Happiness

What does it take to make you happy?  

Really.  

Do you have to have the best house or the newest vehicle on the market?  Or would it be that beautiful new outfit or the newest gadget on the shelves?  So many times in my life I've thought, "If I just had that ____ my life would be so much better or easier."  I remember one time I just HAD to have that new vehicle because I'd never had a new one before.  Amazingly, as soon as we drove it off the lot it was no longer new.  Then through the joy of raising three boys, I quickly learned that anything new and nice in my house would soon be held together by super glue, so I better not get too attached to it.  How many times have we thought that our kids "needed" that newest toy only to play with it for a time or two and never to look at it again.

Yesterday, my little artist drew two pictures at preschool that she told me about when she got home.  This is a child who is happy with the simpliest things in life and other than today when she didn't get a nap, usually has a smile on her face.
When I asked her to tell me about the pictures she had drawn, she said this friend was sad because she had no mommy and no daddy.
The letters are just her way of writing new letters to tell her story.

The next picture is a friend that is happy because she has a mommy, daddy, brothers and sister.  The letters are writing, "I LOVE YOU," as she is learning new letters.

That's all it took to turn her picture from a sad face to one with a smile.  It wasn't toys or new clothes.  It was just a family to call her own.

How sad to think that so many other children are sitting in an orphanage or foster care somewhere, waiting on the one thing that will make them happy, 

A Family.