I don't remember being born...I don't remember being carried to an old lady's house out in the country, out from Augusta, Georgia, before I was eighteen months old.  I don't remember having infantigo.  I don't remember the first time I saw my mama and daddy who adopted me, nor smelling my adopted daddy's cigar smoke for the first time.  I don't remember eating my first ice cream cone, which was given to me the day they adopted me.  I don't remember the first time my mama and daddy kissed me and held me close to them as their own little girl now.

Needless to say, the list of I don'ts could go on and on, but this essay is about what I do remember as my first memory. 

The first thing I do remember is when I was approximately three years old, I was sitting on the floor Indian style watching tv, and seeing 'The Ugly Duckling'.  I remember crying as I watched it and mama asked me, "Donna, why are you crying?"  I answered, "Because that mama duck don't love the black one, 'cause it's different." 

Little did I know at the time I was watching it that the 'ugly duckling' ended up being the most beautiful swan in the lake!

From that time on, there has been relevance to that statement.

Yes, my first memory has made me realize that everything I have experienced in my life has had the application of Romans 8:28 through the years.  All things aren't good, but "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."

It has been evident to me in my later years that God's providential care has been taken in the events of my life.

Romans 8:29-31 enhances the 28th verse, because it enlarges on the fact of the matter why all things work together for good.

If I dwelt upon the fact of the rejection by my biological parents, for whatever reasons, I could have destroyed myself, because rejection is an emotion that fuels other emotions.  Rather than do that, I chose to look at it in a positive vein, and accept it as the will of God for my life.  I could not have looked the world over and found two people who could have been better parents than my mama and daddy (Milledge and Thelma Mullis) of more than 54 years.  Mama is now 94, and daddy went to be with Jesus 5/7/07 at the age of 93.

So, yes, my first memory is proving that the ugly duckling is turning out to be a beautiful swan, as I continue to do as the Psalmist David stated in Psalm 63:8, "My soul follows hard after thee...".  After 35 years, Jesus Christ is still the answer, no matter what I face, He is the One who satisfies my soul.