Ellen White:  

Life is the greatest adventure. If we participate we risk being hurt, losing someone or something we love. Yet every moment offers us new lessons and new reasons to keep moving forward. We may not be able to control what happens to us but I have learned in my now 51 years that we choose our own happiness. I remember moments. Moments that define us and take us to a better understanding of ourselves. I will never forget the moment when I came to realize that God's vision supersedes my nearsighted requests, though once my request was centered around the thirst of the day but I am wiser and know that in my youth never did I see far enough to see the drought of my future. Only a few who reads this will understand this but in my years of reviewing my life and all that I represent I have learned that it's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. I can look back as far as I can remember and know that I love deeply and want to help others. I suppose as silly as it sounds and with a smile on my face I wanted to be a hero and rescue those who cried for help. Whether their cry was with or without words. I had to navigate my way through a man who I once called my husband accuse me of loving to wallow in other people’s misery and others questioning why I was always helping others who were in their point of view a mess. As I have grown, contemplated a great deal through these years and trial and error I know now that what makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely. I know now that what was etched in my womb by my heavenly father was LOVE. A LOVE that loves to LOVE. Despite all this world has thrown at me and the messages that could have left me laying on the side of the road feeling lost I came to realize that my super power is what God put in me. HIS LOVE for HIS PEOPLE. My words that convey a message that we choose our own happiness does not evade the difficulties of life. I was sexually, physically and emotionally abused by my own father. I have known fear that felt as if it alone could kill me. A pain that gripped me so tightly I could not breathe. The men in my life did not show me what it means to be loved and protected. It was not until I was in my forties when I was introduced to what protection even was. Thank God that I am married to the man that shows it to me almost daily. I am no stranger to the horrors that life can bring us. I guess that makes my bold statement of choosing our own happiness hard to believe for some and it is those people I believe need to hear it the most. I was going to Peoria High school in Arizona when I finally conjured up the courage to run away from my abusive father. With the help of my boyfriend Robert Alcantar I found my way back to mother. Although I don’t know if he knew it at the time Robert saved my life and the direction in which it was headed. When I was in my late twenties I was introduced to the social media classmates and as I scanned the images of old classmates I saw myself walking down the halls, through the cafeteria and on the school grounds. I don’t know if it is a true perspective or not but I felt invisible in school. I would be surprised if there were many who even know who I was. The truth is that I was not scanning this social media to try to find old classmates as much as I was looking for me. Looking for memories that laid dormant waiting to be found again. A great deal was found here including small pieces of me. I am blessed to be a mother of three children. I was with my children’s father for 20 years. I am no longer married to my children's father. During that marriage I was given 3 to 18 months to live and I fought a hard battle with bone cancer. With some of my family, friends and God’s help I won that bat...Expand for more