Culture Surprise

     Even after 12 years overseas, some things are still different for us.  Culture is defined as the customs of a particular nation or people.  So even though we have been here for a bit now, things are still different than what we would assume or even do ourselves.

    Just yesterday one of our off campus students surprised us.  She sent her 2 children over with a note saying it was one of their birthdays and her child wanted to have her birthday with us.  Cake, juice, napkins, even a candle were sent over with the kids.  (If you know me, I may have panicked the first minute thinking - what?  Birthdays take planning, time, getting a gift for the birthday girl).

   So we went with the impromptu party :). We sang, we ate, and then we asked the birthday child to tell us 9 things she loved for her 9th year...

    She listed them in this order
 - Hanging with our kids
- Getting this special cake
- Having this special birthday together
- Her mom
- Her dad
- Her brother
- Her dogs
- Her friends
- And again this party :)

Again humbled just to be in the moment and enjoy them.  Not to stress over endless details.

P.S. I didn't even take one picture of the party since we were enjoying it, so this is a just a random picture of the new dogs on campus.