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Dave Lukas - Lessons for Hannah180: Lessons for Hannah - The Incredible Importance of Little Things
Hello Misfit Nation! Welcome to another edition of "Lessons for Hannah!" In November of 2016, we introduced a new format that we are putting alongside our regular episodes called “Lessons for Hannah.” Hannah is my daughter and one of the main inspirations for the Misfit Entrepreneur. I wanted to have a place where she could go and learn from her daddy and his Misfit friends throughout her life….even after I am gone. If you haven’t listened to the first episode of "Lessons for Hannah," I urge you to as it gives some more background and tells the amazing story of how Hannah came to be in our lives. "Lessons for Hannah" are short, very useful, and sometimes comical lessons, that I have learned which I want to share with you and give to Hannah to help in your lives. Because I want Hannah to have these for her life, I’m going to speak as though I am talking directly to her. These episodes are a lot of fun and if you think there is a lesson that we should include in these episodes, please don’t hesitate to send it over to us at [email protected]. We’d love to share it. This week’s Lesson for Hannah Hannah, I want to talk to you about the importance of little things in our lives. I didn’t used to pay much attention to the little details. I had been told that the little things matter, but I had never put too much stock in it because “who wants to spend time on the little tiny things when there is so much else to do.” I never realized how important they truly were until your mom and I found you. That’s right…one tiny little choice is what is responsible for us being a family. One, miniscule, little, tiny, choice. A checkbox. You see, when your mom and I were going through the process to be able to find you and bring you home, we had to make some decisions. Some of those were hard as we had to choose if we would be willing to work with ailments or problems that our child could have. It was an emotional roller coaster ride of feelings because, as you might be able to understand, if we didn’t check the box for a certain ailment or problem, did that mean we didn’t care or worse, what if you had an ailment that we didn’t check the box for – we would miss finding you. It all came down to one, unlikely checkbox – hyper and hypo thyroid. Your grandmother has one of these, so we knew about it and knew how to treat it. When we checked the box and reviewed it with our adoption counselor, they said, “Are you sure you want that, we rarely, if ever have had a child with that issue.” We told them we wanted to leave it on there just in case. I call this miracle #1 in our family journey. Next, once we had done everything to be able to start looking for you, we went through a number of months where we would get our hopes up when China would release the children available for adoption, only to not even get a phone call. It was another emotional rollercoaster ride. Every month when the time came, we would get our hopes up and the time would pass and we would not get a phone call. It was discouraging to say the least. But, we held fast to our belief that you were out there and when the time was right, we would find you. Then, on a beautiful September day, we got a call out of the blue from our adoption counselor telling us that they had found a child that fit what we were looking for. We were very confused as the children for the month had already been released by China and we had not been contacted. We asked how this was possible and our adoption counselor told us that the agency actually worked directly with one orphanage in China, just one in all of China, and that once in a great while, they had a child that fit what one of their families was looking for. When we asked our counselor what had made them think of us – they told us that when this child came up in the system, she had hyperthyroid, and that we were the only family in the system that had checked the box for that ailment, so we were the only ones they could call. That child was you. Think about that for a second. Miracle #1 was checking that little box for hyperthyroid. Miracle #2 was the fact that no on else in the world knew about you, but us. You never were on the list to be sent out to the world from China. You were never given the chance for another family. It was us and only us from the start. We were destined to be a family and you were destined to be my daughter. They say the lord works in mysterious ways – well the lord not only worked a miracle to find you and set you apart for just us to be a family, but he also taught me and your mother the valuable lesson of the incredible importance of the littlest of things, that wonderful day in September, And I have taken the message and used it in my life ever since. It is amazing how many things can be traced back to a small, seemingly insignificant choice or the incredible value that the littlest things can have. I have often said that “awareness is the catalyst to and of change.” Once you are aware to something, you can use it in your life. Since I have become aware to the power of little things, I can say that it has made some of the biggest impacts in my life – not just in finding you, but in business, relationships, opportunities, health and on and on. And when you really think about it, it is the littlest of things that make the biggest differences. Olympic gold medals are won by a hundredth of second. Chance meetings by people turn into marriages. And I’ve already talked about your chances of even being alive in this world. That brings me to Miracle #3, another little thing that made a huge difference – maybe THE difference. When we brought you home, we started taking you to the doctor for treatment, and after 6 months, your doctor looked at us and said, “You know what, I think she was mis-diagnosed. She doesn’t need the medication, she’s perfectly healthy.” Now, think about that for a second. For you to be found by us, you had to have been diagnosed with an ailment or we would not have found you, but you were actually mis-diagnosed and never should have had that ailment in your file. This little mistake by a doctor in China made everything possible. Hannah, the biggest lesson I want you to take away from this is that there are great miracles in the littlest of things. Lifechanging miracles. And that is why, you will do well to pay close attention to the little things in life and see the miracles and opportunities they provide. Don’t overlook them or take them for granted. More importantly pay close attention and maximize them in everything you do. The littlest of things can make the biggest difference. I love you, Daddy 
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Best QuoteYou will do well to pay close attention to the little things in life and see the miracles and opportunities they provide. 
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