Dr Phil Excercise

If you ever go on the Dr. Phil show, he will ask you to list these things prior to filming (or so he said on today's episode):

10 defining moments, seven critical choices and five pivotal people.

And I thought. Hmm.

In No Particular Order

10 defining moments:

• Waiting during Aaron's surgery/seeing Mom hear news of 2nd
  
• GATE art class in jr. high
  
• Dad talk
• Waking up in this house and feeling home and HAPPY
  
• Finding out that, in fact, the boy did not like me (not steve boy)
  
• Having face burned over by chemical peel
  
• First night as leadership of Youth Group/ folding in
  
• Undue Shame after hospital thought I was lying (13yrs.old)
  
• Abby's birth/truly overwhelming love
• Eating Chicken Fajitas Steve made (i.e. letting go of the absolute that I wouldn't like anything new)
  

7 Critical Choices:

• Choosing Christ/ life as Christian (because- obvious)
• Not forcing 4 year college/going to Moorpark (because - humbling, set me up to have time in college to major in art-to have had that year of separation almost from the normal stream of things)
• Westmont/majoring in art (freed me... not sure how... just did)
• Saying yes to that first date (wasn't going to, you know)
• Being Happy even when things got tough (marriage, parenting, sickness, stress)
• Being part of Agape (pushing passed comfort zone)
• Moving to Pasadena (such a leap of faith -could have been humiliating/isolation which in turn gave me independence of sorts)
  

5 pivotal people (immediate family is a given):

• Steve (constantly, always pushes me to go beyond comfort, to question everything and reminds me I actually do not know EVERYthing and oh yes, if I take a moment to notice, I'm quite loved)
  
• Mr. Nubling (completely confirmed that yes, actually I was special and brilliant - was plain irreplaceable and, oh, by the way, agreed that reading was, in fact, glorious above all)
• Hazel (authenticity - humbling to be around someone I think is *so* cool yet who I will never be more like because we are *so* different and who I actually just trust implicitly)
  
• Jen W/P (completely woke me up to figure out who I was... helped define who I actually was outside of my imaginary world- I just plain wouldn't have ended up me without her)
• June D (*as a sisterly figure* She was all girl and all vulnerability)