My Birthday!

Well, I was more than blessed yesterday on my birthday. Seriously, I felt the love. I woke up in the morning to greetings of happy birthday from everyone in the house. At school, my missionary family, who had a wonderful card and notes, greeted me first.  Kevin is awesome at origami and he created a St. Crane-sis of Assisi. He (St. Cransis) was brown and Kevin drew a habit on him. It was fantastic. My teacher also brought me a gift! She gave me a beautiful rosary since we talk about God so much in class. Seriously, Ana Rosa is wonderful. I have really loved getting to know her.

Home for lunch, some reading, and laundry (hand washed and dried out on a line!). I went back to the school to meet up with some of my friends and they took me out for ice cream! Saritas is a franchise here and I had this awesome mango and cream cone.  I think that fruit ice creams here in Central America are much better than the States!  We walked around for a bit and eventually split up to go home for a Skype date I made with the lovely Tracy Schell.

I was very fortunate to have been able to Skype with a lot of people this week- email me if you want to set up a time!!  Seeing so many wonderful people that I love on and around my birthday was so great. 

Anyway, when I got home, there were even more surprises waiting for me.  I seriously think that I have the best parents in the world.  First off, they have let their daughter move very far away to a remote part of Central America for 2 ½ years.  Not only did they let me go but did so with so much support and love.   The first time I talked to them about wanting to be a missionary, one of the very first things my parents did was pray over me saying that while it would be very hard and that they would miss me a lot, they knew I belonged more to the Lord than to them and that they had complete trust in His will for my life.  Wow, it brings tears to my eyes to write it down- not to mention the wreck I was almost a year and a half ago.   

The second reason why I think they are so amazing is that they found a florist here in Guatemala and surprised me with roses, chocolate and wine. Seriously?!  It was amazing! Even though I have not physically been with them for the last 5 of my birthdays (because of college and now this one), they have always made me feel so special and continue to surprise me.  Anyone who reads this and then is able to see them, please give them a huge hug from me. I am expecting them to get bombarded, so please don’t forget!!

My host parents also had a surprise for me. They bought a wonderful cake for our entire house to share after dinner. It was so sweet and their hugs and love were priceless.  There are now 12ish people living in our house, plus visitors all the time.  A very large group came to sang Happy Birthday (in two languages!) and have cake.

After dinner, I was able to spend some time in the Perpetual Adoration Chapel that is 2 minutes from my house.  It is such a blessing to have that so close and accessable!  Afterwards, I met up with Sara, Kevin and David (the other missionaries were not feeling well and two of them are still sick- please pray for them!!!).  We went to this fun bar, had a beer and enjoyed an acoustic guitarist.  Sara and Kevin are both from Tennessee and literally couldn’t get enough.  It was such a great way to end a fantastic day!

Again, thank you so much to everyone who sent emails, posted on FB, or sent me anything.  Grandy and Bibber, I loved my card!!   You all have been such instruments for the Lord to show His love for me.

Until another post, Erin Lucia

P.S. My four new “host brothers” moved in and all 5 of us are now sharing the bathroom. My dad commented that my posts have been soo positive and that I should share something that is a little difficult too. Well, this is one but it is preparing me for life at the Farm where all of the girls will share.