Celebrate!!
Wednesday afternoon we had the opportunity to go out on our own for a little while to a quiet local coffee shop where we used crayons and markers (like kids again) to create fun cards for each of the kids here at the orphanage. It was so much fun! We all encouraged them with verses and each signed them.
COOKIES
We had the opportunity to make cookies with the kids. They enjoyed helping, but Thai kids don’t grow up having alot of sugar in their diet so they didn’t eat many of them-which created a problem for someone who LOVES cookies! I ended up eating way too much dough and cookies, but they were so good. The most enjoyable part of it all was spending time making cookies with the kids.
BIRTHDAYS…eight of them! Thursday night we ordered 10 pizzas, pop, several cakes, and ice cream to celebrate all the birthdays. Friends and family of Roger and Phong came to celebrate. What better way to celebrate a birthday than with great ‘American’ food, new friends and lots of kids!?! The kids loved it and Eileen’s smile made it all worth it. She was so excited to open a present – all she wanted was a little baby doll and purple lip stick, and her eyes lit up when she got it! That precious five year old has such joy (most of the time…) and it just fills up a room. Being that it is my birthday on Sunday, I was so excited to be apart of the birthday party. I was excited to have a party just like at home. We all lined up and attempted to blow out many many candles with success.
PIZZA! what a treat (no rice)
Lots of cake!
Gai and her brother – he was only able to come for the birthday party and then had to go back to Bangkok
Beautiful princess Eileen!
Love her smile – she is now officially five years old!
Since the party was such a huge event for the orphange, they invited many people, including some who are not Christians. It created such a great opportunity to build some relationship with them and share God’s love. I feel very spoiled to have been able to celebrate my birthday with others the way we did. Being away from home for holidays and birthdays can be hard, but it’s people and events like this that make it easier. God brings us the right things at the right times. It’s the little things that mean alot often times and it made my day to party with the kids and feel apart of the family. I am so blessed by the God of the universe, that He would care about my birthday and make it special! (and there is more to come on Sunday…)
Gai and I (she is the sweetest ever!!)
“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise;
Give thanks to Him and praise His name.”
~Psalm 100:4
Yesterday (Sunday), we left Buriram on a bus and headed back to Bangkok for debreif. Being that it was my actual birthday, I prayed for one warm shower…and God gave it to me! My team sung happy birthday to me in the morning as soon as we boarded the bus. My first gift was a card from Heather on my bag when I woke up. Later on, about six hours later when we arrived at the bus station, I was able to open a “party in a card” my Aunt and Uncle had snuck in my bag before I left. All day was I was celebrating my birthday.
As we were riding on the bus, I had alot of thoughts going through my head. I have never liked getting older and anyone who knows me well, will tell you that. I can’t believe I’m 25 years old. I’ve always thought 25 was so old, but now I’m here and it feels so different than my view of it four years agot. It’s all about perspective. And the way I try to view it is, I’m just getting started. Whenever I think of it in terms of being ‘a quarter of a century” I get depressed because that means that most like more than a quarter of my life is over, but that’s not how God wants me to view it. He has so much more He wants to do in my life and through me and He’s just getting started. And the older we get, the closer we are to having perfect bodies in heaven anyways! It’s a no win situation. Paul said, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain!” GO PAUL!! What a perspective to have.
When we got to the base, everyone kept telling me to go get my package and before I made it down there others would ask if I had gotten it yet. I finally made my way down to the front office, picked it up, and ran upstairs to open it. I was like a five year old excited to open my package. My parents had given me Zebra cakes for my cake, candy for the kids, earrings, cards, and other awesome and fun stuff!
Later on in the evening, my wonderful team and I went out for my ‘birthday dinner.’ And we ended up at KFC for a nice ‘American’ dinner (we were ready for it). We bought some ice cream, and put it on top of the Zebra cakes. So, I ended up with mash potatoes, cake, and ice cream on my birthday.
At the end of the day I had the chance to call home and talk to everyone (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, my mom…) and that was refreshing.
(that’s 2 candles on the left and 5 candles on the right if you can’t tell)
God blessed me with a WONDERFUL and UNFORGETABLE birthday in Thailand!!
GOD IS GOOD and I look forward to what He’s going to do the next 75 years!?!!
