Liv came into our room bright and early this morning. After partying till 2:30 am as a fam we figured…”surely she will sleep in…” Nope.
She came in at the butt-crack and walked to my side of the bed and tapped me until I grunted.
“Can I eat this for breakfast Mama?”
“Yes.” I said without even opening my eyes.
I had no clue what she was holding nor what was about to be ingested…
but my YES was on the table because it was better than exerting the energy to take a glance.
And so began our much anticipated….
HAMMETT FIRST ANNUAL ALL DAY YES DAY!
Today had one rule: YES!
Brent and I were not allowed to say NO to anything that Liv decided to do, wear, eat, dream up… ALL YES ALL DAY!
“Nima, what in the world do you want to do today? It’s your day! We HAVE TO SAY YES!”
“Oh…so you can’t spank me today?”
“I didn’t say that.”
(had to clarify that)
“Ok, here’s what I want to do:
Eat lunch at Twisted Root and drink root beer
Go to Target
Get a cake pop from Starbucks
Eat a cat’s body……but not the face.”
(so maybe a few no’s will have to be used…also…creepy.)
Here is a wrap up of what went down today:
She chose to dress as Spider girl with a cape and sparkle shoes.
She declared that she would be carried everywhere…by Mama.
(Jesus be a back brace)
We had lunch at Twisted Root with all the root beer she could drink. (theirs has caffeine…blessed life)
We headed over to Target, pushed Liv around the store in a buggy while she ate a birthday cake pop and drank chocolate milk.
We walked to the park with Blue, our new puppy, and made the poor dog slide down the slides beside Liv.
(don’t call Sara McLachlan or PETA…it was ethical treatment…weird treatment but ethical)
We went home to “rest” because obviously NO NAPS today.
Her definition of “rest” was to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while wearing a leotard. (naturally)
Next was dinner. She wanted to go to Johnny’s Pizza but not to eat pizza. She wanted to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich AT Johnny’s.
After dinner she wanted us to throw a YES party with colorful balloons that said YES on them…and so we did.
The night ended with a family effort building of a parade float for a dolphin and bear to ride on.
Y’all…it was a DAY.
All the YES we could give to our little one. She beamed the entire day. She was delighted by every move we made. It was glorious….and hilarious.
The Lord reminded me tonight that our family was born from that tiny little word: YES.
It all started with one picture of a bright eyed little brown one that we fell in love with immediately.
“Do you want to move forward with this little one and adopt her?” the agency asked.
YES was our answer.
In a lot of ways we had no idea what we were truly deciding when we said YES. We had no idea what lied on the other side of that word.
We could have never known the amount of anxiety we would endure, the length of the long nights of waiting, the sickness she would endure, the month long fight in the middle of Africa…fighting hell to make her ours…
That’s what YES actually meant.
That tiny three letter word changed everything for us and for her.
It did more than bring us a daughter…
It taught us about the heart of God and we know Him differently now.
We know what it means to need Him…for our every breath.
We have suffered…greatly…but come out more like Jesus.
Death was defeated in our little one’s life.
Good, good, things came from our YES.
And when I think about the best things in my life…not the easiest things…but the best things….
They all exist because of the word YES.
Not always a bold and courageous “YES!” Often a wavering..”maybe”…or a weak “I guess”.
When God calls us to something, or asks something of us; when He is looking for our YES, it is ALWAYS because it will bring us closer to Him and closer to who He created us to be.
And friends…He can be trusted with our YES.
That’s the guarantee.
Saying YES may not be the easy route. It may bring change, friction, suffering, risks…it may not look like the obvious best route (like sending a brand new puppy down the twisty slides), but it will ALWAYS bring us steps closer to Him and steps closer to changing the world.
Obedience, living a YES LIFE, will end in us knowing our Father more intimately and broken lives being restored.
That’s all He cares about: His glory and the lost being found.
Our YES will always equal those two things.
There’s an exhilarating life waiting for us if we choose to live with our YES on the table. Fully trusting that His purposes are greater than any we could dream up on our own, if we could just say YES to God more often, our lives would explode with joy, peace, creativity, energy…all the things we have longed for…and other’s lives: the broken, lost, lonely, hungry, orphaned and widowed, their lives would be restored.
Our YES is never just about us.
Our YES is the catalyst for countless other’s lives to be changed.
Our obedience to God’s call on our life will ALWAYS drive us to people. A hunger for Him and the things of Him will always give us an unquenchable hunger for people.
What is it that you know God is asking you to do?
What risk is He asking you to take?
What if your YES could feed hungry people? What if your YES brought rescue to someone’s life? What if your YES gave an orphan a family? What if your YES gave a small encouraging word that changed the course of someone’s day…or their life?
Is your YES on the table?
(Check out our ALL DAY YES DAY hashtag on Instagram #hammettalldayyesday)
