Andrea O. Freeman

  ‘A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices…..’ I know a lot of you share this sentiment for the year of 2022…..I’m  weary .   If there’s a word I would choose to represent this year, it is just that.   My humanity threatens at every turn of this road called life to call it done, give up, throw in the towel, wave the white flag.   I.can’t.even. I can’t really pinpoint one thing, it’s a cascade of “things” that this life has thrown in our path.   At the end of the laundry list of “things” I could list for you here, I can point to one “thing” that has held me steady somehow.   Jesus .   He is Jehovah Jireh, forever enough, always enough, more than enough.   I am going to continue to age, ache, stumble through everything this life hands me, but He is steady and unchanging.   When it seems He is far from my reach, it’s hard to swallow the reality, the truth of the matter:   I am the one who has wandered.    His presence, His peace, His strength, He is with me always and forever.  

  Psalm 91:1-2  Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." The year end is rapidly approaching, and as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I am aware of how quickly time is moving forward.  This past year has been full of moments of unexpected experiences.  We lost Ryan's Mom in early January, and while we knew she was not going to be with us much longer due to a number of health issues, it's just something you can't be fully prepared for.  We had blessed time together gathering family and sweet friends to honor her life and praise God for our time with her, how she left her loving, gracious mark upon all of our lives.  As we stepped into those first few months of the year, the stress and demand of work, and for Ryan finishing out his degree at MSU, it was like a glaring neon sign in our faces that we could not avoid.  We had to push

 The reality that we are nearing the end of October, and just 2 months away from the end of 2022, is kind of hard to believe when I think about it.  I'm going to be brutally honest here:  2022 has been hard.  My Mom's health has declined significantly as the Alzheimer's/Dementia has progressed and takes away more and more of the amazing person I have known her to be my entire life.  The doctors, nurses, hospice care team have helped us know what to expect along the way, but it's a heartbreaking thing to watch unfold.  I haven't been able to shake it completely, some days are worse than others, the grief of losing her slowly hangs over me like a fog.   I'm struggling to go to sleep tonight, too much on my mind and heart, so I'm hoping I find some sense of relief and release as I type out the words of this blog entry.  My family has experienced some significant highs and lows this year, and in recent weeks more of the latter.  I have had a couple of moments th

  If you have had a conversation with me the last couple of months, you know things are - for lack of a better word - INTENSE in my house.   We just celebrated Ryan graduating MSU in May with his Bachelor's in IT CyberSecurity.  Our oldest daughter Rylee has been offered a full time teaching position, teaching English at Nixa High School just outside of Springfield this Fall.  We are in the countdown to her move into her first apartment in a couple of weeks.  Our older son Bailey has ventured into a new job this summer with a friend, and is loving it.  Our younger son AJ started his first job this summer at Taco Bell.  Our youngest daughter Chloe is living her best pre-teen life this summer hanging out with her bff's, swimming, sleeping in, etc.  Ryan is hard at it on the 'hamster wheel' of job hunting post graduation:  apply, interview, wait, get passed over, and repeat ......That last piece has been quite frustrating and disappointing as you can imagine for Ryan and I

  I'm currently in the middle of a beautiful Lent devotional study "Waymaker: Finding the Way to the Life You've Always Dreamed Of" by Ann Voskamp.  She has become one of my favorite authors the last few years, among several that I cherish in my daily devotional times.  She speaks both in tone and context in a way that is incredibly comforting and clarifying, and entirely necessary as I am journeying forward in this life God has given me.  I shared at a recent women's breakfast event with our church about a piece of this devotional that has been speaking into my life, and today I was struck once again by the focus she is delivering to us through her writing.  Her writing inspires me also to write, to share out of the abundance God is pouring into my own journey along this treacherous and blessed pathway unfolding ahead of me day by day.   Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own. - Matth

'To find the peace and productivity we desire, we need to come back to the basics of the first commandment.' - ( Staying Focused in Uncertain Times, Elizabeth Grace Saunders-Real Life E Time Coaching, DivineTimeBook.com ) You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. -Matthew 22:37 I was warned by my parents, by friends, and by others who have far more years of life experience ahead of me, that time moves faster as we get a little older.  2022 started off with a couple of  'unexpecteds' for my family.  And if I'm being honest, it has shaken my focus.  I wasn't always the most confident one in the room.  I'd say it wasn't until my 30's when I really started feeling comfortable in my own skin.  I would dare say nobody is born with full and complete confidence in themselves.  Life experiences shape that for the good and for the bad over time.  What the Lord gives and takes, it tests our focus.  It

'A woman is like a tea bag - you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.' -Eleanor Roosevelt 'Listen to your life.  All moments are key moments.' -Frederick Buechner 2022 has arrived, and little did I know what would start it off.  January 3, Ryan got a late night call from his Dad, the kind of call that nobody wants to get.  It was apparent to Ryan when he saw the phone call coming that night, that something must be wrong because it was not like his Dad to call us that late normally.  The next 24-48 hours, the days that followed were blurry, painful emotionally and physically, and just the beginning of a process we know we'll be working through with Ryan's Dad as we help him with this painful transition in life without his partner, his love, Maggi.  Right away, Ryan and I took time that evening to bring our children together, to embrace and weep, but also to know and grasp the beautiful hope that she was free from her body's struggles and