Sunday was my birthday

I'm thirty years old now. Eric is two years older than me so he greeted me that morning with, "Welcome to my decade!"

I had a wonderful birthday. Being an introvert, I'm not a big throw-a-big-party-and-invite-a-lot-people-over type of person. One of my love languages, though, is receiving gifts, especially ones that are surprises. My wonderful husband, of course, knows these things about me and surprised me in the best way he possibly could.

Saturday morning I was sitting in the living room nursing Gustin, the other kids were playing and Eric was in the shower when I heard a knock at the door. I couldn't imagine who would be knocking on the door at that time and I was a little frustrated because I was in the middle of nursing and Eric wasn't available to go answer the door. Then, I heard the door open and a voice call out a hello. After getting over the initial terrorizing thought that a stranger was entering my house, I realized that I recognized the voice. It was my mother! But, my parents live fairly far away, at least a nine to ten hour drive, and they never fly. How could they possibly be here? Eric set it up that they would come into town just for the weekend to surprise me. I was stunned. Travel is very difficult for my dad because of a myriad of health problems, but still, they came. They left home after Mom got off of work on Friday and drove most of the way and got a hotel. Then they got up early and drove the rest of the way in on Saturday to spend the day with us and then after mass on Sunday morning they drove all the way back so Mom could be at work on Monday. What a whirlwind of a trip for them! My sister had already been planning on coming down that weekend and my brother had recently moved to our area, so my entire family was able to be together for my birthday. What a blessing! We are rarely able to be all together as a family anymore and we had such a great day on Saturday. I am so thankful for all the sacrifices that were made to make my birthday so special! I love being thirty!



P.S. Please say a prayer for my dad. This trip was very hard on his body and it will take awhile for him to recover from it. Please pray that his pain can be minimized and that the recovery will be quick. Thank you!