Winning the game | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Winning the game | Previous Challenge Entry
By Dina Kinker
09/14/08
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Who would’ve ever thought that my car would be too full? I remember playing the game of “Life” as a kid. I’d load up my little plastic car with little plastic stick people. I think they were pink and blue. I would imagine my life as a grown-up lady. Pay day was always fun to land on, and I never thought much about landing on the “Get a Divorce” space. Sometimes, I’d have so many kids that they would be laying down in between the others because all the “seats” in the plastic car were full!
Here I am now, over thirty years later, and, lo and behold, my car really is too full! My 12-passenger van is usually overloaded with kids and teens. And yes, at times, we’ve been so full that some were on the floor. Those are the times that I ask myself what I’m doing here and who are all these people. I don’t usually have an answer.
But truthfully, I know what I’m doing here. I’m smack-dab in the middle of where God put me. I am in the game of life, playing the mom. Somehow, I ended up with 9 kids. And no, I never thought, way back when I played the actual game, that I’d really be so loaded up. Never planned on it. Never. Not once. God, however, did.
Through a series of paths, He took us to the road of adoption. We travelled long and hard to get where we are. We stopped at a few detours, and hit some damaging potholes along the way, but here we are! 2 biological and 7 adopted kids, 4 cats, and 1 faithful old dog named Amos.
And, although life really isn’t a game, I have learned not to take it so seriously. Certainly, there are serious issues that need to be dealt with. All of our adopted kids are from various counties in the state. They were in foster care, permanently removed from biological families due to neglect and/or abuse. But in between those times, we laugh.
We laugh about all kinds of things. The time when my 15 year old son told me he’d be there in a “gypsy” (instead of jiffy). The time when I absent-mindedly put the cornflake box in the oven instead of on the fridge. Then, of course, turned the oven on to pre-heat and wondered what was baking that smelled so good (until the plastic bag started to melt, and I decided I should check out just what was making that smell!). We can always find humor in life. It goes too fast to get all stressed out. Even when the van is too full and too loud.
No, life is not a game. It’s more like a series of choices. Some are hard, and we don’t know which way to turn. Some are easy, like Cool-Whip or Reddi-Whip. Choose love, choose laughter. You’ll feel like you’re winning the game.

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