Birthday Away

Tomorrow I turn 24. However, it will not be like any other
birthday. I will not wake up to The Beatles’ “Birthday Song” blaring over the
stereo, or as in more recent years, sung slightly off key by my mother on the
phone. I will not go to my favorite restaurant with my best friends, and I
won’t receive birthday calls and text messages throughout the day. At 12:54 PM,
I will not receive yet another phone call from Mamma reminding me that this is
the exact minute I entered the world.

Tomorrow will probably begin like any normal day on the
World Race. I will wake up before everyone, make some coffee, and sit and enjoy
the silence before the rest of my team gets up. I know they are planning
something to try to make my birthday away feel special, and I am sure it will
be wonderful. We will have fun and go on adventures as usual, and I am so
thankful that I am on a team full of fun and caring women.

Over the past few years, I have begun to care less and less
about my birthday. In my mind it is just another day, and usually causes more
stress than necessary. This year will be different. I get to spend time with
six girls who I had never even met on my last birthday, but will be my sisters
for the rest of my life. I get to spend my birthday in the country where Jesus
was born. I get to serve a community alongside a wonderful family who wants to
see God move in their little village.

I am so thankful for the past 24 years. God has blessed me
with amazing family and wonderful friends who love me much more than I deserve.
My parents have given me the space to make my own decisions, and fail enough
times to learn who I truly am. Over the past 24 years, I have been able to see
more places and meet more people than others do in a lifetime. I do not want to
take my life for granted. I do not want any day to go to waste.

 Thank you Jesus, for
the many ways you have blessed me, and do not let me ever forget the many
places we have traveled together.