Yesterday was my mom's birthday! Happy Birthday Mamacita!!! I "snuck" into the maternity center Tuesday evening to alert the staff about mom's birthday since I was pretty sure she'd kept this bit of information to herself, crazy lady. Beth (the Director of the maternity center) Shelley and I collaborated and decided to throw a birthday dinner in honor of my moms *cough 35th birthday.
Wednesday I was sitting down with one of the little girls during recess, which the big kids have while the smaller children take naps. She had found a little piece of my hair that had come out of my braid and began re-braiding it. Well than came one of the little boys; he in particular reminds me of the lyrics "Little bit of demon in those angel eyes" and he promptly began teasing the back of my head; which isn't easy if all the hair is in a braid but he was determined and in seeing two kids getting to play with my hair four others thought it was a good idea too. Years of hair pulling from babysitting and younger siblings has thickened my skull (knew it was for a reason) but I think I lost the majority of my hair when I combed it out later. Note to self: keep hair up and tight.
We played Duck, Duck, Goose and some of the kids are super fast! We play where all the kids sit in a line and when they become goose they race around the pool, great way of burning off energy that seems to only thrive as the afternoon burns on. One of the girls curled up in my lap and I began to hum a song that we sang earlier that morning, she began humming softly with me and we rocked back and forth. I don't think she was feeling well as she'd been really slow all day and quite which yesterday was a completely different story. We sat the rocking and humming for a good 15 min as recess came to a close and the teachers began moving benches and cleaning the floor from previous snack time. As the children began sitting around the table I told her to go get her backpack, when she didn't respond I looked down and she was fast asleep, the white ribbons that matched her dress where tickling her long eyelashes and for a moment... I can't explain it. Despite the screams and squeals that surrounded us we were in our own peaceful world & everything was ok.
Moving ahead a few hours, Shelley made sweet and sour chicken with rice for moms birthday dinner with avocado and mangoes cut up for sides as well as bread from the Heartline bakery. We had people from Heartline over as well as a team from Washington that stayed with us overnight before heading into the mountains for some ministry work. Needless to say we had a huge table set up and it was full!
Jeff, Patrick and Ben led worship and the pastor in the group gave a little devotion on Mordecai. It was really good and Esther is my favorite book in the Bible. Byron (Director) made his special mango smoothies to go along with the cake that Beth had made. Both were super delicious! After dinner most people went to bed as they have an early start to the morning but mom, the pastor, two members of the team staying with us and Katie stayed up a little later playing Phase 10, Mom and I tied for third place even though I might have skipped her a couple times. I gave mom a card that my older sister had made before we left and made sure everyone signed as well as a large serving bowl that was crafted out of mahogany here in Haiti.
I don't see my mom very much as she has things at the maternity center but I noticed when I was little and up into my teens, that God gave my mom a heart to serve women through midwifery as well as their children. Working on the days that mom does prenatal for the past couple years I'd forgotten how happy it makes her and the light that kind of glows from her when she's working. Life is not always easy and my mom and I have not always gotten along (crazy how we're the only ones right?) but I wouldn't be here without her and God is showing me some characteristics that she and I have in common and its a beautiful thing. I love you mamacita!
Sniff.....
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