My Struggles, and Then I Fly Away (The Purpose of Life)

My Struggles, and Then I Fly Away

David Richardson

The Purpose of Life There are three important decisions that everyone must make during their life cycles. These decisions are a belief in a higher authority, choice of a career, and the selection of a life partner.

I decided to believe in and unequivocally accept the Triune God (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit).

Everyone born on this planet must select a career that would provide a meaningful earning potential for them and their families.

In my case, I decided to be a chemistry professor.

Every person born on this planet must select a life partner. In my case, I asked Hazel to be my life partner. When that marriage failed, I asked Alma to be my life partner.

Making decisions about your relationship to God, career choices, and selecting a life partner give balance and perspective to your finite existence on earth.

Selecting a life partner is a critically important decision. A partner will influence how, when, and what workforce you will enter. A 2

partner will impact your life-long relationship to a higher authority.

It may take a while to find your soul mate, and there may be multiple obstacles along the way.

I am impressed with my stepson, Daveechi, who has taken great care in making a life-partner choice who will be congruent with his philosophical, social, psychological, and spiritual perspectives.

Selecting a life partner is not an easy decision, because it will have a significant impact on your relationship to God and your selection of a career choice.

Also, successful individuals surround themselves with friends who make positive influences on their lives. There are a variety of friends who may provide constructive interventions in your life.

These friends take on many forms. They could be angels you entertain unaware.

They could be relatives.

They could be

strangers for the moment, but friends in the end.

Peace, tranquility, and directions come in many disguises. Often, unaware, angels of light guide you. God might send these angels that take on diverse appearances. There are angels in the disguise of human beings who help you through a multitude of complicated 3

issues. They may come in the form of a stranger, a friend, a colleague, or a relative. So, when you verbally or physically strike out against anyone (friend or enemy), you, in essence, could be striking out against God. If we desire to reach a level of peace and tranquility, then we need to watch our tongues, watch our actions, and watch our demeanor.

I have had many angels cross my path during the many stages of my growth and maturation. As a college professor, I have had angels step into the classroom. As an administrator, I have had angels by my side. These angels impacted intellectual, spiritual, social, and physical growth.

In some respects, my encounter with angels could be analogous to riding a roller coaster. Incidentally, I am very nervous about riding roller coasters because there are high points and low points during the ride. The high points are slowly and meticulously approached and then they dash with incredible rapidity to the low points. The low points are rapidly executed.

The high points are like

overcoming the energy barrier to molecular interactions, and must have the right orientation, must be appropriately energized, and must have frequent interactions with sufficient energy to reach the appropriate pinnacles of excitement. But most importantly, the 4

encounters must be energized by a connection with the Triune God. The right partner could be a roller coaster ride; therefore, angels can help in the decision-making process. Angels can help discover the right partner that will create a micro-utopian experience in this world and help prepare for a more effective and exciting macroutopian experience in the world to come.

The ideal lifestyle on earth includes a symbiotic relationship with God, a supportive lifetime partner, and a successful career that gives you great satisfaction. An ideal lifestyle helps one prepare to segue into that macro-utopian existence that will be found in the world to come.

I have frequently sought a micro-utopian experience in this world.

Relationships can be complicated, but angels help uncomplicate the process, and changes occur when God is involved.

Nothing is too hard for God. Your countenance, your mannerism, your interpersonal relationships change with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

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I think Janet was an angel sent by God. I felt something special when I was in her presence. It was as if she was the north pole of a magnet and I was the south pole of a magnet.

Many college students change their majors several times before they graduate. But I had a single-minded major that was invariant.

I am not sure where that driving force originated, but I remember it as far back as elementary school. I think God's angels ignited that spark and sustained it throughout my lifecycle.

Hazel was an angel sent by God. I reunited after I took her to her first teaching job in Indianapolis. I felt a special attachment to her so we secretly eloped and got married by the justice of the peace.

We later married a second time at Oakwood College a few months later. She frequently reminded me that we got married twice. Our marriage lasted about sixteen years resulting in the birth of three beautiful angels- David, Kymberly, and Christopher.

I must

confess that my children were an immeasurable joy because they represent the future and the progenitors of your own immortality.

David, Jr. eventually excelled in his chosen profession. He earned a doctorate in education and integrated his love for religion and education to become an administrator in spiritual life and student services at both Walla Walla University and Oakwood University.

