Birthdays are always a fun time at Granny’s House. Each child receives a birthday present and a personalized cake, and they get so excited about their gifts, that most of the time, they don’t even make it home before tearing apart the gift bag to see what they got!
Last week, as I was looking through our enrollment forms, I noticed that three of children from Africa (a set of 11 year old twin boys and a beautiful five year old girl) had a birthday coming up! I found them right away and said “Hey guys! What do you want for your birthday this year?” They all looked at me like I was crazy (which by the way is a look I commonly get from many of our kids!!).
“What do you mean?” asked one of the boys
“Your birthday! It’s tomorrow isn’t it?” I said
“I don’t know...” he replied.
“You don’t know?!” I thought
What! Most of our kids remind me months in advance that their birthdays are approaching! Not only that, they come with a list of “ideas” for their present!
It turns out, the kids didn’t know when their birthday was, because they had never celebrated it! In Africa (from what I’ve been told) many of their birthdays are not recorded, and few are celebrated.
Immediately Pam and I decided we needed to make it a big celebration. We bought a huge birthday cake, got the kids party hats, and celebrated their first birthday in America (complete with the “Happy Birthday song” which sounded more like a bunch of kids screaming at the top of their lungs than the actual song!)
The kids had a great time, and what a blessing it was to celebrate their first birthday party with them! Can’t wait till the next one!
