Bethanyology

I had the most prefect birthday last week!  Colin blessed our baby Heidi in church that day.  My parents, two of my siblings, my sister-in-law and her boyfriend, my aunt and uncle and their kids, and two of Colin’s aunts and uncles came to celebrate with us.  I can’t say how much it meant to me and how loved I felt to have my family surrounding me that day.  After church, Sonja fed us all a yummy lunch and we had an impromptu concert with great singing and playing from several parties in the group.  Several of the guests had brought birthday presents for me, so I opened them so everyone could enjoy them with me.  It was so fun to get such thoughtful gifts, and even more than that I felt loved that they wanted to give me birthday presents at all.

Possibly my favorite present was a Bushman tradition that my sweet brother suggested we do with everyone together.  We go around the room and tell at least one thing we like about the Birthday Girl or Boy (in my case, Birthday Girl .  I don’t know if I’ve ever had so many meaningful compliments!  My dad said that he loves that I have a strong sense of right and wrong and try hard to do what’s right.  That means a lot more to me now that I have my own kids who I desperately want to choose the right.  One aunt said that she loves it that when I talk to her she feels like she’s the only one in the room.  I’ve had people do that for me, and I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to pass that feeling of being special and important on to someone else.  One of my cousins surprised me with a compliment about my sense of style!  I’ve never felt confident in my presentation of myself, so that was especially nice to hear that my efforts haven’t been in vain.  And I got several comments about how I’m “always happy,” which isn’t entirely true, but I do try really hard to be sincerely happy and to help others to feel that way when they’re around me (and I appreciate the moments when it’s easy to be happy more now since my difficult times being happy when I was recently pregnant).

I mention this not to toot my own horn, but to record a really happy time and some good things about myself to refer to when I’m not so pleased with myself.  Also, if your family is in search of a great birthday tradition or if you’re looking for the perfect birthday present, this one is tremendously meaningful to me and I wholeheartedly recommend it.  Even shallow compliments from strangers in the room can make a difference.  Oh, and going hundreds of miles to see your daughter on her birthday can make her day, too!  I am so lucky to have had so much time to myself with my parents this year–after all, they have six other kids to share their time and attention with.