September 24 - 30, 2017
As my 40th birthday approached I made it very clear to my celebration-loving husband that I wanted two things to mark the occasion: a quiet evening with friends, and time with just our family. As usual, he managed to give me exactly what I wanted and completely surprise me in the most perfect way at the same time. On the afternoon before my birthday he told me to dress up and be ready for a dinner date that evening. What he didn't tell me was that our driver for the evening would arrive to pick us up and then make the rounds to pick up some of our dearest, always-ourselves-around-them friends. We rode together through my favorite mountains sipping champagne and listening to tunes from my birth year, my 16th year, and my 21st year (16th year was the best). We had dinner at Grove Park Inn, my favorite fancy place, and then a festive ride home with specialty cocktails (YOFO - You're Only Forty Once) and plenty of laughs. It was such a special night.
The next morning I woke to our birthday banners, presents on the counter, and a chocolate raspberry ganache cake with mascarpone cream frosting. Made by my daughter. I know. My children are delightfully thoughtful gift givers, and they get it honestly from their daddy. It's not every husband who would think to get his wife a deer feeder for her birthday, but mine knew I would love it and he was right. But just in case he was wrong, he threw in a weekend get-away for our family to a lake in Charlotte! We packed our bags and left that very day.
If I had made any predictions (I know better) or resolutions (I've switched to goals) as to how I'd start my 40's, I would have been way off. I'd played around with the thought that my babies weren't babies anymore and had wondered what that might mean for me in this next decade. I had spent the summer in ministry training; training that had challenged me and excited me. I hate to think that it would take such a hard reality, such legitimate suffering for one of my most precious treasures, to center my thoughts again around my work and calling here, and maybe it wouldn't have. Regardless, the feasting was soon to come to a halt and the fasting was to begin. The hikes and fancy dinners and weekend trips would make way for emergency doctor visits and hospital admittances and all-nighters with my baby. In hindsight (and aside from the doctors and hospital part), maybe it was a pretty beautiful way to begin this new decade after all.