Unexpected Blessings

A few weeks ago my aunt said something to me in regards to a Facebook status update that really made me sit up and think. At the time I was a bit miffed over the foster care people FINALLY calling me about placing a child. After so many months of waiting and hoping for a child, they called and had one for me on the day I was packing the moving truck to leave Utah. I was frustrated, to put it mildly.
But my aunt in all her wisdom said she had been thinking how great it was that the agency hadn't ever placed a child with me. Just think of all the things I would not have been able to do that were so important to me if I had had a child. I couldn't have gone back to Virginia for my grandfather's funeral. I couldn't have stayed so long either. And I couldn't have gone to Haiti.
Just think of all the unexpected blessings I received by not getting the thing that I wanted so much.
And now I am learning a new lesson. When we are humble and contrite we are more open to new opportunities as well.
Please don't read me wrong. I am not implying that humility or contrition are what lead me to Arkansas. But I am finding that when in a place devoid of friends and family we are more open to making friends with the unexpected. Just like when we are hungry we may eat something we'd otherwise shun, just to discover it is good.
There are unexpected blessings all around us. Even ones that appear to be annoying buttheads.

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently, He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace.

- CS Lewis