Thankful in Everything

There are piles of books on the floor, piles of clothes here and there, half-packed boxes mostly all in one place in our house, a host of things I don’t know what to do with, a giant stack of recycling and bags of things designated garbage; there is a to-do list a mile long. On Friday, we will move to my parents’ house, and in a matter of weeks or days, we’re still not sure which, we will board a plane and depart our country once again.

In the midst of it all, I am thankful–for big things and small.

21.  sunsets and sunrises
22.  my country
23.  my adopted country
24.  laughter in our home
25.  purpose–a reason to get up in the morning
26.  peace in the midst of chaos
27.  books
28.  quiet moments to read those books
29.  an end in sight
30.  financial blessings
31.  progress
32.  my husband–who else could I share this journey with?
33.  supportive family
34.  that I apparently haven’t forgotten too much Mandarin
35.  homeschool–it’ a distraction or a retreat from the packing!
36.  the satisfaction of ticking one more item off that to-do list
37.  early mornings
38.  praying friends
39.  vision to see a better day than today

For the most part, I’m thankful for the little things–the things we almost overlook. But there is one big thing I need to be thankful for today. Last week, someone called to say they wanted to give me their gently used MacBook Pro. It’s only two years old. My computer died last year, and since then I’ve been using an even older one we had been using for our kids for homeschool. In November, the screen died, and I’ve been chained to a borrowed monitor since then–not exactly a solution that will work to travel abroad with. Enter my benefactor with:

40.  a new-to-me MacBook Pro.

Thankfulness in the small things often means your heart is open to receive even bigger blessings. I choose to be grateful–even when it’s not obvious why I should be. But today, it happens to be obvious.