About Me

My life is not my own, for I belong to Christ.

It is because of God's grace and for His glory that I "live and move and have my being."

I am currently back in Indiana, studying English Education at Purdue University, far from the home I've come to know and love in Victoria, Australia

My family means the world to me.

Living in America and loving in Australia, I am blessed indeed. Complete Profile

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Friday, March 14, 2008

"I got a baby for my birthday."

My little sister Tamara was born on my 3rd birthday. When people asked me what kind of presents I got, I truthfully answered, "I got a baby for my birthday."

"Aww, cute! A baby doll?"

"No, a real baby!"

From then on, my life was to be filled with shared birthdays. I had no idea what was going on for the first couple years, so life went on happy and innocent as ever. When I got to be about 8, though, I wasn't so sure anymore about this whole your-birthday-is-my-birthday thing. By the time I was 11, I was plain sick of it. Where's the fun in having to take turns opening presents on your birthday? And what was up with the trend of matching presents? What were we, twins or something?

Mom let us pick out our own birthday cakes, but that didn't seem to make up for it. On my 13th birthday, I officially did not invite Tamara to my birthday party, which took place in our basement. That didn't go over so well. I started to get over my selfishness a bit by my golden (14th) birthday. All I cared about was the fact that we both got sweet stereos AND I could finally go to youth group! Some friends threw me a surprise 15th birthday party, to which Tamara was not invited. But it wasn't my fault that time!

I had my 16th birthday here in Australia. The expectation was that I'd have a nice big, fussed over party like Allen and Zachary had gotten before me. Of course, everyone who was invited knew it was Tamara's birthday as well, so we got an equal amount of presents and almost equal amount of recognition during the party proceedings.

Last year, my 17th and Tamara's 14th, we both got a better birthday present than we could have asked for: a visit from our older brothers from the States. We had a family day at the beach and Ralph over for dinner and cake. Later on, we happily shared a celebration with some of our best friends--our siblings and the Glovers and Blakstons.

And here we are today, 18 and 15. Everyone thinks Tamara must be a uni student while they mistake me for a 9th-grader. I just keep telling Tamara I'll get her back one of these days. When I'm 40, I'll still look 30, but when she's 40, she'll look 50! So there.

Sitting here today, I think I've finally grown up enough to appreciate being able to share my birthday with one of my best friends.


p.s. I PASSED MY DRIVERS TEST!!!!! It only took me 6 hours (ask me sometime and I will tell you the story of how the Lord got me through it! I am so thankful to Him and to everyone who prayed for me! I took my first drive on my "P"-plates to Frankston with Maria to get some birthday ice cream. And we're both still alive (along with the car)! Woo hoo. :D

Labels: birthdays, Tamara

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