Oh wait! A birthday!

We had spent just a night or two in the trailer when it dawned on me that I had forgotten my son's upcoming birthday. We don't do a big party each year for each child, but special days are important to me. We were still reeling from all the changes and upheavals, but it seemed imperative that we celebrate his birthday this year as an opportunity to communicate to the kids that enjoyment and happiness had not been completely wrenched from us. There was a huge portion of life at that moment that felt completely out of our control, but this - this we could do.

We invited his friends from church to meet us at a picnic area at the lake to fish, keeping it low key and local since we would be meeting between our morning and evening services at our local congregation. We asked everyone to bring a side dish to share, and we grilled hot dogs. I grabbed a couple boxes of gluten-free funfetti cake mix, and got my first taste of what cooking in my teeny tiny RV oven was going to be like. The bottoms of the cupcakes burned, of course. (RV tip: I've learned now that you need to keep a metal pan in the bottom of the oven over the gas element to help disperse the heat more evenly.) We slathered on some frosting and that was that. I was beginning to recognize that choosing joy in this experience was going to depend on my willingness to let go of what we usually did or had. I usually make a homemade birthday cake, but that was entirely outside of what I could muster for this birthday. Cake mix to the rescue.

And you know what? It was an incredibly special day. God used this birthday celebration as a reminder that we had so much to celebrate in our life, even as things felt like they were crumbling around us. We were together, we were on a path to better health, and while our home life was suddenly vastly different, we were still surrounded by amazing friends and family willing to walk through this life together with us.