Birthday Celebrating

I Shared HERE that I don't love my birthday, but that being said it ended up being a really great day.   

My friend Katherine put together a sweet birthday dinner for me at Carmines. As I looked around the room at my sweet friends who sat around the table with me and thought about the many more people in my life who were not there I couldn't help but be thankful.  We can all look at our life and be discontent in so many areas, but the one area I know God has richly blessed me in is friendships.  I could never have guessed when I got off the plan 6.5 years ago in NYC that I would have developed the friendships that I have today.  And even with so many of my friends having moved away the Lord continues to provide community for me through friends near and far.  

On top of a really fun birthday dinner some of my friends made a book for me of notes and pictures from each person.  I love sentimental gifts like this, so this book will always be a treasure to me! If that wasn't enough they also collected money for me to use on my bucket list (more on that in another post) 

Really thankful for these friends and the many ways they have blessed my life!  

Back Row - Jean Marie, Kate, Erin, me, Vicky, LeighAnn, Lindsay Ann
Front Row - Kate, Karen, Daniela, Min, and Katherine

As I blew out the candles on the titanic (yes Carmines does desserts right) I wished for the same thing I wish for every year and had a short moment of asking the Lord to really bless me this year.  This year will be a big year for me as I am about to embark on some big life changes, but I pray that as I look back on this year and this picture I will see the Lord's faithfulness and provision in my life. Each year I hope for so much and although my years may have looked different than what I would have wished, I know The Lord is using each of my years on earth to make me more like Him. And as I so often claimed this year of my life "No good thing does he withhold from Him whose walk his blameless"  The Lord is giving me his best for me each day and is shaping the paths of my years to be exactly what He ordained.
I pray that I would learn to trust Him even more this year and really rest in what he has for each year of my life. 

Here's to another year....