My Birthday!!!

Well, I am now posting for the third time in the last hour. I just posted the blog about "The Queen of the Nile" and I also typed this whole thing up once and somehow when I hit the back key as I was previewing the post ended up erasing the entire entry, which was really long and well thought out. I will try to redo it, but I am now really tired and really frustrated. Anyway, this is pretty much how it went...

My birthday is now officially over in Spain, however I was thinking of flying back to the states so that I could extend it another 6 hours and have a 30 hour birthday but decided against it becuase, I am not a huge fan of jet lag. I had quite a full day anyway. It began with sleeping in until 10 am. Then my roommates, Kelly and Victoria, and I went out to breakfast. We really wanted to go to Patatin, which is a really good breakfast place just a couple of blocks from our flat but suprisingly it was closed today. We really wanted breakfast so we decided to walk just a bit farther to try to find a place that serves eggs for breakfast. It is actually somewhat of a rarity as we ended up walking about 15 minutes to Plaza de Espana when Kelly and Victoria remembered that VIPS serves English/American breakfast (we had already passed 2 or 3 of these restaurants by this point). Let me just say though that it was well worth the walk. I had pancakes (that rival IHOP), eggs, fries, cafe con leche, and fresh squeezed orange juice. It was so good and it cost less than 5 euros. Yeah!

After the spectacular start to my day, I decided I needed to spend some birthday money at my favorite store, that's right, H & M. Rach, I wish you could have gone with me. I found a few things and then came home in time to get ready for Kelly and I to head out to St. Louis University, where Oasis Madrid holds it's services. We got there at 3:30 to set up for tonight's service, which was awesome by the way. Way to go Troy! Right now we are in a series on Body Parts and how we can offer different body parts to God. Tonight was the left brain and he talked about wisdom, knowledge, obedience, etc. It was really good. You should check out his website as he has some of the previous topics posted there. Anyway, after the service I was surprised with cake from my team. It was really good and fun to share with everyone in the church. When the cake was gone and our room where we meet was cleaned up a group of us went to Casa Mingo to party more.

It was a great time at Casa Mingo with good new friends and good food, except for the cheese that smelled and tasted like B. O. I have definately felt loved today with numerous email cards from people, calls, and gifts from friends. Although last year's birthday was a bit warmer in West Palm Beach, Florida with Kristi, Becky, and Hannah, this was still a good birthday. (By the way, Happy Anniversary Kristi and Mick!) I was a bit worried about being in a new place with new friends of only a month and a half on my birthday, but once again my worries were wasted. God really knows what he is doing. I know that this is where I am supposed to be right now and I felt so loved by my new family here and I feel at home.

I have so appreciated hearing from a lot of you today and over the last month and a half. It has made this transition much easier and I have felt connected to you all even though we are half a world apart. I can feel His loving arms wrapped around me through your encouragement and love. Now let's see what God has in store for my 26th year. It should be an adventure!

By the way, the pictures at the top are from the party tonight at Casa Mingo.