My Birthday!

So, Yesterday was my birthday. It was one of the greatest days ever.

My cousin Amanda come down and spend the night with me the night before. I was so happy to see her! At 5:30 am, Abbey texted me and I was so excited that I just kept texting her till good after 6. Then I fell back asleep. At 7:11 Heather and Lauren and my Mom came prancing into my room singing "its your birthday, your 20, its your perfect day outside, its raining, its your birthday!" And they were throwing balloons - at Amanda. I had to sit up so they would see which lump in the bed I was. So then we exited the room seeing that Amanda had covered her head with blankets.

Lauren brought me 2 coffees from Starbucks, see bought me 1 but brought me 2. I was happy for coffee seeing I had had less that 5 hours sleep. Then Sharell showed up late and complained that Heather and Lauren did not inform her well enough of the mornings events. HA! So I sat around with them until they had to go to school.

I took work off for the whole day and was pretty excited. My Dad wanted to take me to breakfast but I wasn't feeling much for food seeing I had had Applebees the night before, 2 coffees for breakfast and was in the middle of trying to make a cheesecake. You can still take me out to breakfast Daddy!

Amanda woke up and told me she "hated" my friends for waking her so loudly so early in the morning, ah its all good Amanda.

Her and I got in the car, went to Starbucks (she got me a breakfast sandwich I was not about to have anymore coffee) And we made our way to the beach. I am always amazed at how short a trip it is . So just over an hour later, we arrived and made our way all through the outlet mall, taking stupid videos the whole time. ( I am working on putting all those videos together to put on here. Then I had Mo's for lunch. Yum! Clam chowder and Mashed potatoes (and enchiladas for dinner!) We touched the beach, but it was really cold, then we drove home

At home I started to try and finish my cheesecake, but it ended up a total disaster, it didn't cook all the way and the oven got turned off at some point during the cooking and ya, it was bad... but I will make it again. The the girls came over, Kirsten was my present. :) I put a bow on her. Oh and Amanda made Aaron come too. Always the guy with all the girls, but I miss him. Then Sharells car got Saran wrapped and they started to do the van but someone went outside and they went away. We think they were guys from school who knew where Sharell was... obviously high school guys who still think I drive my moms mini-van. Which I don't. (See blog about car. Which by the way, I did buy... I will pay it off in a few weeks!)

I talked to my sister on the phone. And mommy potter left me a great message on my phone. And Hallie, Esther and Zoe called me through skype and Zoe sang me the happy birthday song and ABC's (mixed which Chinese things) like 3 times! And I talked to my Grammy for 41 seconds and it made me super happy!

Hmmm it was happy. My mom absolutely loved having people over, and giving Aaron food, and listening to us all laugh from the other room. I got a super amazing orange chair, I think I am going to take the cushion back and get a green one though, it is much more practical... but for today I will enjoy the orange.

Thank you Jesus for days where we feel blessed, for days when you shower us with your goodness. I was amazed by your glory yesterday, the rain, the sun, the rainbow, the friends, the food, the happy feeling inside. I know that every day can be like the when I am with you, but thank you for making yesterday especially great.

Romania

Romania was cold. The snow covered the dirty ground. The buildings were old, they reminded me of war. I went to an old castle, what must have lived there once upon a time? I like that the streets were of cobblestone, it felt old… I think it was. I remember the smell of cabbage. I don’t like cabbage… but our Romanian mama made cabbage taste good.

I remember the living room we practiced in, the ugly design on the couch, the decorations that reminded me of the Carriagas house. The TV that played the Disney channel. The kitchen table that didn’t have enough chairs for us to eat at the same time, how we would “share chairs”.
In Romania I wore the same clothes every day, I had decided to bring as little as possible with me on our driving trip. My feet were always cold. My head was always sweaty, I had a really good hat. It was cold in the house, when we got back, I would put my slippers on and race Abbey to the bed where we would jump in our sleeping bags and stay there until it was absolutely necessary to remove ourselves from them. Usually because the bathroom was free, and we all needed the bathroom because of the cabbage (or water, or something wonderful we put into our bodies). I liked the bath tub. If I was privileged enough to get time alone, I took a bath. I liked that bath tub, the water was really hot.

I liked the little room off of the girls room. The room we would go to have alone time. The room where we would write and pray and cry and sleep. The little room where I wrote Christmas wishes to my family, where I questioned my purpose, the room where I waited for God to respond. In that room I saw it start to snow, a gentle answer from God.

We didn’t really like Romania. There was too much politics. We felt we didn’t do enough ministry. We were all eager about Christmas in Bulgaria. We struggled through following leadership. I sludge through nightly meetings, and morning meetings, and afternoon meetings. We practiced our skit for the gazalionith time - and finally…. Performed it. We were annoyed. We went to McDonalds to get internet. I didn’t like McDonalds. I wanted to be home.
I am listening to the song EVERYTHING right now, the skit that our group did in Romania… and I was taken back. To all the smells and flavors and sights and feelings. How our life then seems like a movie now. I don’t want to back time up and have to go through it again, but I am glad I was in Romania. I cant go to a McDonalds without thinking of that safe Haven of connection to home. I cant see a cabbage or red slippers or cobblestone or the Disney channel or snow - not without thinking of my Dear Romania.

After writing and thinking about the whole Anne of Green Gables thing, now I am sucked back into this life… I see how easy it is to be taken into another “world” per say, but the reality is the world in which I am living now. And thank goodness this is the world I want to be in.

Wish List

Hey Check out my new little icon to the right. It is my amazon wishlist. (Thanks to Abbey) You should make one too! It is a great way to send each other little surprises of books and other thins. It is a cheep way too, you will notice that all books can be purchased much cheeper when bought used. So you should check out my list, then make a list of your own!

Priviledged Home

Not a day goes by since being home that I am not thankful for what I missed. I've been home a good two and a half months since my big adventure and... it still seems so fresh. I have been home for half the amount of time I was gone. I should be use to being here, yet every day my mind is taken back. I see my Aremenian coffee, or talk to my friend Lavinia who lives in Romania. I have friends like Abbey Stombaugh who would not be in my life if I had never been gone, its still crazy to me in some ways. I mean, I was on the other side of the world and in some ways that seems like the biggest deal in the world! But to everyone else, it is just a story, a thing that happened in the past. I feel I am still living it in some ways. I calculate time according to "when I got home." How long will that last?

Every day that I see one of my friends, or talk on my cell phone, or eat out of my fridge, or sit alone in my room and write.... every day I soak it in because I remember what it was to be without. I remember not hearing the glorious sound of my best friends voices, not being able to just "hang out." And so, although most of what I have done since coming home is not anything on a major scale... I still notice it all. I dont take it for granted, I cant.

I would love to travel again, to go without so I could appreciate more of what I do have. But I dont have to have it taken away to realize my priviledge of having it.