Mothers Day, another year older and the gift of compassion...

Hope you all had a lovely Mothers Day last Sunday. Mine was great! It started with my frist gift which I call 'death by cuddles'! All three kids were in bed with me, jumping and cuddling every which way - was soooo nice... was also a little painful too though, and I think my bruises had bruises at one stage! I got lovely and spoilt with breakfast and coffee in bed, brought in on the gift Jai made me at Boys Brigade - a breakfast tray! Then Jaidyn was so eager to give me his other gift from the Mothers Day stall at school - some lollies in a glass-painted jar, and then a special wall hanging made by Eli at childcare. I thought Lani's gift was in very good taste - a voucher for a spa pedicure and manicure!! How thoughtful of her - just what a busy mumma needs. Now I just have to grow my fingernails back!
The service at church was especially lovely. The ladies group made bookmarks with quotes or verses on them for each of the mums, and a lovely bright gerbera to go with them. A wonderful message on mothers, and some special prayer for mums and those who struggle on mothers day too, a few of which are somewonderful friends I thought about throughout the day.
We then headed to my folks place for a BBQ lunch. Yum! We gave Mum a big frame with some of the new pics taken by Katie Toland Photography - she absolutely loved it, so can't wait to see it on her wall. Topped the day off with a birthday cake for me :)

Yep, Mothers Day and Birthday all in the one week for me (a few years ago even the same day!) I turned 26 on Wednesday. Had a rather low-key and uneventful day, and even had a bit of a pity party for myself... but then it really got much better. A beautiful gift arrived in the mail from my bestie Lusi - another yummy cupcake cookbook - thanks hun!! And a few cards too. And then my other bestie Sarah came over after school with a pressie and afternoon tea. I don't think many ppl get excited about sewing pins, but I did, lol... plus another voucher for a spa treatment of some kind - spoilt! Greg came home from work with a lovely bunch of flowers for me, and told me what my gift would be. My sister Shanyn then came over for dinner too, and her and Greg made taccitos (tacos but using burrito tortillas). In the end, a nice day, and I did feel spoilt (as a girl should on her b'day) after all. In the next couple of days I also ended up with more cards in the mail and a nice sum of birthday money to spend on something special all for me!

Thursday was 'Compassion Day'. This is the one day a year when Compassion Australia does a sponsorship drive for children in the third world. I have been wanting a sponsor child for at least a year, if not more, and this year, this is what Greg gave me as my birthday gift! It was one of the best gifts ever, and will be one that keeps on sowing into our family year after year, as we see our little friend grow, go through education, and hopefully all the way into his adult life. We chose a little boy named Braian (pr Brian?). He is 7, like Jaidyn, and like Jai also has a mother,father, sister and brother. He was on the 'priority list' and while I thought we might initially like a little girl, this little guy tugged at my heart-strings right from the start. So we have a new family member now, and I can't wait to receive all the info about him and start writing him letters from us! It certainly gives me a great sense of joy to know that instead of spending more money on myself and stuff I really don't need, my birthday gift was really a gift for someone else much more in need. Something truly dear to my heart lately, and something we are most-definitely called to do in the Bible (Matthew 25:31-46).

Well, I was going to write more, but its actually 3.30am and I thought I'd do this while up with Lani for a few hours (*sigh* almost worthy of another whole post that is *sigh*)... so yeah, I better get back to sleep now or I'll totally be a zombie in the morning.