It’s always good to see your children accomplish more than their 6

parents. David married Melanie, and they had two wonderful boys.

Kymberly became a popular news anchor in Mobile, Alabama.

She is a local celebrity.

Many people stop her for brief

conversations and congratulations when she visits public venues.

Frequently, she is asked to emcee public events.

Kymberly

married Kyle, and they had three children- two boys and a girl.

Kymberly and Kyle got a divorce a few years ago, and she married Clarence on September 24, 2017. Clarence is a fantastic stepdad.

He is a caring and loving individual who looks after the interest of the kids. I liked his presa canari, Asim (now deceased).

Christopher has a great heart. He has had many relationships. I truly believe that he developed multiple issues after Hazel and I parted. He had a baby girl, Nylah, with Ava, his childhood sweetheart.

Ava is a brilliant young woman who ultimately

received her law degree.

Marriage was not in the cards for

Christopher and Ava. Nylah graduated with high honors from the University of Georgia. She is an extraordinary young lady who has an incredibly promising future. Christopher married Keesha who had two children, Devon and Perris. Christopher embraced those two boys as if they were his biological kids. Keesha and Christopher had a darling little girl, Chara. She is a beautifully 7

talented granddaughter. Christopher had two other daughters. He had six children giving me a total of eleven grandchildren. I don’t get to see my grandchildren as frequently as I would like, because they are hundreds of miles away. Christopher had about with the law, but he was able to rise above those issues, and his dream is to be is an entrepreneur – the owner and operator of his own business.

My self-worth, self-esteem, and self-confidence as a husband decreased during my sixteen years with Hazel. I don’t think she appreciated the hard work I put into my job, and I didn’t feel the closeness or deep appreciation I felt a wife should have for her husband.

Finally, I didn’t feel the respect and/or admiration a wife should have for her spouse. This phenomenon could have been my issue and not hers. It was not my desire for us to drift apart, but the schism that ultimately occurred became too big. She did make a final effort to heal the schism when I was employed at RCC. Her siblings didn't appreciate my actions, and it took years for healing to occur.

I never lost my appreciation for Hazel's deep spirituality. She is a wonderful mother and grandmother. She expends considerable 8

efforts in helping her children and grandchildren. It is obvious that she loves them and would give everything for their happiness. She communicates with her children and grandchildren via electronic media. This gives them words of spiritual comfort. She includes me in those communications, and I am deeply appreciative of her communiquĂŠs.

I first met Charlotte in Riverside, and we became very close.

Though Charlotte was spiritual, we differed in many of our fundamental religious beliefs. She was a good woman who assumed the enormous responsibility of caring for her siblings after her parents passed. She purchased a house in Moreno Valley, moved her siblings in, and worked assiduously to make sure they were properly fed, clothed, and schooled. She had a burning desire to pursue medicine as a career.

She was a registered nurse employed at Loma Linda University.

Our relationship resulted in the conception and birth of Gregory James Richardson. Charlotte and I had too many differences to connect in a permanent relationship. I was empathetic and sympathetic in what she had done to address the needs of her family with the void created by the demise of her parents. However, I had concerns about how she operated her 9

household. Our relationship dissolved previous to my move to Salt Lake City, Utah. Charlotte flew away years after I relocated to Utah. She succumbed to that dreaded disease – cancer. Gregory added a fifth child, a fourth son, to my family. All five of my children are doing well. They love the Lord. They have unique idiosyncrasies, and they are walking

pathways that give

significance to their lives.

I first met my second wife, Alma, in California. She is the sister of my friend and colleague, Dr. Leon Higgs. Alma is a beautiful person inside and outside. She has a gentle heart, and she has strong Bahamian ties. Those ties have governed her spiritual, social, intellectual, and physical maturation.

Alma opened my mind to international travel. She encouraged me to get a passport and to travel to places outside the United States.

Alma loves life, and her purpose is to bring happiness and sunshine into the lives of others.

Our love helped us to embrace our multiple adventures.

Daveechi is Alma’s son from a previous relationship. She took great pains to raise Daveevhi as a gentleman. He is very respectful and thoughtful. Daveechi grew up in a predominantly white 10

environment. There is a distinct disadvantage in being raised in an environment with limited diversity. We sent him to Oakwood College after he completed two years of study at Salt Lake Community College. He flourished in that environment. He graduated with a degree in psychology, spent a brief time living in Salt Lake City, and then enrolled in a human resources master’s degree program at La Sierra University (La Sierra, California).

