Because Having a Brain Isn't Fun

Really...what fun would having a brain really be? All that would result in is loneliness from being the only reasonable person around, which would make it tempting to forget your brain and do something stupid. But...your brain is there, and it tells you that it's just not a good idea to be stupid. So. Loneliness would still prevail, which would make stuck-upness a necessity to keep from becoming insane from boredom.

It's ok...I know none of you followed that...

There's no way anyone can go through life and not do something completely stupid and miserable just for the heck of it.

Two years in a row...i have done it. The first year was just jumping off the dock and climbing back out. Not so bad.

This year the tradition continued.

New Years Day. A friend's neighbor's pond. Covered in ice. We all watched for ten minutes while the ice was broken. A whole fat inch of it. Then...we swam across...one at a time.

Have you ever really thought you were going to die? I have.

About half way across (by the way, you can't touch the bottom) my body started slowing way down. My legs weren't really moving. My breathing almost stopped. And my brain started fuzzing.

Not good. I ran up against a big chunk of ice in my way and was completely lost on how to get around it. My brain was that out of it.

But it was fun. Now that it's all over, it was fun. And I'll probably do it again next year.

Why? No idea.

But why stand on the edge and watch everyone else?

Just Because I Can't Help It...

Avery . 8/31/2008 . Congential Aedea Malformation

Avery...my new sponsor baby...

Do you ever just have a complete loss of understanding...something happens and you respond with tears or smiles or whatever the moment calls for. But even as you react, you realize that you simply don't get it. Your brain goes blank. Your emotions are suctioned out, and you're left trying to just...get a hold of something that will make it real. 


Middle of December. Don't even remember what day it was. Maybe Thursday. I was working and the phone rang. My mom. She's crying. At first I thought it had just been a bad day...normal life stuff that just gets to be too much right? But no. Not this time. 


"Kaish, MeiMei died." 


"What?" 


I want to say it felt like my heart was ripped out...but that would hurt. This didn't hurt. It's more like my heart dissolved...melted...was just gone. 


Most people don't understand how I can love a little girl that lived on the other side of the planet, spoke a different language, was sick beyond help, and didn't even know I exist. They can understand showing compassion and wanting to help...but truly loving her that much? Before I even met her? She wasn't even my own kid...or sibling, or anything.  


Honestly...I don't know how it works. 


I sponsored Ava Hope because I wanted to. I thought I was sacrificing something...some money once a month. It was something I wanted to do kind of for fun, but also kind of because I wanted to help someone else out. Neither of those are bad reasons either. 


God's funny...he takes our reasoning and logic and good intentions and turns them completely backwards on us. Even if I hadn't sponsored, that little bit of money would have come from somewhere else. Ava Hope still would have lived at Shepherd*s F*eld until she was adopted, and MeiMei's life wouldn't have been much different either. 


Compared to what I gave, what I've gotten is way way way bigger. I don't totally know what all of that is yet, and how it will influence the rest of my life, but what I've learned, what I've seen, where I've gone, how I think, what I hold most important, and who I am have changed because of Ava Hope, China, and mostly MeiMei. 


I know that contrary to what I thought before, I didn't choose to help MeiMei out in my own little way, God chose MeiMei to change my life. 


I still don't get it. I've had to change things to past tense that I first wrote in present tense in this post. I look at pictures and cry...all the time. How could she just be gone? If anyone deserved to live, it was her. She was fragile and always breathed heavily, but she was so strong. There was a look in her eyes that showed endurance and fight. She had a silly sense of humor, and fought for her place among the other kids. 


I asked Jesus to let her stay, to hold her heart and keep it working...but he took her home. Now she has a Daddy. Sometimes I ask him to hug her for me, and hold my heart...her's is perfect now. 

there's posts coming...really...promise...a whole lot of them...