Motivational Monday Presents: FREE REFILLS?

What makes it so easy for a child to ask for something? Why are children so 'in the moment'....when us adults have to sit in contemplation for hours..or days...or years..?


Children have this fearless way about them, that makes it so easy to ask for anything! "Mommy, can I have a pony?" Even if they KNOW the answer is going to be "NO!"....they will still put themselves out there.


Fear of rejection, doesn't really seem to exist with children. Why is that? Wouldn't it be cool if we as adults were more 'in the moment'....? Instead of constantly thinking and re-thinking our decisions. Sometimes we as adults tell ourselves NO, even before we think to go ask.


Sure - I know there are important decisions, that require thought.....but what if just once....we lived life as a child and asked for what we wanted.... To quote one of my husbands most popular speeches, "Instead of wishing -- if I only knew then, what I know now, what if if we knew NOW, what we knew THEN."


Over the weekend our family went to Burger King, before starting our grocery shopping at Wal-mart. Going out for ANY meal with 6 kids is crazy...and expensive! So to cut costs, we usually double the kids up on drinks....and really take advantage of the 'free refills' !!

After devouring their food....the kids were savaging for more......"You can't possibly be still hungry?!?!" The kids just look at us. So Daddy suggested they take their empty fry containers up to the front and ask for their "free refill"....(since the sign above the beverage bar didn't specify, it was only for drinks)

The older kids would have nothing to do with that dare.....but our little Rachel bug.....grabbed the french fry box....marched right up to the counter....and asked "May I have my free refill please?"

Even if Rachel KNEW the answer was going to be NO...what made her ask anyway? She didn't care that her request seemed silly.....she knew what she wanted...and she asked for it.

Those of us living with NF, or living with any medical condition for that matter, know, that sometimes you have to fight--to get what you want. Just because the DRS say its so....doesn't mean that's the end of the discussion.

I look back on the countless Drs I have asked to remove the tumors...and the countless doors that have been slammed in my face. "It's cosmetic", they all told me....."There's nothing we can do to treat NF"....SLAM SLAM SLAM!

I wasn't going to give up. I asked AGAIN....at the NF research, while at NIH. I was shocked, when I got a very different answer. I even got a print out, of the correct medical codes, so that the insurance can be properly billed. "Removing tumors is NOT cosmetic"....What part of THAT do Drs not understand?


Don't let NO....be the final answer.....Don't afraid to ask for what you want. Even in the face of disappointment, don't let other people control your outcome.

Have a GREAT WEEK!