Thankful today...

One warm afternoon last week, Liam woke up from his nap, heard our neighbors' kids' happy cries outside, and rushed over to the door, begging to join them. It happens most afternoons, but this time, Shawn was home to join us and I savored it from behind my camera lens.

Our neighborhood has caught us by complete surprise. Moving to a new city and becoming first-time home buyers at once, I'd say we rushed the process. We knew the general area where we wanted to land, understood our basic price range, and were otherwise pretty desperate to feel more settled than the basement apartment where we were staying. After walking through a handful of houses, we landed on one we loved, drew up an offer, accepted the counter, and waited rather impatiently to close. We loved the size and character of our little yellow house, but the charm of a dead-end street whose neighborhood kids basically live outside? We had no idea. Living just minutes from the Greenway and downtown Raleigh where we take family bike trips every weekend? No clue about that either.

As I watched Liam play, I took a grateful inventory:
... For kind neighbors with little kids who are close enough that we can yell from our front porch, "Do you have any extra infant Tylenol?" They do, we meet at the curb to get it, and our teething babe (and his parents) sleep so much better because of it. Heroes.
... For new neighbors who closed on their house on the day of this photograph, and invited about 10 of us inside to take a tour. "Welcome to the street! We're very neighborly," we attested, as if they couldn't tell while our six kids made themselves at home.
... For diversity. Our neighborhood is both economically and racially diverse (something we really desired), and Liam is often the only child of his color on the playground. I'm thankful to see him interacting with so many different kinds of people from the start. Healthy and wonderful.
... To live in a warm enough climate that our garden is exploding and our boy spends his days outdoors for months on end.
... To live 6 minutes from Trader Joe's (it must be mentioned).

We truly feel like the Lord has handed us gift after gift to slowly unwrap as we discover this beautiful neighborhood surrounding our little yellow house.