Recently on our vacation down south, we were able to take in a lot of sun. Beautiful beaches, 80 degree temperatures, and the sun kissing our very pale Wisconsin skin (in my case, extremely pale). I remember the first day I sat on the beach. I felt like a plant just trying to soak up as much sun as possible. I couldn’t believe how deprived my body felt of the Vitamin D it had been missing for the entirety of the Midwest winter. It was great! And then after a long day, lots of sun, and some fantastic food, we got to the place we were staying for the night. My face felt a little warm, and my shoulders stung just a bit. I looked in the mirror, and low and behold, my pale Wisconsin skin was as red as the crab legs I’d just eaten. My precious sun that I had missed for so long had given me a sunburn. Ouch!

There has been an abundance of life lessons that I have learned throughout our journey to adopt. These life lessons have been revealed to me in so many different ways. In the last few years I’ve learned what it really means to have grit. I may not have it yet, but I sure am working on it. If you’re not familiar with the term grit, it means to have “perseverance and passion for long-term goals”. I love the idea of having grit. I mean listen to how it sounds when you say it: G-R-I-T. It sounds tough, doesn’t it? Adoption and the pursuit to adopt takes grit (and a whole lot of faith). That’s not a bad thing, even though at times developing that grit can be painful. It’s easy to be passionate and to persevere during the “mountains” of an experience. You feel elated. You are driven and that passionate feeling during the good times is what propels you forward. We felt like this as we made the decision to adopt, completed our home study, and had our profile shown. It’s a little more difficult to be passionate and persevere in the valleys of an experience, but that’s where you become tenacious. That’s where you develop that grit. Sure, at times it can be painful, but with that pain the purpose of what you are pursuing becomes solidified. That’s where you really, truly, in the depths of your bones realize how worth it the journey and your goal is.

See that’s what I’m learning about this grit concept. Our adoption journey is so incredibly beautiful in the highs and lows and everything in between. Our journey has made us laugh, cry, dance, and love more than we’ve ever thought possible. Even with those tears, do you see how worth it it is?

As humans, we naturally want a blissful, peaceful, pain-free life. I mean that’s correct, right? Who walks through life hoping to get that bad sunburn? Not anyone I know. But the fact of the matter is that we don’t stay out of the sun even if we don’t use quite enough sunscreen one day. We dance in the sun. We feel the warmth on our skin, and we enjoy our Wisconsin summers no matter how sunburnt we get. How’s that for grit?

~Chelsea