EXCITING NEWS!

My brother, his fiancée and her little boy moved here about six weeks ago from Seattle, Washington. In just a few weeks they will be having a baby girl, Adisyn Renee! Oh and Renee is my middle name! :) So of course I am going to be one proud Aunt of that baby girl! I will not only be a proud Aunt but I will be little Adisyn's favorite Aunt. For I am the best Aunt any child could ever hope for, I'm Aunt Mandi! Aunt Mandi always has gum in her purse and Aunt Mandi will always give you a drink of her Dr. Pepper after you learn to drink out of straw and she will take you shopping, paint your toenails, play with your hair and take hundreds of pictures of you. So I hope Mommy and Daddy know that since Baby Adisyn has MY middle name, she is going to be just like ME!

Adisyn will be my first, full blown, blood related niece so I am thinking about this little girl all the time. I can't wait for her to be here and be a part of my life. Some of my greatest memories as a little girl are going to my Aunt Carolyn's house. She doted on me like crazy! I want to be the Aunt that does the same with little Adisyn. I hope to be a Rock Star in her eyes! I'm positive I will be. But what makes this little angel so special is her parents. I can't believe my little brother is having a baby! He's actually not that little, he's a big guy and he's almost twenty-seven years old but I like to refer to him as my little brother. He will always be my little bubba. I can't wait to see his face when he holds his baby girl for the first time (I am hoping I get to be in the delivery room!). They need someone to take pictures, right!? And then there is Desiree (Desi), Josh's fiancée. I already call her my sister because to me, that's exactly what she is. The very first time I met her, I KNEW she would be a part of my life. I had prayed for a sister-in-law for so long that I could go shopping with, cook with, and have babies with. Well guess what? I got one! Desi has become one of my closest friends. My kids adore her and she adores them. We talk on the phone almost every single day and in a couple of weeks they will be living less than two miles away! She is also a stay-at-home mom so I officially have an all the time shopping buddy! You see I prayed for many years that my brother, Josh, would meet someone wonderful and He did. I never expected to fall in love with her too. She is precious to me.

The Lord has given me a lot of time with Desiree. We have shopped, hung out, acted silly and even cried together. Instantly we had a bond. As we became closer, I realized that Desi did not know the Lord like I did. She did not know Him at all. She had gone to church with Josh and my parents and loved going but she had not made the connection from her mind to her heart. I took a class years and years ago called Evangelism Explosion (E.E.). My teacher once told me on our way to knock on doors of apartments something that I will never forget. "Amanda, people often miss Heaven by eighteen inches. There's eighteen inches between the head and the heart and some people never connect the two when it comes to the Lord." Knocking on those apartment doors was a scary thing for me. I had my E.E. scripting memorized, I knew it by heart but when someone answered the door, it never failed, I forgot my script. So I ended up sharing Jesus in a very simple way. VERY SIMPLE! I would explain how Jesus changed my life as a little girl and continued to change my life daily. The further I got, the more my memory came back and I was able to share scriptures and important examples from my training. Many times I would talk to someone that was missing Heaven by only eighteen inches. They knew God in their Head but they never accepted Him in their heart! So the more time I spent with Desi, the more I realized how her head and heart had not made the connection. At night I was waking up constantly with her on my heart and I would hear the spirit of the Lord telling me, "Bring Desiree to me. She will listen. She is ready. Just bring her to me."

Last Friday Desiree came to my house so we could go shopping and register for Baby Adisyn at Target. When she got here, her eyes were swollen and I could tell that she had been crying. Since they have moved here from Washington, she has had a tough time. Who wouldn't? She has never been away from her family, it's hot as you know what in Texas and she's almost nine months pregnant. My brother is working but trying to find a better job AND they are trying to find an apartment so they can have a place of their own before baby girl gets here. I could see it in her eyes, she was spent. We were getting ready to leave but I still had to brush my teeth. So I told her I would be right back and went into my bathroom to brush. As I was brushing my teeth, I heard the Lord again. "Mandi, bring her to me. The time is right. Go talk to her. Don't wait a minute longer." I walked back into the living room and began to pray inside my head. "Lord, please let my kids come into alignment! Lord, please keep them calm as I talk to Desiree." And then I said, "Desiree, I want to talk to you before we leave."

Leading someone to the Lord has got to be one of the most incredible things to experience because you have to solely rely on HIM to give you the words to say. The whole time I am talking to her, my faith is being stretched, my boldness is being put to the test and I am allowing the Holy Spirit to use my voice box 100%! I quoted scriptures that I did not even know I had memorized! I gave examples as I presented the gospel that only SHE would understand. Everything I said came straight from the Lord, it was amazing. During our talk, things were flowing out of me pretty well. Emotionally I was holding it together. Until I said, "Desiree, God wants you now. He wants to be the Lord of your life NOW. He longs for you to fall down at His feet and say, Lord, I need you and I can't do this life without you ANYMORE!" When I said that she began to cry, I began to cry and the Lord did some awesome stuff! I held her and we cried together. I could actually feel Heaven opening up. WOW! There was a supernatural anointing in that room and I was so excited to be a part of what God was doing. So I asked her, "Desi, do you want to walk out of here today and KNOW that Jesus is your Lord and Savior? Do you want to KNOW that you will spend an eternity with Him? Do you want to tell Adisyn someday that right before she was born, you trusted Jesus?"

Well, she said YES! I prayed for her, prayed for Baby Adisyn and then prayed for Desiree's salvation so she could repeat after my prayer. My precious soon to be sister-in-law, my new sister is NOW my new sister in Christ. I told her to mark the day down, September 15th, 2006, you became a brand new woman! So if you can't already tell, let me tell you! I am so excited that Desiree got saved and that the Lord used me to lead her to Him!!! My brother and Desiree are going to church with my parents and they are getting awesome Word poured into them. Now that she has made the connection, I know God is going to do so many things to reveal himself to her. I can't wait for the day to come when she gets baptized! I will be there cheering her on as I sit on the front and center row!

Lord, I'm ready! Please bring more people into my life that need you! I want to bring 'em to you! Thank you Lord for Desiree. Thank you!