Day 27 ~ Gifts Humbling, Honoring, Happy

Down to the last days of my October Joy Dare...

Has anyone else besides me having avalanches daily out of their mailboxes from catalogs?  Honestly...

I came out from the bedroom this morning...leafed through one from Pottery Barn...and then Dell...then one from Ballard Designs...

And I felt sick...

A gift has appeared of late that is extremely humbling.  We are such an excessive society...these catalogs were dripping with it. And our craving for more creates a pace and stress that is barely survivable.

As part of the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa (FHSSA), our pediatric palliative care center has become a sponsor to the first pediatric palliative care unit in Kenya. Only 4.6 percent of the world's population lives in the United States, yet consumes 80 percent of the world's pain medication. 

I met Dr. Mburugu and his team via streaming video over a laptop in our conference room a couple of weeks ago.  I am humbled at how I see how this group is taking this huge venture, to make a difference for the children of Kenya, with so little...compared to all the options we have in our pediatric palliative care center at the hospital.  I'm sure as we grow our relationship, God will continue to humble me with this gift.

Continuing to talk about my work, I received recognition from supervisors for "going the extra mile" working with an amazing single mother whose young child had sustained a traumatic brain injury.  His survival was indeed tenuous...possible brain death.  During this time, I tried to take as much "paperwork" and "financial" burden off of her within my professional boundaries so she could focus on her child.  Six months later, she had him in the office...laughing, saying a few words, interacting in his 2-year-old way.  This gits was honoring...and also extremely humbling.  I was honored to walk with her through this miraculous journey.

My co-worker, Joanne (above, center), has been with us a year.  Just out of graduate school she came with her young self...uprooting from all her family and friends to work with us here in Ohio, as her first "big girl" job.  This is quite an undertaking...being apart from most you've known and go to a place where you know no one.  It was a happy gift to know that her parents were coming this weekend...she had not seen her father since May...it makes me smile.  It is also a happy gift to work with her.

Oh, may we learn to live grateful lives...to live simply...to do as God requires:

...to do justice and love kindness, and walk humbly with your God... (Micah 6:8)

 

I know I often fall short...