Sunday, September 22, 2013

Putting Life into Perspective

Life is a funny thing.  When we're down we look for ways to be charged up to carry on another day. If I'm honest I turn to chocolate first! Then I have a devotion that I try to read to lift my spirits, lift my eyes to God who I know has the power to change my perspective and get a better attitude.  I signed up for my third marathon back in February and then we found out we were Ethiopian bound in April. We were finally going to meet our daughter and then after a three week stay I was bringing our four year old home to stay. There goes my freedom to run.   I started acting like I just gave birth.  I was overeating, not sleeping a ton and I didn't feel like doing my training runs at all!  Like any mother of young children, you come to a point where you realize you can't do it all and alter your life.  This was especially difficult for me since I had teenagers and didn't have children home in the day for years. I liked my routine of volunteering and helping in the schools and church and hanging with friends.  I liked my quiet time and freedom to do what I wanted. Now it took all my energy to take care of my daughter's basic needs and get to know her likes and dislikes and teach her english and continue my daily duties I used to do around the house.  I've written before about the emotional roller coaster I've been on and don't want to bore you with the tears and frustration dealing with our family changes.  Then my perspective changed the day when our adoption agency had a gift for us.  A gift we paid for and knew was coming but didn't realize how it would change our lives.  Yes, I knew this little girl would change our lives but this gift was a CD of my child's birth mother talking in her language about her life, about the day Zoe was born and about how she wants Zoe to know how much she loves her.  Her poverty and hard life hits me!  Tears stream down my face and I think about the lyrics of a One Republic song, Stop and Stare;
You start to wonder why you're here not there
And you'd give anything to get what's fair
I never want to complain about potty training or dealing with a toddler who doesn't understand the word no because having ice cream for breakfast isn't good for her.  I don't want to ever complain about how frustrating these new car seats are and how much longer it takes me to go grocery shopping with a toddler.  I mentioned I signed up for the Detroit marathon and now I've succumbed to running a half marathon.  I'm good with this.  I run with Hope Water Project and this comes with a huge responsibility to educate my friends and family about the issue of the lack of clean water for thousands of people.  It really changes your life perspective when you take the time to view a short video of people who live in terrible conditions every day.  My daughter just woke up after being put to bed 15 minutes ago.  She says I forgot to brush her teeth.  'Silly mommy put Zoe to bed without brushing teeth', Zoe says.  We go to the tap and brush her teeth with her Dora tooth brush and fresh clean water.  Five short months ago she did not do that! My life perspective has changed!  Will you allow yours to be changed too?