Perspective.

It's more than just what you can see, it's what you choose to believe.

What do you see??


An old woman or a young girl? You have probably seen this picture before, so you know to look for both. But when you looked at it for the first time, you only saw one or the other. You could see the old woman, while someone standing right next to you sees the young girl. If you got angry and starting yelling at that person "You fool!! It is clearly an old woman! What are you thinking? Either your vision is horrible or you simply have no brain in your head!", you would soon come to realize that you are the fool. You assumed that what you saw from your perspective was the only thing there was to see. We all know that there is more than one way to view this picture, but we usually fail to realize that this is also the case in most everything in life. And who could blame us? How can you not assume that what you see is that only truth? While it is natural to do this, we must work to overcome it, because it will also make a fool of us. This old woman/young girl is a small, small example, but it proves the point. There is always another perspective. Another side to the story. More than meets the eye.

"The underside of a weaving usually makes no sense. Even the upper side makes little sense if we view just a tiny piece. Only God sees the upper side and only He sees the entire fabric in it's complete pattern. Therefore, we must trust Him to work out all the details of history to His glory, knowing that His glory and our good are bound up together." -Jerry Bridges

While the point of this quote is urging us to trust God in all things, because only He sees "the big picture", it also reinforces the fact of how little we know. Most situations in our life provide us with a very limited view. God is the only one who sees all of it; but we need to consider that even another person might be able to offer another perspective.

With all of that said, I'm going to get down and dirty and apply this to Three Angels. This issue has just come up a lot for me lately. It seems to be the root of many recent problems. We see or hear something, and just tend to run with it without considering it might not be as it appears. I am so very guilty of this. So I am not preaching or lecturing to anyone, because it's a lesson I am still learning myself. And maybe that is why I have just so clearly seen it in every problem. We all have our different roles and reason for being a part of Three Angels. Being a waiting adoptive parent certainly puts you in a completely different situation than that of a board member or volunteer. But I pray that we could all trust each other and not let our different perspectives divide us. Sometimes we just have to take a truth that we know and keep reminding ourselves of it when everything seems to contradict it. The board and volunteers work very very hard to give the best that we can to these kids. We strive to run TAs with integrity. If you hear or see something that seems to contradict that, please consider that there might be more to the story or another perspective. I often have to remind myself of this truth- I cannot understand the pain and whatever 5,000 other emotions there are waiting for a child to come home. Without reminding myself of that, it would be easy to jump to false conclusions in some situations.

I am not simply applying this to adoptive parent and board members/volunteers. But, in those two positions, our experiences are so very different, it is easy to fall into the trap of forgetting the other side very likely has a different perspective. However, I think EVERYONE in ALL THINGS need to work on being more sensitive to this. Just because you see the old woman and I see the young girl does not mean we should draw our swords and fight each other thinking what we see is the only truth. I am not saying that there is not an absolute truth (totally different subject), I am simply saying we should consider there might be more than meets the eye before we let ourselves become the fool. Again, I am not preaching to anyone, this is a lesson for myself as much as anyone. I am just a stumbling fool after all....

back in blog land...

sorry i've been a blog slacker...it's hard enough to keep up w/ posting pictures on the TA blog, threeangelsorphanage.blogspot.com...but i'm gonna try to get back into the swing of this!

There are two guests staying at the Orphanage right now, one who has never been to Haiti. so we went out yesterday to see the sights! even if it's stuff i've already seen, it's always good to get out and about every now and then. we actually did some new stuff that i hadn't done before, so i had a really good time. we went by the Palace, which i have seen before, but also stopped at near-by museum. there, we learned about the Indians, why haitians are scared of dogs, the slaves brought over, Christopher Columbus, and the guy Petion-ville was named after. did you know the Santa Maria sunk around Haiti? they have the anchor at the museum. anyway, you can do your own research if you want to learn more!! :) then, we decided we wanted to just see a neighborhood. we could always go up the mountain and see the where the rich ppl live, visit other orphanages, see the forts.....but we wanted to just see Haiti. So Junior, our wonderful guide and driver, took us somewhere he used to go as a kid. we parked the car and walked around a little bit. Although some Haitians might not like their pictures taken, you can be sure a child always will!! we stopped and played (took tons of picture) of some neighborhood kids. they liked to pose for us, and then look at their picture. they were especially fond of the "kung fu" pose. we had a good time! here are some pics of our outing...