I had a birthday this week. Until I was 22 years old I didn't care much for birthdays. 22 was a great one which made my expectations way too high from that point on. I was in Honduras and thought nobody knew or would remember which was no big deal. That day my boss told me I wouldn't be able to go to the orphanages where I spent a lot of time volunteering. She said I had some other task I had to do for work. Boo.
Finally around 5:00 I did a little sneaking and went to the orphanage anyway. I was my birthday, right? I walked in and heard some music playing which was different because they had no radio. I turned the corner into the community room and there were all the kids with a huge sign they made for me that said "Feliz Cumpleanos Rebecca!"
They were thrilled to have a borrowed radio we danced to for a good 2 hours before we busted the pinata to pieces. I was so full of bliss that day. I remember sweating outside with the kids, twirling them around, hearing their screams of excitement as candy fell to the grass. I came home thinking I could never top that. Although there have been many attempts, I have to admit that was my favorite.
Many HALO supported kids have no records when they come to us. Most of them have no idea when their birthday is. It used to be one of the conversation starters for me - How old are you? When is your birthday? Now I just leave that one alone. One time I asked one of our kids, Denis (bottom right) how old he was. He said he was 11. He had been living as an 11 year old for a long time. When we got his records we realized - Denis was 9 years old. When we told him about his new age, he laughed. He didn't know his birthday. He was actually excited... he was a bit small for his age before :)
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