A young girl was known for being unabashedly optimistic at all times, and it frustrated her parents. Despite their best efforts to tamper her overly rosy look on life, she continued to dream big and often. Her 8th birthday was around the corner, and she had been asking and was expecting a pony for her birthday. It was then that her parents felt that now was the time to educate her to life’s disappointments. While she was in school, they filled the garage with horse manure and that afternoon when the birthday candles were being blown out by her, they took her to the garage. Squealing with delight, she jumped into the pile, began shouting with laughter and threw manure in the air. Stunned at their daughters excitement for a pile of manure they asked, “What are you so excited about?” Without missing a beat, she happily proclaimed, “With this much manure, there has to be a pony in here someplace.”

I’m like her, I’m choosing to keep my enthusiasm for life no matter what life brings me. God is always trying to educate me to His perspective; I just wish I had His eyes more often. Twelve years ago we purchased a beautiful home on the side of a little mountain in Kentucky. It took only a month to learn after the purchase that we had been horribly defrauded. Not a little but a lot. Despite numerous setbacks (there were many) waiting 7 1/2 years for the court system to find in our favor, we finally restored the home. With the help of carpenter friends, a partial court settlement, and borrowing all the money we could from my retirement fund, we finally restored it fully.

We never got to enjoy the new oak hardwood flooring, the thousands of dollars in upgrades and decor, for we relocated to a hotel and a new job in Tennessee immediately following completion.

It has been more than two years since we left our home, and what a struggle it has been to make payments on two places especially when one sits empty.

But today the clock ran out and so did our money. We lost our home and our investment today. As I reflect on the high’s and the low’s of today’s events, I am choosing to look at our financial loss with an optimism only my Creator could give me. You’ll never know in the nine years we lived in that house, the interventions we saw God do. He met our needs through fire, mudslide, electrical and plumbing fiascoes. While I may never fully understand His reasoning, He did give me an epiphany that made me smile.

Despite the fact that my credit score will probably resemble the gross national product of Paraguay for the foreseeable future, I have reason to find happiness. Because beginning today, I will not have to worry about being a target of identity theft. No one will be able to purchase an envelope with my credit.

That my friends is optimism.