It’s the world race, and I’ve been learning a lot about humility and meekness this month. So, even though my birthday was on October 13, I really didn’t want to bring attention to myself. In fact, I really didn’t even want to tell anyone that it was my birthday. Nonetheless, our house of girls found out, and for the past few days have been reminding me that my birthday was coming up.
The day before my birthday, the class I teach at school decided that during art time they were going to make me birthday cards and asked that I leave the room. After art time, they all showed me their cards and then reminded me that my birthday was the next day.
The night before my birthday, my team headed to the mall for our bi-evening grocery shopping trip. It ended with us watching Taken 2 (IN ENGLISH!!) and eating at TGIFridays together as a team. That wouldn’t have been a big deal, except for a little birdie decided to tell the waitress that it was my birthday. It was the most embarrassing 5 minutes of my life. When all the Malaysian servers surrounded me, the head server told me to get up on my chair. I wasn’t sure that I heard him right, so I double checked and he frantically nodded his head yes and pointed at my cushioned chair with a big smile on his face. Once up, he handed me a ketchup bottle and told me that it was an expensive microphone and I needed to use it to sing a song to my team. So, of course, I sang “Jesus loves me.” They booed me and told me to sing another song. So, the only other option in my mind was Justin Beiber’s profound song, “Baby.”
It gets better.
They then asked me to give a speech to my friends.
But that’s not all.
As soon as I finished singing and giving a speech, he had me sit down and the whole lot of servers sang me not one, not two, but three birthday songs. One would think this is enough, but not so. They then lit my birthday brownie, had me close my eyes, took the brownie away across the table and told me to blow out the candle. Talk about celebrating a birthday. The staff at TGIFridays at the ioi mall in Puchang Jaya know how to do it.
And this was all the day before my birthday.
So far, I feel quite arrogant just talking about me and what happened for me on my birthday. So, I’ll get to the point.
October 13 arrives and I awake only to have a string of three little girls come into my room to give me cards that they made and gifts. Let me remind you that we are living in a foster home. These girls have nothing. There are 15 of them, sharing three rooms, sharing one house, and they come to give me gifts. They gave me their stuffed animals, their boxed toys, and their piggy banks. I’m feeling like a thief because these precious girls have just given me all they have.
I was absolutely humbled by their love.
This blog isn’t about me or my birthday. This blog is about learning to love like a child. What do I have that I wouldn’t want to give away to someone to show them that I love them? Why do we have such attachment to things? Why can’t we give, love, and trust like a child? The joy they had in giving me these gifts was incredible. I want to be as generous as Agnes and Monika and Catherine and Reetha. Despite their circumstances or emotions, these girls know how to love.
