Believe in yourself

I was feeling empowered this morning. I'm not sure if it's this beautiful sunny weather or if it's just because I feel 2015 has so many opportunities waiting to be opened. When I think about my past, and the puddles I jumped through to get to where I am today, I feel good. I've written this before and I keep coming back to this moment I had during a first aid practical exam. I had this full packaging on a code 3 patient I needed to do within fifteen minutes. I had to assess, stabilize and package. It was my first time having a practical exam in front of an examiner. I weeped during the whole exam. Afterwords the examiner asked me, "Carrie, why were you crying?" I explained that I failed. "I didn't package in time" The examiner pulled me aside and said, "Carrie you received 100% and you will make an excellent first aider" The reason why I keep referring to this story so vividly stored in my mind is because that moment taught me a lesson. Not to doubt yourself. If you want something badly enough, if you want changes in your life, if you want your path to veer slightly in a different direction or you just want to succeed within something new- you need to take the action, do the work and most importantly believe in yourself. I use this little personal story with every one that is struggling with themselves. I use my personal experiences to support our children. It's real. It's very empowering to know, to believe that anything is possible if you don't quit. I came across this quote this morning stating, "When something is important enough, you do it, even if the odds are not in your favor" - Elon Musk. Like climbing a mountain......every one has to start at the bottom. It doesn't matter your level of fitness, it's if you quit or not that counts. The people at the top are the ones that persevered regardless their challenges. Like adoption. The process can be very emotionally challenging. I believe it needs to be because if potential adoptive parents can't handle the process, they might not be able to handle new children either. Like First Aid. If you can't handle the practical exams. You might not be able to handle a real scenario and a life depends on it. It's important to persevere. You need that level of dedication. Commitment. Determination. It's important to have that passion. AND if you have that passion for something, you need to believe in yourself and hike towards the top and retrieve. This is an important attribute to learn to keep - believing in yourself.  This is my message for this post. For example.....our family started "Emily's Angel's" back in September 2014. Our goal was $5000.00 and honestly, I thought it was a realistic goal however a possible hard one to achieve while selling our first angels at only .30 cents each. Today we are only $400.00 shy of our goal while not only succeeding our fundraiser, we impacted many individual lives with challenges of their own. Today while awakening feeling empowered I was questioning myself, "What's next!?" Because with determination (as I well know) anything is possible. Stay tuned, a new year is about to emerge and I hope that your life is full of endless opportunities too! If not, what's stopping you?