Everyday Adventures

Upon morning awakening, do not look at the day as another to go wrong. Seize the opportunity, and live the adventure. The adventure of meeting obstacles head on. The adventure of helping yourself and/or your children grow, despite the challenges might be faced. The adventure of knowing that today you did something remarkable. Today you lived in the face of adversity,
and you did not give in to defeat. You rose, you fought, and you lived to face another adventure tomorrow.

In looking back on the five wonderful years that I've spent helping my daughter grow, learn, and become her wonderful and unique self, I have come to realize that not only are our outdoor excursions an adventure, but our day to day lives are as well. These adventures are known to most as obstacles. In appropriate situations, I will now be replacing this defeating word with the more positive and ambitious word adventure.

It's all in how you look at your surroundings and situations. You can choose to give in and live your life day to day, never realizing what good has come out of every situation. Or, you can choose to wake up, ready face the day. Taking any and all adventures that come your way, and blaze over them and continue on with your path of life, headed in a better, more aware and fulfilling future. The call is yours, but Mia and I choose to fight!

When we wake up in the morning, we are immediately faced with an adventure right. Communication, or a lack thereof. On my daughters part there are no words. No words to express her thoughts or desires. Our communication adventure begins with facial expressions and body language. Instead of the normal 'Morning Mommy!', I get the unique and quirky squeal of happiness and a smile that radiates as bright as the summer sun. I am presented with jumping, laughing, and excited cheers because on this day we were graced with each others presence. Yes, a lack of words can be hard at times, and I would give anything to hear an occasional 'I love you mom', or even an 'I don't want to'. But as the saying goes, 'A picture is worth a thousand words', and this picture, having always been without words, is worth MILLIONS.

And our adventures continue outside our home, in not so natural settings. We quite regularly make trips to the physicians office. With our genetic condition Tuberous Sclerosis (TSC), constant monitoring is needed to ensure that no tumors are growing, and to keep in check with Mia's epilepsy. We've seen our share of offices throughout the state. But, even though she hates almost every minute, we make the best that we can of it. She has always hated elevators, so we avoid them at all costs. So, we climb. The stairwells of hospitals become mountain ranges. One flight of stairs is a hill. Two flights of stairs is a mile hike. And when we've climbed eight flights of stairs, we've reached the summit of Mount Everest! We peer through the windows at every turn and look out upon the massive amount of 'forest' and nature, soaking up each and every moment.

Are you seeing a pattern? Every moment of every day, BIG or small, great and not so much, iimportant, ordinary, or somewhere in between, are all adventures. Looking at our lives together in this manner has allowed me to look outside of the box of usual negative and withholding, and into a world of achieving the impossible.

Each day should be considered an extraordinary adventure, and should not be taken for granted. I am lucky to have learned this valuable lesson from my little girl who achieves the impossible every day.

I hope that our outlook on life trickle into yours, even if only slightly. It's a mindset that takes some time to grow accustomed to, but is worth all of the effort in the world.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your adventurous day!