The fun started on the eve of her birthday. Her beloved Oma and Opa were with us for the week and we had a Bible study at our home that night. We had baked a banana cake and shared it with our hungry church members. Since we started the study at the normal time of 9 PM and people lingered on after 11 - it was not long before Asha's hour of turning 9 came about. She insisted on staying up till it was her birthday - and then after a kiss and a prayer went to bed.
The next morning we were all up bright and early to celebrate as a family. One of the banana cakes from the night before was candled and gummy-beared and brought out with flowers and gifts for our princess.
Being one of our (rare) Saturdays off - we had the luxury of being together all morning - though Sheba needed to meet one of our Positive Friends - but after that visit we all trooped over to Pizza Hut (a real treat) for Asha's B-day lunch.
Asha was thrilled when the good folks at the joint play a B-day song on the system and presented her with a trio of balloons.That afternoon we had the privilege of baptising 8 folks from church - and were all treated to a dinner afterward since the 16th of January is also Anil and Sandhya's wedding anniversary - and they graciously fed the church after the baptisms were over. Besides a raucous 'Happy Anniversary to You - Anil and Sandhya' our good folks at church also gave a rousing B-song for Asha too.
The next morning Enoch had some letters for all.
We were off to our house church - where we thanked God for Asha. Before we knew it, we were back for the big event - Asha's B-day party.
A splendid time was had by all.
Asha's friends turned out in force.
She managed to spend time with them all - and not slight anyone. Enoch and the boys disappeared into a back room and played robust Lego games (seemingly more interested in destruction than construction).
The games went superbly.The treasure hunt was memorable.
Asha's Opa shared the good news with all of us - and her Uncle John Gabriel prayed for her.
The cake - appropriately in the shape of a book - as both Asha and Enoch are just mad readers - was lit, sung-over, had-candles-lit-on-and-blown-out, and was rapidly diced and served to the hungry masses.
Part of the fun was Asha 'feeding' all and sundry with her cake. "Don't take a big bite" she told me when it was my turn.
Like we said - Birthdays are big for us Eichers. Our parties for Asha and Enoch echo some of the thrilling parties that we had when we were growing up. What a joy to share our joy again with this gen.
We know that Asha will have many more adventures.
It's great to be 9 years old. And its great to have a daughter who is 9.
You have a truly beautiful daughter, dear friends. She is a gift to us all, coming as she does in such family gift wrap. God bless her richly and make her an increasingly rich blessing to her generation.
ReplyDeleteGeoff