Turning 40!

Yesterday was my 40th birthday!  What a blast!  I was totally spoiled and surprised all.day.long....far more than I deserved.  This is a total photo dump because the celebrations started at 7:00 am and didn't finished until the evening!  

Tuesday mornings, I meet with a group of missionary ladies at a local coffee shop to pray.  They surprised me this morning with confetti, a sweet card, flowers and a banana cake.  Super sweet!  These ladies are such a huge blessing in my life...continually carrying me before the throne of grace!

I thought I was just going home afterwards to relax after my back to back trips to Kampala over the weekend, but instead my girls had a secret plan to go get manicures together.  (They only cost $1.50 here...how fun is that?)  Talitha was more than impressed with the multiple shades of pink to choose from.

Then I was told that there were even more plans!  The boys were meeting me for mini golf!  Mini golf in a unique experience here.  Starting with the fact that a police officer with a very big gun is the one who finds the clubs and balls for you.  We lucked out this time and actually had a club and ball each...usually we have to share.  :-)

In addition the course isn't exactly the cleanest course ever.  There are numerous leaves and sticks that only add to the challenge.

And we always wonder if the makers of this fun place just saw a picture on the internet and thought..."hey, lets do that..." Some of the holes are just plain impossible!

But who can argue with a great hour that is only $0.35 a person?

After that, I went home for an hour until I was supposed to meet Eric for a lunch date at 1.  Turns out our "lunch date" was an afternoon at the nicest hotel in town.  Unknown to me, the kids had asked him if he could get me out of the house for the entire afternoon (they had further plans...more on that in a minute)... my gem of a husband, who knows me so well and knew I would be absolutely exhausted after back to back trips to Kampala, decided to let me rest ALL afternoon.  Pure bliss! 

He told the hotel, he was bringing me for my birthday.  They took it a step up.

A welcoming sign outside: 

Our room was "340", but in honor of turning 40, the taped off the 3!  haha!!

The bed!  All the lettering was in flower petals...

And they made a cake for me!

When I came home, were the surprises done yet?  No!  The neighbor kids had decorated the gate and sang to me as we drove in!

Then, I thought surely all the surprises done, but the kids had totally out-done themselves and had a beautiful candle lit dinner for two!  (That's why they needed me out for the afternoon!)

They also made a video of all them speaking sweet messages, which of course made me cry.  Then they all prayed for me.

Then we had cake!

And why get forty little candles, when you can get one huge one for each decade? ;-)

This was certainly a birthday, I will never forget!  The only thing missing was Timothy!  (I talked to him later.) Huge thanks to Sarah Jantzen who I hear, had a huge hand in organizing this crew of mine.  :-)  I'm so blessed and I'm so thankful to be one step closer to my eternal home.