Today I celebrated my 58th Birthday in Budva, Montenegro while attending the Albanian Mission's conference. The conference was an amazing blessing...!
I received the following video from my daughter Elissa and Sam, and my granddaughter Hannah, and grandson Ezekiel:
Then later in the day I received an e-card from my dear friends, Lirak and Suela Gjoshi in Prishtina, Kosova. The front of the card said, "it is not proper to ask a woman her age.", then when you open the card it says, "so how much do you weigh?" This so made me laugh, and I shared with my friends here at the conference...
Then...at dinner, I checked into the front table entering the cafeteria. Just as I was sitting down with my food, a waiter brought me some red flowers and a candle for the table wishing me a Happy Birthday. (I think he spoke Montenegrin or Croatian?) As I finished my meal, the waiter brought me a birthday cake, a knife and plates. So I cut pieces and shared with my friends, it was about 8 inches square. It was very cold, I thought it might be an ice cream cake. There were very thin layers of cake, with a tart strawberry filling and whipped cream in between, topped with more real whipped cream and walnuts...and delicate chocolate hearts on each corner. Sorry, no photo was taken...it was wonderful and not at all like the regular cakes/pastries in this part of the world.
The staff at the hotel looked at my passport when I checked in...this is a treat the hotel does for their guests, no one at the conference told the hotel it was my birthday.
As I passed out cake to my friends, they sang Happy Birthday to me...in English of course, in Albanian, and in Spanish.
I will always miss "the chocolate cake" with my daughters in the US...but what a precious treat this was for me today.
God's surprises...make me smile...!
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