Sometimes I'm so thankful I could cry. Confession: I actually did cry from thankfulness this weekend...
On Saturday, we found out that Sophie got into our first choice of schools for kindergarten. Maybe you live in a city or town where that isn't a novelty, but for us-- it's been that nagging underlying x-factor since I found out I was pregnant back in 2008. School was the one thing that could pull us to suburbs if it didn't pan out properly.
This weekend, it panned out properly. I ripped that envelope with so much anticipation, and Brian and I tried to prepare ourselves for it to show us a school across the city. It didn't. It showed us our FIRST CHOICE.
Tears and prayers of thankfulness.
Last year at this time, it seemed so many friends of ours were in limbo- and for that matter- so were we. There were requests for prayer and plenty of tears of sadness for health issues, job issues, relational issues... it was raining hard last year on a lot of us, figuratively and literally.
This weekend the blessings were overwhelming. Dear friends celebrated their love in a gorgeous wedding set in the Santa Cruz mountains, surrounded by incredible redwoods and loved ones. Other beloved friends met their little boy for the first time ever, after years of anticipation and planning. Another starts his new job today after years of training, and even now- as I think of these things- I'm overwhelmed with a grateful heart.
Things are not going to always be blissful. This life does not hand us cupcakes on fancy platters with silver spoons every day, no matter who we are...
The moments that it does... when prayers are answered with our hearts' desires, when God creates JOY from ashes, when hurdles are overcome... these are the times to pause, to be still, and to be thankful.
{Maybe even to the point of tears}.