Gift

Life is a gift.
As I sit here at my laptop that's on its last leg and think of the bills that need to be paid, the things that need to be saved for, the car that needs to be replaced and the one that needs to be serviced...the unexpectedness of life... its seems the last thing that would be associated with these things is the word gift.

A neighbor stopped by a couple of days ago for a visit with her girls.  She asked how I was doing, how the little one was doing, and then we just chatted.  As we talked about life and plans for the future I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of gifts that have been given to me.  Not the obvious baby gifts, but the more lasting gifts.   The ones that don't seem like gifts at first.  Like the gift of a failed plan.  The gift of broken will.  The gift of a failed adoption.  The gift of infertility.  The gift of cut hours.  The gift of a part time job.

I know, none of those seem like gifts, but we have been so very blessed because of those very things.  There are people my life that I wouldn't have known otherwise.  Activities that I have come to love that wouldn't have happened.  Even the home that I live in and the neighbors that come with it are a gift.  Unexpected.  Unplanned for.  Most assuredly a gift.