Category Archives: Inspirational 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, […] 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….  Earlier this month I had the pleasure to “meet” Abby, another adopting mommy, when she commented on my blog. Something grabbed my attention and we started cooresponding. THEN, the Holy Spirit must have just laid on my heart to LEARN MORE…so I started asking questions–and I am SO glad I did!!! I want to introduce […] yes! love the dockerys in real and bloggy life! thank you so much for spreading the word even further about them! what you wrote is so cool. i am gonna buy shirts for our family no matter what, but would love to win one too. i posted at our blog all about this fam. thank yoU! What an awesome family! I love the shirt! 🙂 Awww! They are sooo cute! I am now a follower, I blogged about it at http://www.campbellfamilypartyof3.com and I FB it:) i just became a follower of “texas petes” i think its wonderful what they’re doing and that they’re adopting from ethiopia!! and i absolutely love following along on your blog learning more about what its like to have an adopted child. i think you’re fantastic! I’m a new follower to their blog and yours, too! Love your heart in this, Andrea!! What a great idea. I couldn’t resist the t-shirt to add to my collection and I just put it on my blog, too! If I win on eof the tees I can;t wai tot give it away and share the love!! Love that shirt! You have no idea how much you may be blessing this family’s adoption fund by your wonderful post! So glad to get to now be a wee little part of their peanuts journey home:) i am now a follower of their blog and i also blogged about it!! EEEEEEEE I love those shirts!!! I love these shirts! I just entered on her blog! love your heart! and the shirts! and a new blog to follow! this momma definitely needed some happiness today:) I just signed up to follow their blog. I love the shirts! I also will be praying for sweet Isaac on Friday. love the shirts… Solomon (our 3yr old Ethiopian love) thinks the post office gives shirts away!! and everytime I go to pick up fabric for POPPY DIPS! he asks it they sent a shirt for him!! So needless to say, I bought him one… but would love to win another 🙂 so I’m following their journey blog and of course read yours’ every single day 🙂 Signed up to follow their blog – such cool shirts! I will pray for Isaac too! Hi Angela..I have been reading your blog for awhile now..since before you got Isaac…and I am loving it. He’s adorable..and I love the name…my baby brother is also named Isaac. I would love to ask you more questions about adopting. I am from Canada:) Have I mentioned how amazing I think you are??? Thank you for the link, I look forward to following thier blog. I am now a follower and I FBed their giveaway! thanks for introducing us to this family! How amazing and love their t-shirt design! LOVE this family! Thanks for sharing. We just got 3 t-shirts – can’t wait to see what God does in there lives and who He has planned for them. I posted about your friends on facebook. What an amazing family serving and following Christ! and LOVE the shirts. […] night awake–Frankie-baby and I decided it was TIME to draw to see which of my commenters from THIS post wins a free t-shirt! SO we got ready—I wrote out ALL the commenter names…PLUS we […] […] night awake–Frankie-baby and I decided it was TIME to draw to see which of my commenters from THIS post wins a free t-shirt! SO we got ready—I wrote out ALL the commenter names…PLUS we […] 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. 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. |
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…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! =)
Second, AMAZING family thank you SO much for sharing their story!
Third, I love ITY’s hair! Even long it makes me smile!
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!
Love & Blessings from Hong Kong,
Kim
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.
Thank you!
I’ve wept, rejoiced, and prayed all throughout the reading! Our God is AMAZING!!! Thank you for sharing this testimony!
Andrea-
I don’t know you at all. I stumbled on your blog thru a friend, of a friend, of a friend….or something like that. I have been following your journey of adoption and my heart just swells with joy for your family. I too hope one day to adopt. My husband is open but I know their is still some work to be done for him to be ready to take that step.
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!