Oh the places you'll go...

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go...
(Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr. Suess) 

I love this book. I really do. And it's funny just how true it seems to be. I've heard it and read it a million and one times and every time, I never thought the day would come when I would really have a choice about the places I would go.

There's an order to life: preschool...kindergarten...1st, 2nd, 3rd grade, all the way up to high school graduation. Sure, I got to pick the college I wanted to attend, but I always knew I would go to college so I never had to wonder what my next step would be for 22 years of my life. But then this happened...

Yep. College graduation.


And everything changed. I had options. Well, I didn't really think I did though. I always knew what I wanted to do with my life. You see, I'm a bit of a planner...I've always had a plan. Bachelor's degree in Social Work. Master's degree in Social Work. Then work for the rest of my life at a homeless shelter. It was the life I dreamed for myself. And life was easy when I had a plan. If you know me, you know how indecisive I tend to be sometimes so trust me, I thanked God constantly for that plan because I knew I could never make a real decision if it changed. It’s funny though when we make plans how often God interrupts them with something so much greater than we could ever imagine. And that is exactly what He did for me.

In January (2011), after spending hours working on and worrying about graduate school applications, God interrupted my plan. After finally getting the last application submitted, I began to pray about where I would actually attend graduate school. But as I prayed about where I was going, God showed me that I had it all wrong: I was basing my life off my plan, not His. So the plan began to change, and I finally gave in to the fact that I was not going to graduate school this year. God had a plan far bigger than my own that included me getting out of my comfort zone and living overseas for several months. So my prayers began to change and they soon became focused on asking God where He wanted me to go. But He didn't want me to know right away so I soon learned about another part of Dr. Suess' story:


You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, 
or a plane to go or the mail to come, 
or the rain to go or the phone to ring, 
or the snow to snow 
or waiting around for a Yes or No 
or waiting for their hair to grow. 

Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite 
or waiting for wind to fly a kite.
Or waiting around for Friday night 
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, 
or a better break or a string of pearls, 
or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, 
or another chance. 

Everyone is just waiting.

No! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. 
You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing.

Waiting is never fun. We've all been there. Just waiting for something and often the hardest thing to wait for is an answer to prayer or a gentle nudge in the right direction from the Spirit. But the wonderful thing about waiting as a Christian, is that it just gives God a little extra time to teach you and prepare you for what you're waiting for. So that's what happened to me. 

I waited almost five months before I finally found the bright places where Boom Bands are playing and had a firm grip on where I was actually going. But in His goodness and perfect timing, our Father did point me in the right direction and I'll be spending till next April 2012 exploring what it means to be obedient to His plans for my life at children's homes in Beijing, China and Ongole, India.

I'm so grateful to find my feet on this wonderful road, and I can't thank God enough for His marvelous love and miraculous mercy to me, His child whom He loves. It took me a while, but I'm finally figuring out that life is so much easier when you can hear your Heavenly Father whisper softly in your ears, "I've got this. You're in My plan now, and I have a firm grip on you. You can never go where I am not."


My, what a comfort it is to hear those words in your ears...


So here I am. This is the start of, as author Sarah Young says, my joyous privilege and glorious adventure, and I can't wait to see just what happens for I know that with the love, support and prayers I have from home and with my Heavenly Father on my side, the last part of Dr. Suess' story must be for me: 


And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!

So…be your name Buxbaum 
or Bixby or Bray 
or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, 
you’re off to Great Places! 
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!