Birthday Blessings

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday and it was one of the best birthdays I've ever had.

There was nothing very special about it but I've never had a birthday where I've felt as blessed and had such a soothing undercurrent of contentment despite all the craziness that is life. And I attribute it to God.

I ask Him every day to continue to keep control of my life and to keep my heart at peace with all the chaos and unknowns that are in it right now.

I spent most of the day with Ethan's family and it was probably the most rewarding day to spend my day. Not off celebrating myself or sitting around doing miscellaneous things. Just helping out one of my favorite families and playing with one of my all-time favorite guys in the world!! At of course at the end of the day, he blew me a big ol kiss when I told him that I would see him next week and to have a great weekend!! Who could ask for a better present?!?!

Afterwards I came home to spend time with my family. I got a ton of birthday wishes upon which I individually thanked every person. My Grams called to wish me a happy birthday as well as my two eldest brothers since they couldn't join us for dinner.

And here is where my day was really really blessed!!

We had a family dinner, which consisted of my parents, my mini grams, my youngest brother Reece and Britton love.

My dad grilled steaks and corn on the cob, made my favorite potatoes and we had the most delicious homemade cupcakes from a girl who owns a local sweets business! Britton waited on my, making my plate for me and serving me....which was a bit of a battle because I'm not used to that at all and couldn't help but fight my independence. We had a great dinner full of chit-chat between us all.

Then of course afterwards we had the cupcakes and I got to open my gifts. My parents honored my birthday requests. I asked for TOMS shoes or a Guatemala FEED bag. My thinking was if I'm going to be a typical greedy American and celebrate my birthday with monetary-valued gifts being given to me that I would find a way to help out other people around the world. True to word, my parents got me the pair of TOMS shoes I wanted the most. Which means a lot to me. Alyssa, my friend in the peacecorps in Guatemala, said the women and children of all the host families wear TOMS shoes that were given to them thanks to the One-to-One exchange!! So I KNOW that my birthday gift was going to help someone else. And I got to help the local businesswoman by ordering cupcakes from her rather than buying a cake from a corporation of some sort. I'm all about buying/helping local!

But the most touching gift of all came from my boyfriend. I opened the most humongous bag, of which also contained gerb daisies :) to pull out an empty scrapbook, scrapbooking paper, and some stickers. While dad was taking pics of me and the cupcakes Britton snuck into one putting his arms around me. And when I opened the scrapbook it was to start documenting us!!

How amazing to have a guy give you the materials to start documenting us as a couple :-)

On top of that, Britton has been looking to buy a "new" used truck as he's been needing a new vehicle and we have been talking through a lot of things. He's really starting to make strides to get all of his life back on track. He brought home a used truck on Monday that a dealership had miraculously approved him for and were allowing him to take to drive for a day or two, while he made a decision to buy or not. But yesterday, he sat me down and we talked through the financial end of it together. In the end, he decided to buy it and today he put down a down payment for it. But it's really nice to know that he included me in the decision and talked over it with me like a couple. We talk about anything and everything, but essentially that was one of our first decisions as a couple. It is his truck and he is paying for it, but we discussed it together!!

All-in-all my birthday was so absolutely blessed!! I got to spend it with the ones I love, I got to help out others, and God has been taking care of my life. I couldn't ask for any more.

And of course it was wonderful to be given a good morning kiss from Britton and just as wonderful to cuddle up next to him and fall asleep by him at the end of the day :D