Blooming.

This plant, a beautiful "Bird Of Paradise" has been in our back courtyard since we bought our house almost 8 and a half  years ago. I bought it and planted it to brighten 

our new place, but it has never flowered, until now.

For me it has been a long time coming, I have dutifully fertilized it and watered it, I have transplanted it to another pot when it's roots began to show out the bottom. 

I have shifted it to get better sun in winter, and that is no easy feet. 

And still year after year there was no sign of a flower.

It is a lot like the perils of family life really. 

With small children you put so much in for not a lot of reward.

I know that people say their smiles and their laughter are reward 

enough for all the tireless hours of hard work, but for me there 

are days that the grief, the tiredness, the crying and whingeing are 

just overwhelming.

So when my flower bloomed quite unexpectedly I saw in it a sign of hope,

that although the fights, the hurts and the worry weigh heavily sometimes,

I still believe that it is all worth it to see my children bloom - one day -

into who they were born to be.