Mia's birthday

Saturday was Mia's 10th birthday.

Just another crazy thing to make me have to give my head a shake....

"Could she really be 10 already?"

But yes, my cute little curly-haired girl is in fact

TEN.

The only real festivities involved going out for dinner.

(birthday party to come....)

Naturally the selection was the token "American" restaurant - TGIFridays.

No one was complaining about the choice!

Now, I like to take pictures.

But I especially like to take pictures of the kids on their actual birthday.

So I brought our little snap-n-shoot along, hoping to get a nice snapshot of Mia.

Mia does not like having her picture taken - especially by me.

So, I got this...

And this... trying to hide under the table.

And this.

And "MOM, stop!"

(that one is the most flattering!)

and this

and... oh! Almost got one...

Even Cade tried to help get her to smile.

And finally - a smile.

Little bit cheesy, but I'll take what I can get!

Then she got the serenade from the lovely singing waitresses.

She wasn't thrilled about that either.

But she did get a delicious piece of chocolate cake.

At least I heard over and over and over and over and over about how delicious it was.

(40 days is a long time, especially when there are a lot of birthdays and everyone has chocolate cake..... Sigh.)

While we were having dinner, a girl, probably close to the same age as Mia, came into the restaurant begging. She was overweight, dirty and quite pushy, but obviously in need.

Now, I don't know if she really needed money or not, but she definitely needed love, attention and help.

And Christ.

But don't we all.

The waitresses were trying to get her to leave the restaurant but were having a very hard time of it. The girl was not cooperative at all.

She came up to our table and held out her hand.

We felt quite unsure of what to do.

On the one hand, we definitely wanted to help her.

On the other, we wanted to respect the wishes of the restaurant and not encourage her to stay where she shouldn't be.

Eric told her to wait outside and when we were finished, we would help her.

They finally got her out of the restaurant, but as we were sitting right next to the window, she simply parked herself right there and stared at us eating.

Again Eric gestured to her to wait but the restaurant staff saw what she was doing and removed her further.

When we were finished our meal, she was no where in sight.

It was quite a dilemma.

Did we do the right thing?

Was it best to make her wait?

It was most certainly an awkward situation - the kids were notably uncomfortable and I certainly couldn't blame them.

Even now, a few days later, I don't know what the best thing to do would be.

And I'm sure everyone has their own ideas.

But as of right now, the best thing to do is pray for her.

To some, prayer may seem like a cop-out. But the reality is, short of God calling you directly to do something, prayer is the furthest thing from a cop-out.

Prayer is powerful.

Not because prayer itself is powerful but because of the Person to whom you are praying.

At times we can do something directly for a person.

Other times we cannot.

But God can do anything and at any time.

Sunday we also celebrated Mia's birthday, along with two others, at Casa G.

It was Mia

along with Shawn, whose family hangs out on Sundays, and Juan Miguel, whose face should be somewhat familiar by now.

I've probably been through this before, but typically birthdays at Casa G. consist of the birthday person(s) sitting in the middle of everyone, while others share what they appreciate about them.

Aside from the great things said, it thrilled my and Eric's heart to see how Mia understood everything that was said to her in Spanish. That was pretty cool.

Then everyone gathers around the birthday peoples and we pray for them.

And of course, there has to be cake time.

Mia was a little apprehensive about the lighting of the candles....

this had to be done in several stages using several methods.

(Notice there is a chocolate cake AND a lemon pound cake.... those are two of Mia's favorites, but I kind of made the second one with somewhat selfish motives.)

And we sing Cumpleaños Feliz (Happy Birthday) to the birthday peoples.

Most of the boys said that they were thankful for having a wonderful little sister like Mia.

She is pretty wonderful.

But I do have one issue with this whole birthday thing.

After cake was present time.

And you know what Mia got?

Um, isn't that supposed to be for me?

Sure, it isn't diet, but its pretty close!

It's a rare thing that I get jealous of my children's birthday gifts, but this time, I most certainly did.

And she is gloating.

Just like a ten-year-old....