(a little word....I have changed my blog format and not sure if I like it or not. Just FYI you have to click on the blog title to get the whole post.)
"
I guess we bloom where we are planted"
I ran into my 11th grade English teacher recently and this is what she told me. I was commenting on an article in our newspaper that featured her and all of the work she has done for her mentally disabled son's group home.
It really struck a cord with me. It made me think about all of the dreary days of rain that a flower must endure in order to one day bloom into beauty. And how sometimes a fruitful life can happen in the midst of a dry desolate place.
So many of us strive for a life that we perceive as perfect. We pick and choose what we like and don't like and create an unrealistic image of what "should be" We mourn what could have been or wish for what we don't have, instead of opening our eyes to the gifts that have been given to us.
I have taken on a new challenge after reading Ann Voskamps Book,
One Thousand Gifts (completely incredible) and am trying to record 1,000 gifts this year (something she encourages her readers to do, not something I came up with). It is changing the way I think. My friends and family know that I love to laugh. Being "joyful" is not a problem for me, it is finding joy in the everyday mundane things of life that is a challenge. Stopping to look at the sunshine or the rain for that matter and realizing it is all a gift from God is hopefully one step closer. Realizing that sitting in the carpool line is a gift and not a burden. It is about closing my mind off to negative energy by filling it up with joyful positive thoughts.
This time last year I worked one day a week for a U.S. Senator, loved my job and spent the other four days hanging out at home and going to lunch with friends. Pretty nice. Last year Eliza was at a private Christian school and Jack started the year at our church preschool. We were for sure living in "the bubble" and to be honest with you I liked being there. Now, my children are in public school full time and I spend my days working in our school special ed department talking to other parents like myself and planning events for them.
If you had told me 10 years ago that this is where I would be today, I probably would have cried. But God has opened a new path for our family and is taking us to places I would have never imagined. Last week a good friend and I met with our local Buddy Walk Board and laid out a plan for what we feel like will be a thriving Down Syndrome support group. This is something that has been on my heart for while now. It is finally coming to fruition and I could not be more excited.
It is amazing to look back over the past 13 years since Trey and I got married and see how one thing has lead to another. Had I not worked for a US Senator, how would I know anything about lobbying our lawmakers to defend the rights of the mentally handicapped, a role I know I will soon play. If we had not had a special needs child, I wonder if Trey and I would have felt the strong need for a supportive group of praying, Christian friends that we desired so much after Jack was born. We would have never taken that leap of faith and reached out and would have never developed the friendships that we have developed over the past year. The closest friend I have made in our group, is best friends with a parent of a child with Down Syndrome. She knows full well the challenges that we face. The wife of the leader of our class has a younger brother and uncle, both who have DS. Amazing, crazy coincidence, totally orchestrated from a Heavenly Father who loves us.
If life had been perfect with no challenges, I wonder if we would feel the need to be down on our knees every day? Some people would, I just wonder if we would. So hear we are, accepting our life, no longer feeling "it is what it is" but more "it is good"... blooming where apparently God has planted, and trusting him along the way.
