This year as I celebrate 6 years in Slovakia, I also celebrated my 30th Birthday.  I don’t generally like to make much of my Birthday, but I guess it is significant when you enter a new decade.  I have such a great family here!  I love them very much and they care for me well.  This year for my birthday I received a message that said, on your birthday we will leave from church and be gone until 8:30pm, please bring hiking shoes and a swim suit.  What an invitation to my surprise birthday party.  We went from church on a hike to a thermal hot spring out in the middle of nowhere, really in the middle of nowhere. 

I can tell that they really know me, I love hiking and I love adventure and trying new things.  The thermal hot spring was a place no one had been to before.  We were all going in blind.  It was quite the experience! Outside it was 26 degrees in the pond it was around 100 degrees 🙂  It was really quite the experience and quite cold getting out and drying off.

We returned to the Rumbold’s house and had tacos and cake.  They made me a picture book of my years in Slovakia, each person wrote a personal note, even the 7 year old.  I had to hold back tears.  I really felt honored by my friends and family here.  One of the main things I really loved about this time was not actually connected with it being my birthday, but was connected with the community I have here.   I really felt like during the time we were experiencing a little glimpse of heaven.  Oh the joy of a Christ focused community full of laughter, real life growth, challenges, many ages, and people you know would give their life for you and you would do the same.  I am so thankful for this!