Well, it came and went, in one short day. But is it possible to feel changed? I don’t feel older per say -thank goodness you don’t just automatically get another wrinkle, back ache, or new problem with each birthday-but I do feel different. I have to admit, the day didn’t start off good. Despite the cute surroundings- mom and dad brought balloons and streamers-and they, including Brandon,decorated. But, I was still feeling moody about turning thirty. On the one hand, it sounds old, and I am not ready to see myself as that age. But I wonder, do you ever see yourself as the age you are? You hear older people saying how they look in the mirror only to be surprised at the person staring back at them. I would image that to be very true. And thirty,to me, always seemed like this far way age that I would reach- eventually. Hmm. But eventually is here. And about halfway through the morning I decided I have a choice. I can choose: a). to be in denial about turning 30, b). be bummed and pathetic and mourn the loss of my twenties, or c). embraced it. Most things in life we certainly cannot control, but we can control how we react to them. So, I chose to react with excitement. Okay, not completely true.  I’m not quite ready for excitement, just yet. But I am ready to embrace thirty, and that is big step for me.

I would think by age thirty, people might start to take you more seriously. And so, might I be entering into a decade where people don’t just ride me off as a young person who doesn’t know what the heck I am talking about? Is that because by thirty, people have experienced some life? Perhaps it’s this magical place where you have earned some life salt, and maybe even some wisdom, but you are not bogged down or cumbered with an aging body. Sounds like a pretty good combination to me.  I guess we’ll see…

And so, to carry on traditions-of which I am a huge fan-I was hoping to go all out for my birthday. The day was delightful, and so fun to celebrate with family, even though we are so far away from all that is familiar! The day started with Brandon making my favorite-french toast-for breakfast.  Mom and dad helped make my second favorite thing for lunch-pizza. We had that along with a present opening extravaganza! It was so so so fun.  That was followed by tasty enchiladas made by mom and dad, and they even brought in brownie mixed and they all sang happy birthday! What a fun day! And a special and unique celebration of 30. If you would ask me where I thought I would be celebrating my 30th birthday-never in a million years would I have said Haiti. Crazy! Certainly one I’ll never forget!

To keep the birthday celebrations going, we went out with some friends the next night too! We had a great time hanging out, and we even had ice cream-yum!

 

Brandon has a line he says pretty often, “We make plans here in Haiti, so we have something to change.” It’s true. Plan A is really just to get something on the books, have an outline or idea of what we want to try and do or accomplish. We usually settle in somewhere around Plan D.

So I guess, when we had to go to plan B with mom and dad here, that wasn’t that bad. But it still was a bummer. We had hoped to start drilling a well for an organization called Kids Alive. (You can find their link to your right if you would like more information about what they do). They are hoping to move onto some new property, as they are just finishing up the housing for their kids. But you  can’t really move into a new place without water, and that is what we are hoping to provide. But, as goes life here, we hit a bump in the road when a small piece broke on the drill rig. Turns out this small piece was pretty important -sorry, I still am not sure what it did!- and so we called the people who made the rig we have and got that special little piece overnighted! woohoo! It still took a few days, but we got in on Thursday, the last day that Brandon’s parents were here. So, the good news? We got the part and rig is ready to go now. The bad news? Brandon’s dad didn’t get to drill with him, which he was really looking forward to.

So, plan B. Instead, he helped Brandon with the many tasks, both large and small, all around the house. Keeping up a large group home, complete with running water, power, and all the amenities sure is a lot of work. So dad helped Brandon with some of those odd jobs, and he also helped do some projects for me that Brandon just hasn’t had the time to do yet.

The fun part was while the boys went around fixing things, mom and I hung out. She got to see how my days are measured by the three meals I make for us. Cooking isn’t easy here, nor is it quick, and it was so nice to have another set of hands helping me out! She got a kick out of hanging clothes out on the line, on the roof, saying how she thought that was the first time she had done that in her whole life! Well, I guess that was me too before I moved here, now it just feels normal! We went grocery shopping, and we visited other friends who live close by to see what they are doing here too. It was so nice to sit and chat together, and we soaked up every minute of it.

 

 

The weekend.

It was so nice to have a weekend to enjoy some special off time with mom and dad!  So we took them to some of our favorite hang out places. One is a beautiful beach about 45 minutes away, on a crazy mountain dirt road. They loved it. We sat by the beach, ordered tasty food, and enjoyed a restful day off. We also went to eat at one of the three restaurants we have in town. This one is actually a hotel and restaurant, and the food is really quite tasty. They branched out and tried the goat, a typical Haitian meal, and really enjoyed it!