Experience and Brick Walls

If any of you out there watched Prime Time a few weeks ago, you might have seen the special about

Randy Pausch-

professor at Carnegie Melon,

father of 3 small children (ages 5, 2 and 1),

and diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer

at 48.

He wrote a book, which I am currently reading, called

The Last Lecture.

(excerpts from the book are in red)

I want to share a couple things that really impacted me.

According to the book, many professors give speeches called "The Last Lecture" after considering impending death and sharing what would matter most to them.

"What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance?

If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?"

Well, Randy Pausch was asked to give a "last lecture."

(You can view it here. It is well worth your time.)

The book is not a story, it is more a compilation of stories, of life lessons learned. And it got me thinking, "isn't that what I would want to share?" I would want to tell my children about the experiences that shaped the person I am today. I loved this part about experience:

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted... And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer."

The first thing I thought of was the trial of infertility and the wonderful opportunity we had to adopt Zach. It was a miraculous and life-changing experience that we did not want to go through at first. But we can see the blessings now. Our adoption experience has been something we have been able to share with others in many ways, through FSA or even through opening people's minds to adoption.

In another section of the book, he talks about the brick walls in our lives--seemingly insurmountable obstacles we will all eventually face. I loved this part about brick walls:

"Brick walls are there for a reason.

And once you get over them-even if someone has practically had to throw you over-

it can be helpful to others to tell them how you did it."

Once again--I found myself thinking about adoption and how blessed I feel to be able to be the mother of a precious little son. Though the roads we travel can at times be so very difficult, I am grateful now for the wall we had to face and the opportunity we have to share our joy and experience with others facing that same wall.

Grab this book and start reading--it is only $12 on Amazon.