worldly things, I pray to live a life for the Kingdom! Cannot wait to see you on Friday, it is going to be a blast!
Love this, Andrea. I am the same way…want to live my life willing to take risks for Christ…there is so much JOY in being ALL IN with Him!
Thank you for sharing your heart and how God is working in you! This time last year, God led us to take a crazy leap of faith and jump from the path of adopting a healthy infant from Ethiopia to that of brining home siblings, ages 2 and 5, both HIV positive. We struggled through the decision, just as anyone would – there is such fear there! As we researched and educated ourselves, we found that so much of that fear is unfounded. God had a perfect plan for these brilliant, incredible little people, and He gave them a name and a hope, just as He did for all of us through Jesus! Just last night, my husband and I were talking and weeping together, with our beautiful, now healthy children sleeping in their room, as we were talking of what could have been – surely would have been – for them. What a transformation in their lives and in our own hearts! For anyone reading who could use encouragement in this, check into the website http://www.positivelyadopted.com, prayerfully asking the God of peace to cast out all fear. A year later, we find ourselves in the midst of a totally different sort of life-changing decision, and again we have to lean on Him as we die a little more to ourselves and to the world. Thank you for your post – it brought me encouragement!
I.SO.GET.THIS. Sad, to admit. I try so hard to lay it all out for God, but I often find areas in which I am still trying to coax Him as to “how” to do it, or “when” to do something, or “which way best fits my agenda or life.” Good thing He sees my heart’s desire and forgives me when I fall short! :o)