Almost 25!

I am writing this the night before my 25th birthday. This seems really old. I will be a quarter of a century old. Woah! Luckily I am not the type of person to make assumptions about what I will be doing at a certain age. Many people my age are getting married, buying houses, and having babies. I guess I am not the norm. I am having a good time and I know I am where God wants me. I do hope he has planned a time for me to do those things in the near future.

I don't know what I am going to do on my birthday. I hope it will be something fun. In college, birthdays were grand events. My roommates and I always went out of our way to make eachother's birthdays super fun and very special. One birthday involved me being kidnapped and taken while blindfolded into a bowling alley where most of my friends were waiting. Another time my friends devised a giant video scavenger hunt that had to do with things I like. The players had to find a mullet, for example.

Last year was my worst birthday ever. My grandma died two days before. I was supposed to be on a Young Life retreat on my birthday but instead I was at a funeral home in Arkansas. Not ideal to say the least. The visitation was on my actual birthday and we did nothing that felt like my birthday at all. The only birthday-like event was when my brother put some matches in a bundt cake brought for my Grandma's funeral and the family sang a weak Happy Birthday. The bundt cake gave several of us, including me food poisoning so I spent the next day feeling queasy and I even threw up. No fun at all.

I did get a bunch of phone calls and text messages from friends, which meant so much to me. My friend, Katie H called me. I was very surprised since I don't even know when her birthday is. The best part of my birthday last year was at my grandma's viewing. I was sitting in the room next to the room with the open casket, trying not to look at it. I heard an old lady across the room talking about how she wanted to meet Liz. She came over and said that she had a granddaughter around my age and that she and my grandma would talk about their granddaughters a lot. She said that my grandma was so proud of me and that I was a missionary. That comment meant more to me than a million presents or elaborate birthday celebrations. This was in the midst of a confusing time for me as I was contemplating returning here to YWAM Maui. Thanks Grandma.