Another rainy day here in northern NZ. The rain is a welcome relief for us--so much better than another hot and humid day. But it means a quiet day in the house. The kids are napping. I'm drinking coffee with toast and jam, while watching Miss Marple. I thought this might be a great time to do a bit of day dreaming.
Catching up with the news today I read that Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have welcomed another baby girl via surrogate. Then I was reading about the woman who won half of that 360 million lottery in the US. Suddenly it occurred to me--what would I do if I won the lottery?
If I suddenly came into a cash lump sum payment of $90 million US, I would do all kinds of things.
1. We would pay off all of our debt. What a welcome relief that would be.
2. We would pay off our parent's debt and/or mortgages (including DH's birth mother) just to make their lives a bit easier.
3. We would set-up trusts for all of our siblings' families to use as needed. Between us we have 12 nieces and nephews from age 7-25. So some need college funds, but others are through college already. Two siblings are business owners, two siblings have serious health issues, etc.
4. I would give my best friend (Susan) $50,000 for all of the times she has fed me when I was flat broke, come to visit me in NZ, and put up with my crazy ex-husband. Then I would take her shopping! What a great day that would be.
5. (This really should be number one--oops!) We would tithe 10% to the church. I don't mean our church--I mean our church and other church affiliated ministries. We would set-up a trust for our church here to use for building and new ministries. We would give to our dear friend who is a missionary in China. We would give to our Zambian friends who are pastors and whom we already help support as they do ministry in their community.
6. We would buy a nice, sensible house in NZ. Some place out in the country a bit where we could raise lambs and calves and chickens. We would buy sensible cars--maybe new or just as new used cars. Nothing over the top.
7. We would buy a nice, sensible house in Texas--close to my family. Some place where we could visit several months a year. Maybe some place big enough where my parents could live, even when we weren't there.
8. We would hire a personal trainer and a chef--so that with their help we could really get serious about fitness and lose weight.
9. We would buy health insurance. And we would seek fertility treatment. If that didn't work--we would investigate adopting again and/or surrogacy (which isn't legal in NZ, but is perfectly legal in the US).
10. DH would finish his Master's degree and keep serving the church. I would finish my registration for counselling. Some day we would buy a lovely property where we could build a retreat center--maybe that would be something we could do with our home site. Wherever it is--it would be close to where we are now. We wouldn't want to leave the church. We would just enjoy the new opportunities for ministry that the money would allow us.
11. We would build a community center in OT--the worst neighbourhood in our town. We would build (with other community agencies) an anti-gang unit. Our hope would be that we could do something to really impact this community for the better, all the while sharing Christ with them.
12. We would travel and visit the Holy Land, our friends in Zambia, our friend in China, our family in Ireland, our friends in the UK, and our family in America. We might even visit our friends in Australia. How much fun that would be!!!
13. We would make a donation to the adoption agency in Texas that helped us adopt our kids. They are affiliated with our church there, but can always use money to help their ministry. We might even set-up a scholarship fund to help adoptive parents.
14. We would set-up a fund in NZ and one in the US to help families with special needs children. This money could be used for treatment, education, and emergency needs.
15. Finally, we would save as much money as we can so that our lives and the lives of our family members could be comfortable.
It's hard to even day dream at this level. We don't even play the lottery--so the chances of winning $90 million is slim. (Ha!) But it is fun to dream. I hope that we would never allow the money to change who we are or what we believe. I hope we would use the money to help others--first and foremost. Money can be so intoxicating. It can do so much good, but also so much bad. I would hope most of all that we would continue to raise our children in such a way that they understood the value of service to others and just how hard money is to come by for so many people. I think I would enjoy giving to others more than anything else--that would be so much fun!
Catching up with the news today I read that Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have welcomed another baby girl via surrogate. Then I was reading about the woman who won half of that 360 million lottery in the US. Suddenly it occurred to me--what would I do if I won the lottery?
If I suddenly came into a cash lump sum payment of $90 million US, I would do all kinds of things.
1. We would pay off all of our debt. What a welcome relief that would be.
2. We would pay off our parent's debt and/or mortgages (including DH's birth mother) just to make their lives a bit easier.
3. We would set-up trusts for all of our siblings' families to use as needed. Between us we have 12 nieces and nephews from age 7-25. So some need college funds, but others are through college already. Two siblings are business owners, two siblings have serious health issues, etc.
4. I would give my best friend (Susan) $50,000 for all of the times she has fed me when I was flat broke, come to visit me in NZ, and put up with my crazy ex-husband. Then I would take her shopping! What a great day that would be.
5. (This really should be number one--oops!) We would tithe 10% to the church. I don't mean our church--I mean our church and other church affiliated ministries. We would set-up a trust for our church here to use for building and new ministries. We would give to our dear friend who is a missionary in China. We would give to our Zambian friends who are pastors and whom we already help support as they do ministry in their community.
6. We would buy a nice, sensible house in NZ. Some place out in the country a bit where we could raise lambs and calves and chickens. We would buy sensible cars--maybe new or just as new used cars. Nothing over the top.
7. We would buy a nice, sensible house in Texas--close to my family. Some place where we could visit several months a year. Maybe some place big enough where my parents could live, even when we weren't there.
8. We would hire a personal trainer and a chef--so that with their help we could really get serious about fitness and lose weight.
9. We would buy health insurance. And we would seek fertility treatment. If that didn't work--we would investigate adopting again and/or surrogacy (which isn't legal in NZ, but is perfectly legal in the US).
10. DH would finish his Master's degree and keep serving the church. I would finish my registration for counselling. Some day we would buy a lovely property where we could build a retreat center--maybe that would be something we could do with our home site. Wherever it is--it would be close to where we are now. We wouldn't want to leave the church. We would just enjoy the new opportunities for ministry that the money would allow us.
11. We would build a community center in OT--the worst neighbourhood in our town. We would build (with other community agencies) an anti-gang unit. Our hope would be that we could do something to really impact this community for the better, all the while sharing Christ with them.
12. We would travel and visit the Holy Land, our friends in Zambia, our friend in China, our family in Ireland, our friends in the UK, and our family in America. We might even visit our friends in Australia. How much fun that would be!!!
13. We would make a donation to the adoption agency in Texas that helped us adopt our kids. They are affiliated with our church there, but can always use money to help their ministry. We might even set-up a scholarship fund to help adoptive parents.
14. We would set-up a fund in NZ and one in the US to help families with special needs children. This money could be used for treatment, education, and emergency needs.
15. Finally, we would save as much money as we can so that our lives and the lives of our family members could be comfortable.
It's hard to even day dream at this level. We don't even play the lottery--so the chances of winning $90 million is slim. (Ha!) But it is fun to dream. I hope that we would never allow the money to change who we are or what we believe. I hope we would use the money to help others--first and foremost. Money can be so intoxicating. It can do so much good, but also so much bad. I would hope most of all that we would continue to raise our children in such a way that they understood the value of service to others and just how hard money is to come by for so many people. I think I would enjoy giving to others more than anything else--that would be so much fun!
Bonnie, I think we just got your hot humid weather. Yuk!
ReplyDeleteAs for the lottery, did you know most big winners are worse off 12 months down the track than they were before their big win & many are on record as saying it was the worst thing to ever happen to them? I know! And yet, if I think about the Godly way I can see that this might be so. We are meant to have purpose to our days: to get up, to work, to worship & dream & plan. HAving it all takes everything from us. Another one of God's little paradoxes. ☺