so much to be thankful for

Three years ago, as we were housesitting for some friends and trying to make it through the hardest time of our lives, I tried to list my blessings and didn't make it very far. There didn't seem to be much that was good or lovely at that time in our lives. It was a pruning time, a dark time, a quiet and hidden and difficult and painful time, and in many ways an awful time.

Yet the Lord was there.

And I have been thinking about these last three years, about how much has happened and how much He has done, and today as I read a post on Ann Voskamp's blog, I thought again of the time when it was so hard to count my blessings and how different it is now. Now there are a hundred new blessings every hour, and I hardly have time to register one before the next is upon us.

It is a glorious problem to have.

So here are some things I am thankful for this evening:

• God continuing to stir and prepare my heart for eventual foster care and/or adoption...
• The incredible enjoyment that two small children can derive from one simple balloon...
• Rilla wanting to learn her ABCs without any prompting, and how God who is the Word has set that innate desire for knowledge and communication within all those whom He has created...
• The clear, direct gaze of our nine-month-old son (yes, nine months already!)...
• and Rilla using words like "actually" and "already" and "anyway" and using the word "my" in place of "I", such as in the sentence "My have sticky hummus on my fingers."

I love this time in our lives.