Unexpected

Twenty seven years ago something unexpected happened.
I was born.
I wasn't a planned baby. I was a blessed surprise, as my Mom says. She had always wanted a big family with lots of kids but by the age of forty, she was content to be a Mother of two if that was God's plan. Little did she know in the summer of 1989 that God indeed had a plan she couldn't imagine - an unexpected baby.
By the time I arrived I was expected. Mom had set up a nursery and made her nest but what she didn't expect, couldn't expect, was a baby with a head full of black air and a complexion that looked more exotic than all-American girl.
As I grew up I continued to deliver unexpected surprises. As a newborn my young baby frame grew quite large earning me the affectionate name of "Sumo Wrestler" but that stage didn't last long. By the time I was ten months I had shed my sumo weight and was a full-time walker. The unexpected sight of a tiny little frame scooting around the mall and down grocery store isles caught the attention and awes of fellow shoppers.
From the very start my life has been full of the unexpected and in the past seven years the unexpected has soared to new heights. Unexpected illness and unexpected symptoms. Unexpected trials and unexpected struggles. But the most unexpected surprise of the past seven years has been the abundance of unexpected blessings and unexpected glimpses of God's goodness.
When this journey began seven years ago I could never have imagined the unexpected path God had laid out for me. I couldn't comprehend the unexpected plan He had for my future. But little by little, day by day, He has been revealing to me a plot and a story more creative and more compelling than any I could have designed. God has been filling my life with wildly unexpected twists and turns. From the very beginning, still just a baby on a sonogram machine, God had my future, my purpose and my unexpected path in life all planned and prepared.
On this my twenty seventh birthday I am in awe of God's unexpected goodness. He shows up in the most unlikely of places and shows His grace in the most minute details of my life. God specializes in the unexpected and I wouldn't have it any other way.
God has blessed me with an unexpected life. It is unexpected in trying ways full of tribulation and it is unexpected in beautiful ways full of sweet gifts of mercy. I have been blessed by the most amazing unexpected life and today it is just enough to celebrate that and praise God for it.
So, thank you God for giving me twenty seven years of life. I can't wait to see what you have in store for the next one. I know one thing is for sure, it will be full of the wonderfully, gloriously unexpected.