Even in the Unexpected...

My husband's birth mother was a mere child of 14 when she conceived him.

"Children having children" doesn't even begin to express what I feel when I think about what that must have been like. N and I have talked several times, especially since our son was born, about how grateful we are that she chose to let him live...

... to bring him into this world...

... to accept that he was a gift and not an "inconvenience"...

... that her choices had made him part of her life story. 

I'm also immensely thankful for his grandparents, who made sure that his birth mom knew that she had options, that she didn't have to desperately turn to strangers in a clinic.

Tears burn my eyes and my heart physically aches when I consider what might have been...

And all the potential husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, siblings, friends who have never had the chance to bless and be blessed, to love and be loved on this earth. 

"Life is literally a gift -- precisely because the Giver wasn't required to give the gift at all." 

All those thoughts and feelings spinning and reeling in my head and heart since I read about Gosnell ... once again, she put it into poignant words, words I could not say.

Immensely grateful today for love and Love, which conquers all.