Pieces of the Puzzle

Sometimes the day starts with everything falling into place. Then other days it just seems like I'm going uphill, treading water, struggling through the mud.  And that nothing is going right.  It's not like these days are necessarily bad - but sometimes they just aren't "good" days.
Yesterday was a day where everything just clicked together and went smoothly.  But today was a day where things were a little rougher.  But still a great day.  I am finding recently that if I take the time to notice that it's one of those days where things don't fall into place, the day tends to be better.  Not that I'm thinking that something is going to go wrong.  Just looking at it differently. It is hard, on those days that I'm struggling, to remember the days where everything seems to go right.  But then again, on the days where everything seems to be going right, it's hard to believe that everything is going so well.  

It's like doing a puzzle.  It's still fun - and you still get to the end result.  But sometimes you can just find ALL those edge pieces quickly and then start filling in the middle.  Other times there that ONE edge piece that you can never find.  And you are fighting with the border of the puzzle to stay together.  But in the end, that edge piece usually doesn't look like one.  What you are looking for, might look different.

The pieces of my family that have come together in the past two years - different than I ever imagined.  The how, the who, the where, the when and number.  A few years ago, I had given up on the dream of having two kids.  I never imagined that adoption would be the road for us - twice.  And I never imagined that I would be traveling around the world to get one of my daughters.  But now that my family had been placed together by the loving hand of God, I cannot see it any other way.  My girls are the perfect fit in our family.  God found our girls from different corners of the world and brought them to me.  My wonderful pieces of puzzle of blessings!

Spring...Break

Spring Break is here.  It really doesn't affect me that much, since I don't have kids that are in school.  And even when they are on break, unless we hit the road without daddy (since he is working hard this time of year) we are just going to be staying close to home.
But this year - in the spirit of the season, I decided to do some spring "breaking" for myself!

I'm...
Breaking in - my running shoes.  Well, "re" breaking in.  We recently joined the Y, since we now have two girls, instead of it just being the two of us, it makes sense.  And I'm loving the little breaks in the week that I get.  And I love getting back to running.  I ran in high school and loved it.  I wasn't that great. But it was something that I really enjoyed doing - being competitive with myself.  And it was one sport that didn't involve equipment.  Me + sports equipment = sad.

Breaking out - into the great outdoors.  The great outdoor living space!!!  We cleaned up and kid-a-fied our screen porch this past weekend.  And the girls LOVE being out there.  It's hard to get them to come in.  We have a little slide and a makeshift water "table" - a bucket with some tub toys in it.  I fashioned this on a trial basis.  These girls are really fickle.  Sometimes I think that they are just going to love something and they just can't stand it.  This happens mostly with food and toys.  Hence me seeing if they liked the water play before dropping some $$ on a water table.  And alas, H played in the water for about an hour before we had to just pour the water out.  So, I think she likes it.  And the little one...she wants to just drink the water now, but still, that's play too!

And finally, Breaking through - I have been in a great bible study this fall/spring.  And many of the stories that I have heard - about lives changing and God working - have really inspired me to see things differently.  I have a new outlook on some aspects of my life.  And it's really been a breath of fresh air.  Much like spring.