Birthdays

I've celebrated a birthday this week! As I get older it seems that 'the day' rolls around all too soon and I keep watching my age go up and up and up!! I don't mind getting older, quite honestly. Oh, I wish there weren't so many gray hairs or creaks in my joints but on the whole, I like being the age I am. I was touched that my first grade class joined me at the front as everyone sang happy birthday to me. They are such a neat group of students and I felt their love!!

My birthday has always produced a mixed bag of emotions for me. Certainly, as a child I was feted with parties and gifts and all sorts of fun things. And I enjoyed every minute of it. But there was always a bit of melancholy mixed in--'something' was missing. I was often ill on my birthday and as I entered my teens and young adulthood I began to feel a profound sense of loss.

What loss? Well.......it's this. I was adopted as an infant. I was loved, nurtured, appreciated, spoiled, and any other adjective you care to think of that suggests love. My parents, grandparents, and extended family were and are awesome. I never felt unloved or not a part of the family. But there was still something not quite right--a hole in my heart, a missing link. I found that missing link in 1999 when I found my birth family. My birth mom was deceased (since 1988) but I found a large group of siblings and finding them put the final piece of my 'puzzle' together! I found wholeness!!:)

So when my birthday arrives, I am thankful. I'm thankful for the woman who chose to give me life. I'm thankful for the parents that took me home from the hospital and raised me as their own. I'm thankful that God put me in that home to be loved and nurtured. I'm thankful for my family--husband, children, grandchildren. I'm thankful for my brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews. And I'm thankful for the children I'm privileged to teach and the colleagues I work with. God has richly blessed me.