Yes, it’s true. I cried on my birthday.
Not that I was sad.
Not that I was another year older.
Not that I was away from family.
It was because I felt so blessed to have my World Race family celebrate my birthday on a beautiful island in Nicaragua.
God has blessed us more than we could ever imagine. We are on the island of Ometepe, Nicaragua. It’s breath taking to say the least. CICRIN, the orphanage we are working with this month, is directly on the water. They started this organization over thirty years ago and it’s still going strong. God paints us a gorgeous sunset every night, I have never felt so blessed in my life.
So on my birthday, I woke up early to run then cooled off sitting and enjoying the incredible view of the lake. Then I cleaned up and headed to breakfast. My team and the other team surprised me with chocolate pastries and candles. We then went to our assigned cleaning spots to clean up the orphanage. Erin, Haleigh, and I cleaned the pavilion, which consisted of sweeping it and mopping it three times. So we got busy and got it done in an hour. We had two hours to kill….what do we think of doing? Yes, we made a dance video. Haleigh picked up the broom and I took the mop and we let it go and danced while Erin videoed it. It was so fun! Lunch time was amazing, then it was time to go into town to pick up the rest of the rest who had to stay back for a day. We got to the café where they were waiting and we just chilled out before we headed back for ministry in the afternoon. I was able to FaceTime my mom on my birthday to wish her happy birthday for her the next day. I was able to talk to a few friends and see how blessed I am looking on Facebook and seeing so many birthday wishes. We headed back to played soccer with the kids. After playing with them, I was able to chill out in the hammock overlooking the view of the lake and taking in all the blessings God had given me during the day. Everything was perfect. God is perfect. In that moment, I just got so overwhelmed with the joy and the love I have felt from Him. Goodness, I got the chills and the tears filled my eyes. If you knew me before the race, you know that I don’t cry at all. But that day, I couldn’t help it. I had to let the tears flow.
The next day was my teammates’ Amy’s birthday. She was still getting over being sick but that didn’t stop us celebrating her birthday. God blessed us by working with an all girls team this month and they pampered both Amy and me by giving us pedicures, head massages, backrubs and hand massages. This all happened looking at the incredible view of the lake. We added up all the treatments we received and it would have cost close to $200 in a salon but we were blessed to have it all plus the view for free!
I just feel so blessed to have celebrated my birthday with amazing brothers and sisters in Christ. Here is to another year of living life to the fullest, having fun, serving the Lord, and growing more and more in who God has called me to be.
