Just What I Needed

 

In the last few hours of my long flight, I decided to listen to the songs on my iPad.   I rarely use my iPad at home, so when I travel, it does come in handy for movies, games, and music.

As I search my music playlist, I look for my favorite, Todd Agnew's Christmas album.  I start up his songs and there it hits me, the feeling of Hope, the feeling of Love, the feeling of God showing me the reason why I am going to Korea in the first place.  I haven't been on the Gift Tour trip for the past two years and listening to the Christmas songs, I remembered the reason why I love this trip so much.  

I was once an orphan in Korea, for 4 1/2 years of my life, I was labeled an orphan.  Yes, I had the other kids and caretakers as my family, but there is nothing that takes the place of your very own family.  As I listen to the songs, tears come to my eyes as I remember my past Gift Tour trips and as we bring Christmas to our orphans, I can't help but see myself in the eyes of these children.  Some of the songs are slow songs but some of the songs are very upbeat, yet they all bring tears to my eyes as I think of the reason for the season of Christmas.  It's about giving, it's about opening your heart, it's about being grateful for whatever and wherever you are.  

I am now an adult, a wife, a mother....a daughter, with my very own family.  How blessed am I that I am living the life I am living now.  Things could have been so different for me, but God knew where I needed to be and where I belonged.  He knew I would look at my life as a gift and someday, be able to return to my homeland and give back to those that now fill the shoes that I used to wear as a child in Korea.  I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I didn't have dreams of a huge paying career, I didn't have dreams of being famous, but listening to the Christmas music, it hit me that what I dreamed of is what I am doing at this very moment in my life.  

No wonder I love this time of the year.  It does bring me back to feeling like the little kid waking up Christmas morning to the wonder of all that happened magically under the Christmas tree and how beautiful the snow was.  I now get to have this same great feeling on Christmas morning watching my own children filled with excitement over what has been magically placed under the tree.  I love feeling like a kid filled with wonder and excitement and complete gratefulness for the gift of Family.