Papa gives the best presents.

            The count down was on, it was t minus 30 minutes till midnight & my birthday when the tragic event occurred. My precious cellular (an iphone no doubt) fell into a big ol’ pot of water and since has not turned on and is currently sitting in a pile of rice. Feel free to pray for resurrection and healing of my poor phone, it would be nice to have a means of communication throughout August. So I was undoubtedly very upset about this seeing as how I now had no way to receive Birthday phone calls and texts, it was then while crying in the woods being (ok I’ll admit it) a little angry with God and definitely coveting my stinking cell phone something occurred to me. God loves me and he wants me to be happy and not only that but he does tend to give the most PERFECT gifts AND he created me and knows what I truly need for my birthday. Yes the sacrifice of my phone was tragic and in my opinion a wee bit brutal but I truly believe had that not happened my loving and amazing Father wouldn’t have been able to give me the perfect gifts he did.

         For my 22^nd Birthday my Daddy blessed me with my ultimate birthday wish. As much as I appreciate all my wonderful friends and family who have planned things and celebrated with me over the years in my heart of hearts a part of me was always slightly sad, longing for something I was missing on my special day. NEVER would I have thought I would have found that specialness two thousand plus miles away from home and all the people I’ve ever loved, in Georgia, with a group of people I’d only known for four days. Boy oh Boy I was wrong. Our Father truly does know our heart and he proved that to me. By removing things we all become dependent of in our daily lives; cell phone, internet, yes even a shower I had to rely on Him, I was free to focus just on Him so he could bless me on my birthday and that indeed he did. He blessed me with encouraging words for my awesome squad and an out poor of love and understanding. My birthday in particular was very rough for me as we were working on team building exercises in which I struggled with immensely (we’ll discuss that in another blog).

 

 

 

(Biiiiirthday girl! THIS is what 22 looks like!)

 

         Throughout this past year walking with the Lord He has called me to do may difficult things, stuff that was uncomfortable for me and a challenge but through that He’s been pruning the vines. I’ve realized more and more as He continually calls me to do things that I don’t particularly want to do that through obedience and through trusting Him and relying on Him to get me through challenging events He is really using those to grow me, to make me more like Him. Yes it’s awkward, yes it’s uncomfortable and yes sometimes it hurts like hell but it is totally and completely worth every growing pain experienced.

So for my birthday my Daddy did some breaking down of the old and building of the new, He did some restoration, healing and definitely much pruning of vine Nikki. And not only did He do that and was there for me through that but because He knows my heart of hearts and how much I love others He placed me in a safe, uplifting and loving place, a place where every word from a friends mouth reflected the love of my heavenly Father, in my opinion the best place He could to do these birthday renovations. He placed me in Georgia with thirty-eight of my brothers and sisters who were full of love and encouragement. Thirty-eight individuals that five days ago were total strangers and are now all little loves of my life. The best part, I got THEEEE BEST birthday card in the whole wide world filled with lots of beautiful words of love and blessing from all the amazing teammates that will become family throughout this next year (are you guys as excited about this as I am?! anyone?!). That card and the birthday wishes from all my new extended family meant the world to me, hope ya’ll know how much I love you each and every one of you!

(Birthday buddies eating our Birthday doughnuts, Thank you Tim & Di!)

One more added bonus, when I finally did to get online today I logged on to my face book to find more Happy Birthday wishes then I ever expected. So to all of you at home and in particular on my squad who made my birthday special; thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! To my heavenly Father, thank you Papa for loving me so well, so perfectly, and thank you for all my glorious birthday blessings! I love you all!

(PINK CUPCAKES! Jess knows me SO well!)