Andrea O. Freeman

 163 days.  I can't believe it's been nearly 32 years since we officially began our life together.  I remember when you asked me to marry you on a fun evening out for a festive holiday get away to see the lights at Silver Dollar City in December of 1993.  Mike and Amy joined us, and little did I know they were in on the secret and knew what was coming.  You surprised me as you and I had a moment in the wilderness chapel, and you got down on one knee and asked me....it was yeah, a storybook, fairy tale, all the feels kind of moment!  My Ry is really a romantic and an absolute charmer at heart.  I can't imagine it being any other way.  It doesn't feel like it's been over 30 years.  A lot of life has happened since those early days when we'd only been together for about 9-10 months.  I knew I was going to marry you just a month into our relationship.  I knew God gave you to me, and me to you.  163 days til we celebrate another yea...

 I don’t know about you, but so far 2025 has been um…. Intense.  I can’t think of another word to describe it at the moment.  I am type A, first born, determined, a hard-core planner, don’t you dare procrastinate in my vicinity or I may have to give you some unwanted advice.  Just being honest here, but I’m having a hard time with it and finding more than ever I have to lay it down.  Pray, and pray, and pray, and yep I’m gonna keep sayin’ it til it annoys the heck out of ya, PRAY!  Maybe it’s just part of getting older, but I find more than ever before I am having to pause multiple times a day and practice this cycle:   Breathe, Pray, Release   1.       Breathe:    One of my first steps I take when my focus is bulldozing toward panic mode because of what I am hearing and seeing on the news, radio, tv, social media, from the chatter in conversations around me throughout the day whether it’s a work day or the w...

The week leading up to Easter weekend this year, as part of my focus, my reflection upon this season of my life, my prayers, my meditations, my seeking greater space and breathing room-I determined it was time for me to depart social media.  I had been thinking about it last year just prior to the holidays and the impending presidential election year of 2024.  So I did just that, and it has been precisely what my heart and my mind needed.  Since my Mom died in January, I have been thinking and internalizing a lot more with the goal to refresh, renew, re-focus.   This season of experiencing simultaneous grief and peace has sharpened my internal perspective far more than any other time in my life.  The reality is as life rolls on day after day, month after month, year after year, the rhythm of life brings a level of comfort and complacency for all of us.  The unexpected can shake us, awaken us to a part of ourselves deep down that we didn't know was ther...

 This year I chose to devote some time focused on the Lent season leading up to Easter.  I honestly couldn't recall the last time I spent time focused on Lent and had to consider what it is and what it meant to me.   I understood it to be the time frame representing the 40 days that Jesus spent wandering in the wilderness before he began his public ministry.  I have heard over the years from friends choosing to give up or abstain from something in their lives to help them better focus and grow in their walk with the Lord.  I have done something similar at several points in my life over the years, but nothing really significant in terms of giving something up that wasn't material or tangible.  This year is different in one way in particular, the loss of my Mom in January.  I am coming up to a lot of first's without her, including Easter.  Easter holds a really special place in my life because it was during the Easter season in 1979 that I acce...

 Early Tuesday morning January 2, 2024, I got a call that my Mom was slipping away and the family should come.  We knew she was not doing well these past couple of weeks as she had developed pneumonia and covid, and she was struggling just to manage breathing.   When I arrived, the nurse brought me in to Mom's bedside, and quietly stepped out to give me some time alone with her before my Dad and my brother arrived.   I cried like I have never cried before in my life, and went to my knees beside her, resting my hand on her arm.  I have no words to describe what it felt like in that moment, the finality and the reality of it.  My brain understood she was gone, no longer there.  But my heart, regardless of how far gone Mom had been for years now..... my heart was suddenly flooded with the feelings, the sounds, the memories of her across my entire life, rushing through my head in that moment all at once.  It felt like time kind of stopped, s...

  'In this time of fear When prayer so often proves in vain Hope seems like the summer bird Too swiftly flown away Yet now I'm standing here My hearts so full, I can't explain Seeking faith and speaking words I never thought I'd say... There can be miracles When you believe Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill  Who knows what miracles you can achieve? When you believe, somehow you will You will when you believe' (When You Believe, songwriters: Kenneth Babyface Edmonds, Stephen Lawrence Schwartz/performed by Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston "The Prince of Egypt" soundtrack 1998) I've been reminiscent recently as we are preparing for Christmas, of things that are especially meaningful to me.  The sights, the sounds, the aromas, the feelings, my mind is full of so many. One of my favorite sights as a child, still a picture in my mind even now:  The Christmas tree aglow, and one of my favorite gifts was an antique baby carriage with a beautiful antique...