Look at this picture…what do you see?

After looking for a second you will obviously notice Grace being silly and Grant cracking up.

Look a little longer and some of you might be saying “Look at the counter and sink!” Or “Look at all that junk all over the floor!” Or “Is that a TV in her kitchen?”

Yes! Look in the background. You will see chairs scattered, a printer on the floor, a misplaced Spongebob desk that needs fixed. You will see a broken TV that I have been needing to get rid of for a couple months and yes that’s a plate of food that looked like a good place for Grace to put it when I asked her to put it away because I was helping Grant.

You might also notice that beside Grace is a sink full of dirty dishes. They are in there because I didn’t get a chance to help Grant do his chore of unloading the dishwasher yet. You will find a dirty counter in need of a good cleaning because eating healthy requires a lot of mess in my kitchen.

Also, what you don’t see is on the floor beside Grant are some bags of groceries that are still sitting there from yesterday when we went grocery shopping. There are two baskets of towels and blankets that have been sitting since Friday because our weekend was so busy and I haven’t had a second to get them done.

But what you don’t see is that behind the camera I have the biggest smile on my face. I smile because of Grace being silly. I smile because of hearing Grant laugh (which is seriously contagious and can turn your bad upside down the moment you hear it). I smile because Gracie wanted me to fix pancakes this morning and the color of choice was pink and orange. I smile because I get to wake up each morning to three beautiful kiddos. I smile because these two are the silliest and love to make each other laugh.

I smile because in this picture there is no disability. There is no disapproval. There is no discrimination.

I smile because in this picture I see love. I see laughter. I see acceptance. I see a brother and sister truly enjoying each other’s company. And I see pride. Pride in these two little people I get to call my own.

Because of this…I smile!

Moral of the story: sometimes it’s easy to look deeper and see the bad and judge someone because of what’s in the background. But sometimes it’s okay to take it for what it’s worth and find the beauty in it and smile!

Have a blessed day!