Daveechi received an offer to work for Duluth in St. Mary, Florida not too long after he received his master’s degree. He presently works for the Florida Hospital System. He has a very successful career, and he has made the definitive decision to connect to the Triune God. Daveechi is working through the diverse issues associated with committing to a life-partner. In my opinion, he and his girlfriend, Natasha, made a formidable couple. They appeared to have been incredibly happy and delightful together. It appeared that they had formed a spiritual bond replete with marvelous interchanges of mutually humorous stories.

They laughed outrageously together. I thought that their togetherness would have been blessed by God from “here to eternity”. I thought that the bottom line was that Daveechi and Natasha had good hearts connected by their strong belief in Jesus Christ, the epitome of love. Nevertheless, marriage was not in the cards for them, and they have gone their separate ways, and my 11

desire for their unity didn’t correspond with their desire for unity.

I hope that Daveechi will find that right person with whom he can share his prayers, dreams, and hopes.

Alma was a travel motivator! She helped me appreciate elements outside of my comfort zone. Together, we took trips to Italy, France, England, Egypt, Croatia, Peru, Belize, Tunisia, Greece, Spain, Mexico, The Bahamas, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, India, China, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Some of our trips were through outreach activities that addressed the needs of others (something that I truly wanted to do). We worked with an organization that coordinated mission trips to Peru and India. We worked under some adverse conditions to address the spiritual and physical needs of indigenous people in the Amazon jungle of Peru and Miryalaguda, India and Haiti.

I worked with Daniel Boyd, a good friend, at a Haitian Baptist orphanage. Daniel, a member of the West Jordan SDA Church, wanted to coordinate a service mission project to Haiti. My son, David, and I established a non-profit organization called Next Level Outreach. So, we decided to co-sponsor the service mission project with Daniel Boyd and the West Jordan Church. The project targeted a Baptist orphanage named “For His Glory Children’s Orphanage.”

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The orphanage is in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The Orphanage is a haven for children who seek God’s protection. The Orphanage had approximately 100 children.

The Orphanage’s officials connected to the Haitian adoption system, and with other orphanages helped prospective adopted parents reduce that number of Haitian orphans by twenty percent.

That was a small fraction of the million-plus Haitian children who live in orphanages and who wait for someone to give them a loving home.

The physical facilities of this orphanage suffered severe damage as a consequence of the devastating 2010 catastrophic earthquake near the town of Léogâne (about 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince).

After the earthquake, the orphanage was given approximately six acres of property outside of Port-au-Prince to construct a new facility to house, educate, feed and teach the children left homeless as a consequence of the 2010 devastation.

Daniel Boyd and I visited the orphanage to do a variety of workrelated projects that addressed the critical needs of the facility.

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Very little has been done to help this orphanage since Danny and I spent the week fixing some of the damages to the physical infrastructure.

Of course, our effort was minuscule compared to the enormity of what needed to be done. In addition to doing repairs, we brought toys, gifts, and clothing for the orphans.

Three of the orphan kids at For His Glory Children Orphanage

The Haitian adoption system was difficult and convoluted. I will share two stories of courageous and determined women that demonstrate the complexity of the Haitian adoption system. These stories focus on two incredible American mothers who endured tremendous hardship to adopt six Haitian children. I will refer to them with pseudonyms- Charity and Grace.

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Charity was from the Midwest, and she worked assiduously to adopt three children - a little orphan girl, an orphan boy, and a little girl whose mother and father could no longer support her. These three children lived in the For His Glory Orphanage, and, like their brothers and sisters, they eagerly waited for a family to adopt them.

Charity, a school teacher with children of her own, had an epiphany several years ago. She wanted to reach out and adopt these Haitian orphans. Her story started years ago on a midwestern farm. She and her husband decided to share their family and their resources by helping to enrich and enhance the lives of three deserving Haitian orphans.

Charity and her family devised a plan to add three little black children to their family through the complicated Haitian adoption process. Charity contacted the appropriate Haitian officials at the Orphanage. She and her family selected two little girls and one little boy after looking over the profiles of the orphan children. She initiated the appropriate procedures for the adoptions. Before she could finalize the adoption, she made fifteen trips to Port-au-Prince over four years.

