“If you ever felt like we were purposely excluding you over the last two weeks,” Sarah Kathryn told me the morning of my birthday, “it’s because we were. We were planning your birthday!”
I woke up at around 5:40 on March 21st. When I unzipped my tent a few minutes later, I was greeted by this beautiful surprise:
Then Erica captured my sleepy but happy face:
At 6:00am the Joy Bombs climbed up the steep hill behind our church to watch the sun rise up from behind the clouds. It was gorgeous:
We also took quite a few jumping pictures before Madisson captured the perfect one:
We came down for our morning devotional, and as we were having breakfast Erica placed a chair with a laptop in front of me and showed me a lovely video they had prepared for me!! (I will post it at a later time because the internet is quite slow…)
A few hours later, when we were finishing up our lunch, Sarah Kathryn sneaked into the back room and came out with a cake that she and Taylor had made for me the day before. It even had a candle on it, so I was able to make a wish and blow the little flame out!:
The rest of our day was an adventurous trip to a nearby city, Estelí. We took two buses, and then walked quite a while before we found a little hidden gem called La Casita, where you can eat organic food and enjoy nature:
After that we went to an unfinished mall for dinner:
And we saw a mirror for the first time in… a while:
Back in Palacagüina after a VERY crowded but fun bus ride back, I thought the surprises were over for the day… But as we walked into our church the lights turned on and the youth from our church had all gathered to surprise me and started singing to me!!! The beautiful thing was that they had found out last week that my birthday was coming up, and all on their own they decided to do something for me. I cannot even describe how surprised I was to see them all there, waiting for me and celebrating with me (there was ice cream too!):
It was an amazing birthday. I can’t put into words how grateful I am and how loved I feel. I got to talk to my parents (and by the way, this is my first birthday ever without them), I received texts from my friends back home, and I got so many heartfelt emails and Facebook messages from people I love. I was sung to four times, I blew out a birthday candle, I ate cake and ice cream, I got so many tight hugs, I got prayers, and I even got a handful of beautiful handwritten notes –which are one of my favorite parts about birthdays:
I am GRATEFUL
I am BLESSED
I am LOVED
Thank you Joy Bombs, thank you family, and thank you friends for making my 24th birthday so absolutely special. I love you all immensely.
-Raquel
