Choices

If you picked up our little home and all our possessions, and then placed it most anywhere else in the world we would be considered to live in the lap of luxury.  Our days are filled with so many blessings, our closets overflow, our refrigerator is full and our daily schedule allows for down time to just have fun.  And yet, somehow  I still find myself at times dissatisfied with what I have and find myself wanting more.  More things, more money, more free time, more..more..more.  Our family lives in the richest county in the U.S and the with the daily dose of the best of the best, it is very easy to quickly lose perspective.

It is my desire to live free from the pull towards materialism and hoarding, but all that glam still leeks into my heart.  Yesterday the lunchroom discussion at my son's school was all about allowance, savings and objects that their parents buy for them.  My son's perspective is that all of his peers have nicer, more expensive things than he does.  The cool part about the conversation though was his analysis.  He wasn't whining about what he didn't have and thought that his friend's should have saved their money for things more important than the latest gadget.  His thoughts gave made me pause and made me think of my own responses.  How often have I come from visiting a nice home or a conversation about another family's vacation and been filled with jealousy and discontent instead of having a heart of thankfulness??

With the birth of each child, we have had to say good bye to some extravagances in our life.  It is always worth it, but I admit it is also  more painful than I would like to admit it to be.  When the decision came to adopt, we knew that would mean saying goodbye to the bigger house and the vacation.  The call to adopt a child with special medical needs meant the possibility of even more "sacrifices" for our family.  We may not be able to do all the things we were currently enjoying, our activites and our lifestyle might significantly change.  However, every excuse we could come up with...when Kevin and I said it out loud to each other....  made us want to vomit.  There was not one excuse that we felt was legitimate or that we could live with admitting to another person.  But we are not perfect and the struggle is still there.

Kevin travels for work.  With that travel comes the bonus of free flight miles.  We now have enough miles saved up for Kevin and I to travel round trip to China AND to bring Elie back home with us.  This is such a huge blessing, these last minute tickets can be astronomically expensive.  We were blessed with the same thing when we adopted Faith.  Free last minute international airline tickets.  Seriously, amazing.  This summer Kevin is going to Europe for work.  And here is the pull.  If we were not going to China, those airline miles could transport our family of five to Europe for a summer vacation.  Life is full of choices.

I am thankful for a  husband who has a much better grip on not being tied to the things of this world, for children who after counting their piggy bank savings figure out how many people that could feed in another country, for a precious little curly haired daughter who daily reminds me that some things are priceless, and for two little feet in China waiting to come home.  There are days when I wonder what our life would have been like if we had chosen to live differently... and then these precious ones remind me that I would trade all that I have for a cardboard box for just one day to be their mama.

Don't those sandals just yell, "Somebunny loves me?".... gives me hope, i mean there has to be someone loving on this girl for her to have bunny sandals, right?