A fairy tale...

I just looked at myfacebook and got to see all the sweet messages from people wishing me happybirthday. The best part about it was seeing a ton of people say that they wereso happy that I got to spend my 21st birthday in my favorite placein the world with the people who I care about the most… and that couldn’t beanymore true…Yesterday was the most incredible day ever. Not only was it mybirthday, but I got to share it with one of the boys, Dominique, who turned 15yesterday. I woke up early and opened my birthday cards from my family and thepresent that my mom sent with me. The kids had their weekly Sunday prayersession which was led by Mama’s sister and Duy. There was a lot of reflectionover the past week between the car accident, Malaika leaving to go back toNairobi,  but a lot to look forwardto because it was my birthday and my one year anniversary with my kids. I willnever forget the day that I met them exactly one year ago on my 20thbirthday. I stood up at the service and thanked the kids and Mama for making mea part of their family and making my dreams come true. I told them they are oneof the most special things in my world and they have changed the person I amand my life forever. After church was over, we began setting up for my party. Wetied balloons up all over the room, set up the music and speakers, and broughtall the games out for everyone to play. The kids played with my makeshiftbowling set for a while and then, when I brought out 8 beach balls for them tothrow around, their attention definitely shifted. I had a corner of the roomblocked off for coloring and we had TONS of markers, crayons and paper. Afterthe kids played for an hour or two, Mama and the rest of the family came tojoin us. Everyone was wearing happy birthday hats and little Hawaiian leiswhich I brought with me from party city. Once everyone was there, we sang somesongs, danced around, and drank raspberry lemonade that I made. I brought thisblow up limbo stick with me from America also and we played limbo. They hadnever played it before and they had a BLAST. It was so much fun seeing themlaugh and smile. Tumaini won… granted, he is like 4 feed and abnormallyflexible… but still, he was very happy. Then we brought out the cake, figuredout how to light the sparkler candle things, and they sang. My heart melted andI had the biggest smile on my face. After I made my wishes and blew out mycandles, we cut the cake for everyone. Duy went to feed me the first piece andinstead of putting it in my mouth, he rubbed it ALLLLL over my face.. the cakewas in the shape of Tanzania and was blue yellow black and green which are thecolors of the flag… I had green icing all over me. The kids here have neverheard of someone stuffing cake in someone else’s face because here, they neverwaste food. But they thought it was soooo funny. I looked like a cross betweenAlfaba from Wicked and the Hulk. Duy and I got in a mini little cake fightlater 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 littlewater 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 ticklewar, and did some of their acrobatics. Lucky kept jumping on my back, holdingonto my hair like it was a steering wheel and screaming boda boda which is likethe little motorcycle bikes here… too funny. Once it started getting darkoutside, we began making dinner. We had rice, chapatti, and pineapple. Dinnerwas delicious and I was starving. After dinner, I went over to Mama’s house andwe watched the fox news video which she hadn’t seen. She was SOOO amazed withit all. We reminisced over my birthday last year and she told me how happy sheis that I came into their lives. After we looked at pictures and videos forabout an hour, Hellen, Jonas, and Lucky came back to my room with me. We hadblown up the giant beach ball which was like a globe and looked at where I liveand the way that I travel to get here when I come. They asked me if I crossedthe International Date Line when I fly here. I was shocked they knew what thateven was! I told them about how when I went and volunteered in Fiji, we passedthe Line and that on my flight home, I went to bed on a Thursday evening andwoke up in America on a Thursday morning. They thought it was so cool. We alsotalked about Ecuador and the equator. I showed them pictures of me straddlingthe equator with my family and they were amazed.  After a while of talking, they all kissed me goodnight and Icrawled into my mosquito net with pendo and read the 22 hand made cards thekids made me. Then I looked at all the pictures from the day on my camera andwent to sleep. The day was truly incredible and I couldn’t have been anyhappier. Most people’s 21st birthdays are such a big deal becausethey 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 mypurpose and what I would do with my life. I met my future family and mychildren and came into a world that was just mine and theirs.. and when we weretogether, nothing else mattered. Last summer, when I met the Tuleeni orphans, Ireached a level of happiness and satisfaction within myself and my life that Ididn’t know existed. The two most important days in a person’s life are the daythat they are born and the day they realized why. I knew what I was born to doa long time ago, help people… but it wasn’t until last year that I knew exactlywhat my purpose was…and it was awesome to be able to mark both these “importantdays” here in Tanzania where I belong. The only thing that would have made thisbirthday even better is if my family and friends from America were here with meand my kids. Which hopefully, next summer, for my 22nd birthday,they will be.  On a different note,when I woke up this morning, I went to go put the pictures from yesterday on mycomputer…Pictures from a few days ago uploaded but the pictures from mybirthday didn’t upload. I went back to look at my camera and there were nopictures from my birthday on my camera. I had literally looked at them rightbefore bed and no one touched my camera between last night and this morning andthe pictures are NO WHERE TO BE FOUND. I have NOO idea what happened and wherethey 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 morningbecause I sunk into a pool of depression because all my photos and videoscapturing memories of yesterday were gone. I have cried all morning and wish sobadly that they will some how reappear… we have some pictures and videos onother people’s cameras but nothing like the ones on my camera.. pray that Ifind them because I am so heartbroken over it and I don’t know how picturescould just disappear into thin air. Anyways, I'm tired of crying right now andso I am just hoping they show up but it really isn’t looking good. :(