Wednesday, January 31, 2007

It's the Little Things

In the past year of reading the Livesay's chronicles of Haitian living, I've noticed a pattern. To survive and even thrive as they have, it seems you have to reduce your scope a bit and celebrate the little things. For example, a 99 degree day versus 102; party time! Finding one can of diet cola; worthy of rejoicing. (Tara, you can correct me if I'm wrong -as though you were waiting for permission ;-)) And now I'm thinking that maybe God's timing for Isabella is a partial training ground. He is using her to get me into the mindset of rejoicing in the tiniest victories.

Sleep in any small but consecutive number of hours is huge! Four straight hours and I am a new woman, ready to conquer the world.

Poop. After two days of constipation (Isabella,that is) the mere sight of poop in the diaper is cause to hoot and holler. I find myself breaking into spontaneous songs of praise -"Praise the Lord. Bella got the poopies out..."

Floor space, a rare sighting these days, does my heart good. It means something was there and has been moved...progress measured in square inches. Never mind that the new location may only be two feet to the left of the old location. Little things, remember?

All together these moments of celebration maintain the small thread of sanity that I am clinging to. Speaking of sanity, Chris Millender (the Lord bless you and keep you) just left with my three oldest in tow. Isabella and I have the house to ourselves and endless boxes to fill. Of course, I end up doing most of the work -she's a bit on the lazy side. ;-)

Getting busy...

2 comments:

T and T Livesay said...

Hey Tim and Amie-

Tim- thanks for your email yesterday. We are praying for you guys.

Ames, I am not writing to correct you. :) You are absolutely right. Living in the land of not so plenty has taught us a ton about being thankful and finding joy in everything.

Zach (who you'll love meeting) is always reminding us that if we are suffering, we are suffering for HIM and in that there is JOY. He is sufficient to get us through sleep-deprivations, endless to do lists, and months without a good piece of meat or a diet cola. :)

We can honestly tell you that once we knew God was saying "GO" and we spent those three months rasing funds and packing boxes ... those three months were WAY harder than the first three months of living here. SO, you are in the hardest part of the journey in many ways. You're head is ready, your heart is ready ... but you're forced to take care of business and wait on God's timing. That is not easy.

We are so "with you." We're praying, praying and praying for Isabella's adoption to complete quickly and for your house to sell and for your santity and even growth ---- just think, in a few months you'll look back at this crazy busy time and laugh. Or not. But either way, it will be done. :)

Hugs and Love to you our wonderful friends-
t & t and the tribe

Wendell said...

Amie,
Your blogs are a God's sent to me. I was feeling overwelmed because...I'm at home with nothing to do for an hour. How precious time is How great our Father who supplies our needs. Thank you for you message.
May God richly bless your family.