This year I knew i would spend my 24th birthday in Cambodia, I never had any idea it would turn out the way God had planned, well I never have any idea how he would have things, that's the adventure. I had this plan, I wanted to get a new tattoo. A lion with the words "Honor Thy King" and under this "me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Let's just say the stars weren't aligned for that to happen this day, but there was so much in store. Started with a Skype session with my parents then my man A.G. – it was amazing to get a taste of home. While I was in Siem Reap, Kayla, Thomas and I were trying to make the best of our almost two weeks there by creating relationships with some locals and being intentional with spending time with them. My main man James, who now refers to Thomas and myself as his brothers was someone who the Lord put in our lives for a purpose. On my birthday, we came to visit him as we did daily, on the corner of the Pub Street where he sells fish massages (the fish tank where you put your feet in and the little fish eat your dead skin, let's just say I giggle like a two year old when my feet get in.) We hung out for a bit then he insisted on buying me a drink at the restaurant across the street so we decided to have lunch there. Like everyday, many people come up to sell us books, flowers, postcards, jewelry. Many of these being street kids who work selling this stuff for 12-15 hrs a day. The Lord was putting on our heart to invite them to eat lunch with us, first there were two that sat down. Then there were two more, then two more, then 1 more. Pretty soon Kayla, Thomas and I were at lunch with 7 street kids laughing, eating and having a blast. James came over and told us "they never get to eat like this."
Some may say it was a blessing for them, I think different. It was a blessing for both of us, to get to spend my birthday with some of the hardest working, joy filled children whose hearts just wanted to Love and be loved. After spending a few hours there we went to walk to a tattoo shop that our new friend Ratha had brought us to, but the artist ended up being sick and didn't want to do detailed work, I completely agreed! Haha, but since that didn't happen we got to have Ratha bring us to one of the night markets to meet his Christian friends, in a land that is filled with false gods it was a blessing to see a shop in a market filled with hand made crosses and jewelry. After words we got to head to the other night market to see our friend Soapan, who works at a bar there who we have hung out with. Kayla had bought some flowers and coloring book/crayons for her daughter who we had heard so much about but neither were there. The other girl working called her and Soapan and her daughter (Lisa) came right over. We got to spend some time with them and say our goodbyes!
– After that we headed to Molly Malones where i had my first of two birthday dinners. Kayla, Thomas and the lovely ladies of team wellspring, Heather and Erica all came, it was a blast. Some great food(Filet Mignon sandwich – much different then my normal food throughout this adventure), great friends and some darts made it amazing. 
– Post dinner we went and headed back to our hostel for a while until we were planning on meeting up with James, Jon and Ratha (our fish massage friends) for a late dinner when they got off work, they had been wanting to take us to the street food area where they eat every night after work. On our way there, we ran into some of the kids we have spent time with while we were in Siem Reap, the three of us bought these goofy animal hats in Thailand that we were looking to give away and Bam, it was perfect timing. They showered us with love, they knew we were leaving the next day and gave us hugs, kisses, jumping on us, kept putting bracelets on us as gifts (4 or 5 in fact), giving flowers to Kayla. I was filled with emotion and Joy over the Love I felt in that moment.
– then we walked to meet our Boys for dinner, a midnight dinner, good laughs and goodbyes. We went back to our place and my boy Thomas had some bread and grape juice he had bought, so us 3 took some communion and rejoiced in what the father had done this day and the way he was able to hijack our plans for his greater good
