Very recently, a friend of mine lost her best friend. This woman was way too young and full of light to be taken from us. I’ve noticed other FB posts about loss recently too. Sometimes it takes reading about other people’s struggles, loss and tragedies to stop and count our blessings.
Fortunately, I’m one who practices gratitude every night and every morning. Sometimes it’s just for the sunshine that day and other times my thanks is for something much deeper and more meaningful. I bring this up because I’ve had a lot of clients with some quick successes lately, as well as clients who have experienced failed adoptions or some hardships in their adoption process that they weren’t expecting.
We talk about balance in life and at times it goes beyond work-life balance and is about the balance of joy and grief, the ups and downs we all experience in life. After all, without the good and bad, life would be pretty boring and we would likely have a stunted experience of growth and learning. So, we take the good with the bad.
It’s how we deal with the struggles that really show our true character. Letting yourself experience grief, sadness, and anger is an important part of the process. Blame, shame, and victimizing ourselves is something we should try to avoid. But trust me, the ugly sometimes rears its head in all of us.
It’s during these ugly times and these times of struggle that we need to stop and think about our gratitude’s. Put things into perspective. And know in your heart of hearts, that you will pull through and come out ahead on the other side. Please, don’t ever give up on yourself. Continue reaching for your dreams no matter what gets in your way. Adoption is not always an easy process – for some it may be easier than others – but through the ups and downs, failures and successes, keep pushing through. It’s worth it!
I’ve been through many of my own hardships. I’ve been divorced, lost jobs, relied on government assistance to support my family…It sucked at the time! And, I kept fighting through because I knew there was something better on the other side. That I would get through it. It was just a moment in the big scheme of my life. When others suggested I take the easy way out, I put my blinders on, dug deep and believed in myself. In fact, it was these exact hardships that led me to adopting my son and starting a business, which is by far the best job I’ve ever had in my life!
You are stronger than you think.
As adoption consultants, when our clients experience a hardship, it is difficult for us as well. In that vain, we have started to develop the RG Adoption Consulting Give Back Program, whereas when a client of ours experiences a financial hardship due to a failed adoption, they will receive a small grant from us. Eventually, this will become a nonprofit arm of our business and hopefully at that time, you’ll find it in your heart to give what you can to help others that are experiencing a hardship of their own. For in giving and receiving, we all have a lot to be thankful for. So, stay strong, keep learning, reach deep inside, keep hope and an open heart and reach out to others. Because after all, we are all on this roller coaster of life together.