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The Haitian adoption process was tedious and accompanied by considerable

preparation

and

filing

of

documents.

The

documentation process was repetitious, and potential adopters repeatedly asked to start over. They had to support their prospective adoptees with a monthly stipend until they finalized the adoption. Not only was the process complicated, but it was expensive. Before Charity could complete the adoption process, she had to file a plethora of documents with the assistance of legal counsel and a legitimate US adoption agency. After 14 trips to Haiti, she finally received word that the adoptions would be expedited. Upon her fifteenth trip to Port-au-Prince, she was successful and completed the adoption process. She diligently worked with Haitian government officials for four months until she finally received the authorization that would allow her to exit the

country

with

her

three

adopted

Haitian

children. Charity’s husband arrived in Port-au-Prince to escort his wife and their newly adopted children to the United States. The parents of the little girl who surrendered their daughter to the Orphanage came to see her depart for the United States. Charity, her husband, and their three adopted Haitian children departed from Port-au-Prince for the United States on a Friday. They spent two days at a US coastal resort city on the beach celebrating the success of the adoptions after a long, arduous, and successful 16

process that took four years to complete. The children were grateful and delighted to have such loving, conscientious, and persistent parents who embraced them, and who would provide a better life for them in the United States.

Grace was from the eastern part of the United States. Her story took longer to finalize. Like Charity, she was in the process of adopting three Haitian children – two boys and a girl. Like Charity, she had been coming to Port-au-Prince for four years to spend time with

her

prospective

adoptees.

But

unlike Charity, Grace’s adoption took longer to process. She worked diligently to finalize the adoptions, but she consistently encountered obstacles. Somehow a glitch appeared in the adoption process, and the government asked her to repeat the paperwork process multiple times. Like Charity, Grace spent months in Portau-Prince to complete the adoption process.

The adoption processes for Grace and Charity were tedious. I could not help but suspect that the Haitian government and its associated entities attempted to squeeze whatever dollars they could from prospective adopters.

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People like Charity and Grace give the orphans of Haiti hope for a future free from the shekels of poverty and unemployment.

There are three million stories that Haitian children under the age of fifteen could share with the world. A significant percentage of these children have been orphaned by the 2010 earthquake or by parents who just cannot afford to feed or clothe them. There is an average of 4.5 children in a Haitian family. Many of these families cannot afford to take care of their children since the level of poverty in Haiti is unprecedented in the western hemisphere. As a consequence of this impoverished nation, many parents either abandon their children or give them to one of the multiple Haitian orphanages.

These

orphanages

are

underfunded

and

overpopulated.

Courageous and caring people like Charity and Grace practice the words of Jesus found in Matthew 25:37-40 (ESV) “…Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and gave you drink?

And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and cloth you? And when did we see you sick…And the king will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

They have extended a helping hand to the orphan children of Haiti.

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Charity and Grace are just two stories of multiple stories of dedicated and committed people who have stretched out a caring and loving hand to improve the lives of the orphan children in Haiti. Charity and Grace are making a small perturbation in the fabric of an impoverished third-world country.

Danny and I were happy to have played a small part in the effort to serve the children of the For His Glory Children’s Orphanage.

Alma gave me an appreciation and drive to help others who are much less fortunate. She gave me the motivation and incentive to travel and see the world. Alma and I attempted to learn as much as possible during our travels. We tried to learn about and from other cultures. I remember that we visited Marseille, France. We explored the town without the knowledge of the indigenous language or specific directions. We were adventurers looking to be introduced to new cultures and their indigenous peoples. I love Alma’s adventurous spirit.

Together, we trekked through the Amazon jungles.

Together, we reached the peaks of Machu Picchu.

Together, we were stranded at Stonehenge, England.

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Together, we searched for the Ark of the Covenant of God allegedly located in the Church of the Ark in Aksum, Ethiopia.

Together, we participated in various mission projects.

Together, we enhanced our lives by extending a helping hand to others.

Together, we found meaning in the spirit of adventure.

I appreciate my five children, my eleven grandchildren, and the multitude of friends and colleagues who have enriched my life.

My story is a story of stick-to-it-tiveness, gratitude, hard work, spirit-filled testimonies, family, education, commitment, and dedication.

Jesus described the purpose of life when He said, “A new commandment I give you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another (John 13:34).�

The purpose of life is to unconditionally love one another. .

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