Yes in Hope

People should always come first. Before anything else. That is my hope to teach my children. Which is not an easy task in today's world when there are so many other distractions and the message the world sends is to ensure self comfort and a big nest egg. I can be just as easily distracted thinking about the things of this world, whether that is a 3 bedroom instead of our 2 bedroom home, a college education or weddings for my children, or a vacation. However, I know I am not to put my priorities in these things, so I try not to. And it is hard.

I learned a few months ago that orphanages are desperately awaiting our teachings. And that an orphanage with perhaps some of the poorest of poor conditions has asked us to come. It's a place we have never been, with over 300 children in care. As I thought about this and considered the last year of my life, I think many will feel I would be more than justified in saying no. I can actually hear the encouragement to say no. Perhaps some would even beg me to say no. The excuses I could provide would be valid....I have a child who has had a liver transplant and is immune compromised, I am unable to work right now and we are down to our final less than a year's worth of mortgage payment savings, I have already done "enough". As I dig deeper into those excuses, I find that all of them propose putting something else before people who wait for help, whether that be fear, money, or selfishness. People who are in need. People who are in need of skills and ideas that can be shared. People who need to know that they are loved and valued because they exist in this world. I would be a hypocrite to want to teach my children that people come before everything and then turn around and say no. So, we say yes being fully afraid.

It is easy to fall into the trap of believing that someone else will step up. That someone else will say yes. That someone else will go. That someone else is better equipped. That someone else has more skill. That someone else should do it....
These thoughts may lead to a type of stagnation, with no movement forward and no help given. So I am trying to teach my children to avoid this trap and say yes despite our shortcomings.

When we were going through Hope's transplant evaluation, time and time again we were told the whole purpose of organ transplant for a slowly dying child was to live. To give the chance of living. Not to give the chance of living in panic. Not to wait in fear for rejection or lymphoma. But to live. Live now. So we say yes to living in today.

Today, we prepare. Today, we hope. Today, we say "send us, we will go". Today, we say "yes, we are willing to be present for people". Today, we are willing to be hands and feet. Today, we say yes. Because people always come first. If I can teach my children this, there will be no better nest egg to leave them with.