The Big 2-9

My mom sent me a card in the mail this week that contained a guilt trip like I’ve not had laid on me in a long time.  In it she wrote: “I’ll make a cake for you.  One of these years you might be home to eat it.” 

“Ouch.”  Followed by tears for want of my ever mommy.

To her credit, this birthday makes the ninth in a row that she’s had to remember her Nascar drive to the hospital those 29 years ago now with me distant by a good two-days drive, minimum.  Someday, perhaps, I will be home again for a birthday. 

I’m not one to shout from the rooftops, “It’s my birthday!”  I am the one, though, to wake up in the morning and persuade myself that no matter what the day holds, it will be good, and that it’s just another day.   And every year I lay down to go to bed at night and thank God for the wonderful and surprising ways He always chooses to bless me unexpectedly on my birthday.

This year, my first birthday in Scotland, was no different.  An incomplete list of birthday blessings and memories from 2012 includes:

• Starting the day by laughing hysterically at early high school pictures of softball and basketball team pictures posted on Facebook.  Wow.
• Saw a stunning sun rise.

• Coffee and conversation with a great friend here.
• Chocolate cake from an incredible bakery bought for me by a peer and shared with colleagues on study breaks.

• Receiving a signed card from the ladies on my floor and plans for ice cream.
• Getting emails and messages from friends near and far.
• Playing games with friends gathered in my honor, none of whom I knew a mere four months ago.
• Receiving a Snickers, box of chocolates, chocolate cake, Christmas beer and a cider for gifts.
• Being forever embarrassed by thinking Hulk Hogan was Hull Cogan.  (Go ahead and laugh!  I thought I was doing well just knowing that the man exists AND who he is!) 
• Blowing out a fragrant house candle for a birthday candle.

A birthday is just another day.  Yet, they are also the one day each year when every single person is entitled to celebrating themselves and the life they have been gifted with living.  I was blessed on this 29th birthday to celebrate my life in this stunning place and with these magnificent people.  It’s a birthday I won’t soon forget.

And there you have it.  Three pictures of ME in honor of my birthday.

Oh, and I am ABSOLUTELY UNASHAMED to say that if you just happened to forget my birthday or didn’t have time to get around to sending a hand-written, personal note, I am happy to accept belated birthday cards in the mail and the address can be found above!!!!!  In other words… SEND ME MAIL!  (This birthday’s just a chance to do as my mother taught me and guilt you into it!)