I'm 20 Now

My 2oth Birthday present from the Family...

A COLTS superbowl jersey! !

Of course this is just an addition to getting to live

in Paradise for 3 months

2/11

So I woke up about 7 this morning feeling a little homesick and such. So I walked down to the beach to remind myself how amazingly lucky I was. It worked but I still thought about home. Then Julie and I went to the market that was set up beside the lake on the way to town. There were fresh fruits and veggies, jewelry, food vendors and lots of different things. It was pretty cool.



Then I came back and got ready for church. I walked through the market again to meet Steve who was picking us all up. Matt and I were the only people that were there on time so he shuttled us to his house to wait for everyone else. So Steve, his wife, his son Luke, Angie, Tracy, Jd, Ashley, Chelsea, Brie, Matt and I walked to a non-denominational church that was a couple blocks from Steve’s house.


The service started out great. We sang several praise songs. It was awesome to be in a church service that you can just kind of let it go. You aren’t pinned down. You can sing and move and clap and.. rejoice however you please. The rest of the service was alright…my main problem with it was that it lasted too long. (We’ve discussed my short attention span before.) After it was over they said we had to have some tea and snacks and talk to three people.


Normally I like talking to and meeting to new people, but I had to hold myself tight for most of the sermon because he said “home” about every 3 words. I just had a hard time coping with the fact that I wouldn’t be able to see my family at all, or my best friends that would have made the day special for me even if it was just random hugs throughout the day, or not having an annual jess and tom birthday bash…which probably won’t ever happen again.


But that’s life. We’re put in different places at different times, and blessed with the company of different people for various sequences of time. Its how life is meant to be.


Anyway I didn’t go talk to 3 people; I stood my the door and watched until a man came over to me and asked me what was wrong. I told him it was birthday and I was feeling a little homesick, he told me he was American and still had 3 sisters living in California so he definitely knew what that felt like.


So he told the song/worship leader that it was my birthday and everyone sang to me. I was a little embarrassed but I think it was just because of the mood I was in. Then they asked me if I was a singer because I seemed to be really into the praise part, I told them I was and they asked me to come to praise band practice on Thursday to sing. So I might be singing at that church on Sundays.


After we left the church we went to the bakery. I was still in a weird mood and just kept wandering off on my own. We shopped the market more on the way home and then I laid out for a while, went to visit the crew and went back to start getting ready for the night.


Most of the Ball State crew ended up going to the Chinese restaurant in town to celebrate… it was pretty cool that so many people went. The mass walk into town kind of made me giddy. ;0) Dinner was nice, we played telephone, took pictures, made an awesome video and of course ate. Tracy bought my dinner… she’s a sweetheart, and cabin 3 had a card for me.


After dinner I went down to the cabin for my “surprise party.” They had baked me a cake, had a happy birthday sign and balloon table cloth. We all ate cake and ice cream and then went stargazing on the beach. It was pretty spectacular.


It was a nice 20th birthday indeed. I am so thankful to be here and have all of you amazing people in my life…near or far.

Angie cutting the awesome birthday cake they made me..

they didnt even have a cake pan!

At the Chinese Restaurant (Craig, JD, me, Tracy)