Burmese Birthday

Corey returned today from his trip to San Francisco. Good news: the meetings went great! And Renato is interested! Bad news: Corey still doesn't have a check in his hand or money in the bank. So we still are unsure of how we will survive. So... we'll do the only thing we can: keep praying and hope it works out. I was fasting and praying all day yesterday and went to the temple by myself for "date night" AND went again this morning... really trying to wrestle some blessings out of heaven. Last nights session as awesome and the best I've had for a while as for me being alert and listening for guidance. This morning's session was like most mornings... I was struggling to stay awake. We're always struggling with something ;) This life is all about wrestling and growing. I've been reading a good book "Worth The Wrestle" by Sheri Dew, good stuff. Anyway, today, to distract ourselves from our trials and worries, we went and did some "service" and went to a birthday party for our Burmese friends. They live out by the airport, so even though Corey landed at 11, he stayed at worked on his laptop for 2+ hours and then we picked him up with time to spare before the birthday party. We were not sure what to expect...

We kinda assumed it wouldn't start on time (from our year of experience with Latinos) but let it be know that atleast in this area, Burmese are not like Latinos. We didn't want to get there before it started since we're such a big group, so we killed time driving on Redwood Road in search of a gas station. While we were there, 10 min before it started, Ler called to see where we were. He said they were all waiting for us. Ok! I guess we'll go. And it was already a full house ...er... apartment.

Balloons on the wall, which Daniel liked. ...and proceeded to grab and pull off...

Before Daniel there were balloons on either side of this birthday banner. Sorry Lerdoh.

We did not know what was going on. It appeared their whole church branch came out. It also appeared that we were the only ones who had brought children... We all sat on the floor, except for the branch presidency who was seated on the couch, presiding I guess? It was like a mini sacrament meeting. Speaker after speaker, talk and talk all in a foreign tongue. I believe the expression on my face was much like that of the other american lady here (minute :24) ... you know, that look where you're trying to have a pleasant expression and show you're interested, while at the same time you know your eyes are glossing over cause you're out of your comfort zone. Yeah, that was me during the speeches.

So after enduring a mini hour long meeting in the Kareni language, it was over and we feasted - Not as awkward when people are eating. Food does bring us all together, huh. They brought out big dishes of interesting looking food to the center of the floor!

Here's Lily's narration of a few minutes of the socializing.

The kids liked all of the food. But they didn't try the spicy stuff, thankfully they were warned. I however tried it unawares and woo, I do not do spicy well.

About burned my tongue off. They gave us some to take home. We're going to share it with the older kids. (it was just Abi and younger that came, rest of the kids were doing homework)

They had soda. Let it be know I do not buy soda (and rarely will I buy juice) because I have children...

...and I know it will be spilled by them and will make the floor all sticky. And that is exactly what happened in our friend's apartment. ...several times. Doh! I hate soda/sprite/juice, ugh, just say no! I apologized and again vowed to never buy that stuff. It was fun and the party was still going when we excused ourselves. Time to get back home. Daniel fell asleep on the drive. Cute little face.