“I know God will not give me anything I can't handle.I just wish He didn't trust me so much.” ~Mother Teresa of Calcutta Why I Wrote This Book and How It Can Help You The expression “Where He leads me” is not something to which I just pay lip service. It is, in fact, exactly how I live my life, on a daily basis. So far, I am happy to report, the Lord has never led me to the wrong place…including when he led me to the interior of Russia where I found my adopted daughter Maggie, or when He led me to Guatemala, where I found my wonderful children, Molly and Tate. Even through the diagnosis of a brain tumor, when I literally fell down many times, He always lifted me up. From the beginning to the present, through terrible losses, He has been with me. When I was 14 and my father left my terminally-ill mother and me alone, nobody else was there for me except the Lord. And, over time—because I was a bit slow to catch on—His love, support and guidance made all the difference. No matter WHAT life threw at me, no matter how strong the wind force, I was a willow tree, bending but never breaking…because of Him. Even today there are many obstacles and disappointments, but as I have come realize, I may not know what the future holds, but I do know who holds my future. As I also came to recognize, and accept, on a soul-deep level, life is always going to throw challenges at us. No one is immune. You may be a billionaire with all the toys—a yacht, a personal airplane, servants galore and homes around the globe—it doesn’t matter, life is too big a force, and you are not immune. You may be at the other extreme economically, penniless, even homeless. Your life may be one long challenge, but you can still turn it around. You can still find happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment, and success. The difference is attitude. And that is where this book comes in. In 2006, I wrote my book, Attitude Therapy. In it I told my story, and that of several others, in great detail, including my philosophy that “Attitude is not about what happens to you, but rather how you respond to what happens.” Although attitude therapy, giving yourself a ‘Tude Tune-up and cultivating “an attitude of gratitude” form the solid foundation for all my talks, seminars and workshops, I thought I was done with writing about the topic. Then Molly spoke up. Molly is my 9-year-old daughter. My husband Don and I adopted her—and our son Tate, age 9 who is not biologically related to Molly—from an orphanage in Guatemala. Molly was 12 months when we got her, and I couldn’t love her more if she were my biological child. Sometimes I think she is wise beyond her years. Other times I know she is! First, Molly wanted a book for a very sick child, a little girl who was dying. We did not know Kayla personally. We learned from the minister of our church about a very sick girl named Kayla who had to be in the hospital for three months for a bone marrow transplant and other treatments. When the minister told her story to the congregation, Molly wanted to help Kayla through her three months by making a special book for her, and the family took on Molly’s project.
