You Choose

The last time I posted was three days before our daughter’s birth over three months ago. Ha!… Our weeks stretched into months as the days whirled by in a frenzy, we adjusted to child number two and returned to Asia. Little Man reeled from the arrival of his baby sister, and Hubby’s parents and my family and friends were there to love on him and pour joy into him like never before.

I tried to be ever-so-present each day of our months with family, but the time “home” still snuck out from under us and before I knew it we were back at the airport with more carry-on bags than ever thought possible, with an infant strapped on and an emotional toddler running around our feet, preparing to board an obscenely long flight for overseas.

And now our family of four is back in the rustic Himalayas, back in our quirky-but-well-loved house on the side of a steep mountain at 8000 feet, and it’s starting to feel “normal”. Miss Cheeks (as I affectionately call the little beauty God gave us) is a content, wide-eyed observer who smiles at any and all who stretch out their arms to pick her up. I couldn’t be more thankful for this season of snuggles, story-telling, and daddy-son wrestling. In fact I’m so much more content with this “stuck at home” window of time than expected. And for this contentment (besides the periodic meltdown and reminder that I cannot maintain sanity without supernatural help) I am so very thankful.

I am also discovering that while there is much I cannot change about this season (my husband’s full schedule, my sleep-deprived brain, the rocky climbs that prohibit me from using a stroller to transport my little ones), there are so many choices that I do have. In the last few weeks of settling in I have tried to intentionally make choices every day, and each day that I do, there is peace and contentment.

These are the things I have decided to choose every day:

1. I choose to take time to make a latte and sit and enjoy the view.
2. I choose to keep my front door open, and when someone stops to say hi, invite them in.
3. I choose to plan creative play and time outside every day with Little Man.
4. I choose to attend an aerobic class with friends, no matter how inconvenient.
5. I choose to breathe deep when I hike this mountain and thank God every time the sun shines.
6. I choose to keep my house and our small, multi-purpose rooms clean so that it feels bigger. I am learning that I can do small spaces if they are organized!!
7. I choose to invest in several local neighbors and their families. I choose to believe that one day the Hope in me will enter their hearts too.
8. I choose not to make excuses when God opens the door for me to do something.  I choose to be available. I choose to take myself and my potential influence seriously.

So this I say to myself today. And this I say to the one who is struggling with your season or lot in life—to measure up, to step up, to find peace, to find contentment.

You have a choice.

No, you have lots of choices. You have lots of choices to make today and every day. And instead of looking to yourself and asking why you are the one doing this thing, right here, or right now, you need to look to your Heavenly Father who brought you here.

And you and I must look at every choice placed carefully in our hands and ask ourselves, What am I going to do with this moment? With this day? With this place and these people?

“What if the path you choose becomes a road? The ground you take becomes a home?” (Amanda Cook, Voyage)

Today with every choice I make, I lay a road on which others will follow.

Today with every choice I make, I build the home in which my family, my community and I will reside.

Today I have many choices. As insignificant as each may seem, I am learning to choose with purpose.