25

Just a quick thank you to each of you who either sent me an e-mail, card, package, or (attempted to) phone on my birthday. Your kindness meant the world to me... I had such fun celebrating "with" you and felt quite loved and cared for. Thanks for making my international birthday a very homey, friend and family filled one too! You all were so creative and intentional, I just want to say THANK YOU!

And for everyone who asked... I celebrated my birthday laying on a sandy white, palm tree filled beach and swimming in a clear turquoise ocean cove on the island of Ko Samet in Thailand... sipping coconut milk and eating fresh pinapple.

It was a perfect day in paradise.

That is, for the 4 hours we were on that sweet beach.

The rest of the hours of my birthday were spent in buses, tuk-tuks, trains, and a taxi; they were spent getting lost, missing "the last bus home", and realizing that driving can get crazier than India; they were also spent realizing coconut juice is sort of gross, I sunburn in about 10 minutes flat in the Thailand sun, and that you need more than one bottle of water to conteract the dehydration that comes from the 95+ and humid Thailand weather.

In otherwords, it was a very adventure filled day! At one point (while riding on a ferry), I realized Amanda and I hadn't spoken a word to eachother for half an hour and so I asked her what she was thinking... and discovered we had been doing the same thing: at any given point we were determining which way we would swim when the boat sank. The Lord cared for us and it didn't sink, but we had a game plan if it did!

I had a great birthday... a little bit of paradise... a lot of adventure... and I shared it all with a wonderful, amazing friend who was able to laugh at it with me. It's great to be 25! Since I survived day one, I think the rest of this year will be a piece of cake!