A fairy tale...

I just looked at my facebook and got to see all the sweet messages from people wishing me happy birthday. The best part about it was seeing a ton of people say that they were so happy that I got to spend my 21^st birthday in my favorite place in the world with the people who I care about the most… and that couldn’t be anymore true…Yesterday was the most incredible day ever. Not only was it my birthday, but I got to share it with one of the boys, Dominique, who turned 15 yesterday. I woke up early and opened my birthday cards from my family and the present that my mom sent with me. The kids had their weekly Sunday prayer session which was led by Mama’s sister and Duy. There was a lot of reflection over the past week between the car accident, Malaika leaving to go back to Nairobi,  but a lot to look forward to because it was my birthday and my one year anniversary with my kids. I will never forget the day that I met them exactly one year ago on my 20^th birthday. I stood up at the service and thanked the kids and Mama for making me a part of their family and making my dreams come true. I told them they are one of the most special things in my world and they have changed the person I am and my life forever. After church was over, we began setting up for my party. We tied balloons up all over the room, set up the music and speakers, and brought all the games out for everyone to play. The kids played with my makeshift bowling set for a while and then, when I brought out 8 beach balls for them to throw around, their attention definitely shifted. I had a corner of the room blocked off for coloring and we had TONS of markers, crayons and paper. After the kids played for an hour or two, Mama and the rest of the family came to join us. Everyone was wearing happy birthday hats and little Hawaiian leis which I brought with me from party city. Once everyone was there, we sang some songs, danced around, and drank raspberry lemonade that I made. I brought this blow up limbo stick with me from America also and we played limbo. They had never played it before and they had a BLAST. It was so much fun seeing them laugh and smile. Tumaini won… granted, he is like 4 feed and abnormally flexible… but still, he was very happy. Then we brought out the cake, figured out how to light the sparkler candle things, and they sang. My heart melted and I had the biggest smile on my face. After I made my wishes and blew out my candles, we cut the cake for everyone. Duy went to feed me the first piece and instead of putting it in my mouth, he rubbed it ALLLLL over my face.. the cake was in the shape of Tanzania and was blue yellow black and green which are the colors of the flag… I had green icing all over me. The kids here have never heard of someone stuffing cake in someone else’s face because here, they never waste food. But they thought it was soooo funny. I looked like a cross between Alfaba from Wicked and the Hulk. Duy and I got in a mini little cake fight later on which was a blast and left my clothes, hair and face covered in icing… WHICH WAS OIL BASED and so was nearly impossible to get off with the little water I have to shower with. The rest of the afternoon was filled with smiling, laughter, dancing, and playing. The kids and I wrestled around, had a tickle war, and did some of their acrobatics. Lucky kept jumping on my back, holding onto my hair like it was a steering wheel and screaming boda boda which is like the little motorcycle bikes here… too funny. Once it started getting dark outside, we began making dinner. We had rice, chapatti, and pineapple. Dinner was delicious and I was starving. After dinner, I went over to Mama’s house and we watched the fox news video which she hadn’t seen. She was SOOO amazed with it all. We reminisced over my birthday last year and she told me how happy she is that I came into their lives. After we looked at pictures and videos for about an hour, Hellen, Jonas, and Lucky came back to my room with me. We had blown up the giant beach ball which was like a globe and looked at where I live and the way that I travel to get here when I come. They asked me if I crossed the International Date Line when I fly here. I was shocked they knew what that even was! I told them about how when I went and volunteered in Fiji, we passed the Line and that on my flight home, I went to bed on a Thursday evening and woke up in America on a Thursday morning. They thought it was so cool. We also talked about Ecuador and the equator. I showed them pictures of me straddling the equator with my family and they were amazed.  After a while of talking, they all kissed me goodnight and I crawled into my mosquito net with pendo and read the 22 hand made cards the kids made me. Then I looked at all the pictures from the day on my camera and went to sleep. The day was truly incredible and I couldn’t have been any happier. Most people’s 21^st birthdays are such a big deal because they are now of legal age… but for me, it really had nothing to do with that. Yesterday marked the day a year ago where my life began… where I found my purpose and what I would do with my life. I met my future family and my children and came into a world that was just mine and theirs.. and when we were together, nothing else mattered. Last summer, when I met the Tuleeni orphans, I reached a level of happiness and satisfaction within myself and my life that I didn’t know existed. The two most important days in a person’s life are the day that they are born and the day they realized why. I knew what I was born to do a long time ago, help people… but it wasn’t until last year that I knew exactly what my purpose was…and it was awesome to be able to mark both these “important days” here in Tanzania where I belong. The only thing that would have made this birthday even better is if my family and friends from America were here with me and my kids. Which hopefully, next summer, for my 22^nd birthday, they will be.  On a different note, when I woke up this morning, I went to go put the pictures from yesterday on my computer…Pictures from a few days ago uploaded but the pictures from my birthday didn’t upload. I went back to look at my camera and there were no pictures from my birthday on my camera. I had literally looked at them right before bed and no one touched my camera between last night and this morning and the pictures are NO WHERE TO BE FOUND. I have NOO idea what happened and where they are. I have tried EVERYTHING to find them on my camera, the memory chip, my computer etc and they aren’t there. The kids were so sad this morning because I sunk into a pool of depression because all my photos and videos capturing memories of yesterday were gone. I have cried all morning and wish so badly that they will some how reappear… we have some pictures and videos on other people’s cameras but nothing like the ones on my camera.. pray that I find them because I am so heartbroken over it and I don’t know how pictures could just disappear into thin air. Anyways, I'm tired of crying right now and so I am just hoping they show up but it really isn’t looking good. :(