to celebrate life.
HAPPY. BIRTHDAY.
These are two of my most favorite words. Whether it is my own day, or someone else's, I friggin' love to celebrate people's birth.
Maybe it's because I selfishly really really love my own birthday (secret's out...) and so I want everyone to feel as special as I do. Or maybe because my mom made every single birthday of my life super fun and super special, or because I love surprises and any excuse for a party... or maybe it's because it is wired into our DNA by the Creator of the Universe, who is the giver of LIFE to love birthdays.
In Peru, it's tradition to celebrate the entire week of the birthday... UM YES!! This is already my favorite thing! I love celebrating people ALL WEEK LONG!!!!
At Signs of Love, we also love birthdays, so every time we meet a new beloved we immediately find out when his/her birthday is. This isn't always as easy as it sounds... Some parents have to search for their child's birth certificate just to remember what they named him/her... let alone know their birthdate.
It came as no surprise upon meeting little (I'll call him Paul, because I pray he one day becomes a Paul in his land...) that no one in his family knew his birthday. Thankfully, being trained well by my SofL team, we asked for his I.D. card which held his date of birth.
We jotted down his full name and birth date for our files, and it turned out his birthday was in just one month!! YESS!!! We get to celebrate his birthday with him!!! I was already excited.
Today is little Paul's birthday. So, we planned to go to his house and bring him a birthday cake and a hand drawn card (by my amazing artista teammate Rachel).
The phone conversation to check in and make sure they would be home when we arrived, went like this:
Paul's abuelo (grandfather): Hello?
Me: Hi!! I'm Katty, with Signs of Love, can we come to celebrate Paul's birthday this afternoon?
Abuelo: Ummm... can you wait just a minute? *muffled shouting* hey, is today Paul's birthday?? muffled response..... "ahh yeah ok"
Umm listen, Paul's birthday already passed.
Me: What? We have his birth date as today, October 9th!!
Abuelo: *more muffled shouting* "No, um we think his birthday was in September
Me: Are you sure? (panic in my voice that we were a month late)
Abuelo: hold on *muffled movement *him searching for his grandson's documents
Abuelo: yeah it says September 10th.
Me: Are you sure it doesn't say Oct 9th??
Abuelo: hmmmm it says the 9th day of the 10th month...
Me: YES! That's today!!!!!!
Abuelo: Oh yep, I guess it is. We will see you this afternoon.
I was left without words. 🙄🙈💔💔💔
So we began the 2 hour journey for Paul's "surprise" birthday party (it's only about 10 km to his house... however, with public transportation... well... we're still learning).
After waiting an hour for our bus, and then it breaking down, and then walking the rest of the way... we finally arrived to his home.
He was thrilled, to say the least. As we barged in with a cake and Inka Kola, crazy big gestures, ridiculous smiles, obnoxious laughter and dancing... I had to wonder... does Paul even know what a birthday is?? Of course not. How could he? But now he does know that we love him to the moon and back. That there is something up in the sky, with big muscles, with nail scarred hands, who wants to hug him. Someone who looks deep into his 10 year old eyes, and knows him to his core. Someone who created him for a grand purpose. Someone who breathed life into him, and is celebrating his life like no other.
I am so incredibly thankful for my family instilling in me every single birthday, how loved I was and am... how special they made me feel... And this is just a tiny glimpse at how our Daddy in Heaven REJOICES OVER US WITH GLADNESS and EXULTS OVER US WITH LOUD SINGING (Zephaniah 3:17) simply because... we are His.
These are two of my most favorite words. Whether it is my own day, or someone else's, I friggin' love to celebrate people's birth.
Maybe it's because I selfishly really really love my own birthday (secret's out...) and so I want everyone to feel as special as I do. Or maybe because my mom made every single birthday of my life super fun and super special, or because I love surprises and any excuse for a party... or maybe it's because it is wired into our DNA by the Creator of the Universe, who is the giver of LIFE to love birthdays.
In Peru, it's tradition to celebrate the entire week of the birthday... UM YES!! This is already my favorite thing! I love celebrating people ALL WEEK LONG!!!!
At Signs of Love, we also love birthdays, so every time we meet a new beloved we immediately find out when his/her birthday is. This isn't always as easy as it sounds... Some parents have to search for their child's birth certificate just to remember what they named him/her... let alone know their birthdate.
It came as no surprise upon meeting little (I'll call him Paul, because I pray he one day becomes a Paul in his land...) that no one in his family knew his birthday. Thankfully, being trained well by my SofL team, we asked for his I.D. card which held his date of birth.
We jotted down his full name and birth date for our files, and it turned out his birthday was in just one month!! YESS!!! We get to celebrate his birthday with him!!! I was already excited.
Today is little Paul's birthday. So, we planned to go to his house and bring him a birthday cake and a hand drawn card (by my amazing artista teammate Rachel).
The phone conversation to check in and make sure they would be home when we arrived, went like this:
Paul's abuelo (grandfather): Hello?
Me: Hi!! I'm Katty, with Signs of Love, can we come to celebrate Paul's birthday this afternoon?
Abuelo: Ummm... can you wait just a minute? *muffled shouting* hey, is today Paul's birthday?? muffled response..... "ahh yeah ok"
Umm listen, Paul's birthday already passed.
Me: What? We have his birth date as today, October 9th!!
Abuelo: *more muffled shouting* "No, um we think his birthday was in September
Me: Are you sure? (panic in my voice that we were a month late)
Abuelo: hold on *muffled movement *him searching for his grandson's documents
Abuelo: yeah it says September 10th.
Me: Are you sure it doesn't say Oct 9th??
Abuelo: hmmmm it says the 9th day of the 10th month...
Me: YES! That's today!!!!!!
Abuelo: Oh yep, I guess it is. We will see you this afternoon.
I was left without words. 🙄🙈💔💔💔
So we began the 2 hour journey for Paul's "surprise" birthday party (it's only about 10 km to his house... however, with public transportation... well... we're still learning).
After waiting an hour for our bus, and then it breaking down, and then walking the rest of the way... we finally arrived to his home.
He was thrilled, to say the least. As we barged in with a cake and Inka Kola, crazy big gestures, ridiculous smiles, obnoxious laughter and dancing... I had to wonder... does Paul even know what a birthday is?? Of course not. How could he? But now he does know that we love him to the moon and back. That there is something up in the sky, with big muscles, with nail scarred hands, who wants to hug him. Someone who looks deep into his 10 year old eyes, and knows him to his core. Someone who created him for a grand purpose. Someone who breathed life into him, and is celebrating his life like no other.
I am so incredibly thankful for my family instilling in me every single birthday, how loved I was and am... how special they made me feel... And this is just a tiny glimpse at how our Daddy in Heaven REJOICES OVER US WITH GLADNESS and EXULTS OVER US WITH LOUD SINGING (Zephaniah 3:17) simply because... we are His.
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