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July 19, 2003
July 19, 2004
My Best Birthday Present EVER …
I recently celebrated my 29th birthday, and received the BEST gift ever. Since we’ve been married, Toby and I have had a tradition of celebrating our birthdays (or at least mine) for more than one day. This year was no exception, for sure!
My birthday began with the three of us sleeping in, but waking up in time to take a leisurely walk to my favorite place to eat breakfast, Dizzy’s. It was a BEAUTIFUL day in Brooklyn… the sky was clear and blue, there was NO humidity in the air and everything was blooming. I practically sang as we strolled down the street to the café. Dizzy’s has a great energy and has been drawing neighborhood regulars back year after year. Toby enjoys their breakfast specials, but I’m always a sucker for their pancakes, eggs, hash browns, bacon and juice. It’s not a small meal, and it’s certainly not healthy, but on special occasions like this, I thoroughly enjoy indulging myself. BUT, my yummy breakfast wasn’t my best birthday present ever…
On the way home from Dizzy’s, I dropped Toby and Aidan off at the grocery store and headed to the nail salon down the street from our home. I was about to head inside when my cell phone rang … it was my best friend, Shannon! Yay! I was SO happy to hear her voice. I’ve been missing her a lot lately, and told her so. I told her all about the fabulous people we’ve been spending time with at church and how I wished she could meet them, and how much I thought she would like them. We talked about her coming in the Fall, when she said she would have more vacation time, and all the fun things we would do when she came for a visit. She told me about our friend Rena’s new baby Noah, and that her birthday present would be delivered the next day. Talking to Shan made me miss her even more, but I got off the phone very happy to have had such a nice talk with my best friend. BUT, my happy conversation with Shannie wasn’t my best birthday present ever …
After getting off the phone, I went into the nail salon and spent the next hour being completely and totally pampered. I treated myself to a spa pedicure, which was absolutely heavenly. I thought the foot massage was never going to end! I left the salon relaxed and feeling pretty, with newly manicured toes and fingernails. BUT, my lovely mani/pedi wasn’t my best birthday present ever …
That evening, we dropped Aidan off at Courtney and Jon-Paul’s and went to a Spanish restaurant in Manhattan called Pipa’s. Pipa’s has a very romantic atmosphere, despite dimming the lights so much it’s hard to read the menu. We’d been the previous year for Toby’s birthday when we came to New York to check out his school after finding out he had been accepted. The food is very authentic, and the sangria (Toby’s favorite alcoholic beverage) is excellent. We got a little adventurous and ordered some tapas we had never tried before, which unfortunately backfired a bit, as two of our dishes were overly fishy. Still, most of the food was very tasty and we enjoyed a romantic dinner out together. Afterwards, we decided to walk a bit before hailing a cab, and marveled again at how New York City could possibly be OUR home. We talked about how long we thought we would live there, and that we thought we would probably be there longer than the 3 years it will take Toby to finish his Ph.D. I think, deep down, we know we might be here for a while. BUT, my yummy dinner and evening out with my husband STILL wasn’t my best birthday present ever ...
My best birthday present ever DEFINITELY wasn’t the next day, when Toby began INSISTING that I come with him to somewhere on Long Island to pick up the Children’s Ministry supplies for church. NO WAY was I going on that horrible drive. Uh-Uh. You can go by yourself, mister. He insisted that he needed me to come with him, to which I replied that he could go jump in a lake, ‘cuz there was no way I was going. Finally, he asked me why I didn’t trust him, at which point I got a bit suspicious and begrudgingly agreed to go (all the while threatening that he better have a darn good reason for dragging me out on a Friday afternoon). =) Yeah, that definitely wasn't my best birthday present ever ...
Things got a whole lot better when Toby handed me the directions to where we were going. It didn’t have the name of our destination, but I was pretty sure I recognized the address. My best birthday present ever wasn’t when I started to put things together, and was pretty sure I knew where we were going and what I would find when we got there. I DID cry a little bit though, because if I was guessing right, even if it wasn’t my BEST birthday present ever, this was pretty darn close.
My best birthday present wasn’t even when we got to where I thought we were going ... the AIRPORT, and we pulled up to the Southwest Terminal, and I saw the person I was hoping I would see … my best friend Shannon!!! “I KNEW it was you!”, I choked out as I jumped from our still-moving car. I couldn’t help the tears from flowing again, as I hugged my friend as hard as I could. I definitely apologized to Toby for being such a stinker, although I DID have to sit in traffic. =)
My best birthday present still wasn’t all the awesome stuff Shannon and I did while she was here. It wasn’t when Toby cleaned our apartment while Shannon and I went to “The Chip Shop” for fish’n’chips, because I had totally slacked on my household chores, and our place was completely unpresentable for company. It also wasn’t the next day when we walked through Little Italy, and had lunch at our favorite pizza place, Lombardi’s. We toured Soho and walked through Washington Square and eventually made it over to Times Square, where we bought tickets for that evening’s performance of the Broadway musical, “Rent”.
My best birthday present STILL wasn’t that evening, when we watched American Idol’s FRENCHIE DAVIS belt it out, along with one of the former “Spice Girls”. Frenchie was awesome, and I was hooting and hollering with everyone else in the audience when she sang. Talk about a powerhouse!! It made me wish she hadn’t been eliminated from last year’s competition.
My best birthday present wasn’t even the next day when, after coming to a church meeting with Toby and I and spending some time with our new friends, Shannon mentioned that she thought that God might be placing it on her heart to move to NY, and be part of our church. She’s felt for the past handful of months that God was going to bring about a big change in her life, but until she came to Brooklyn she hadn’t the faintest idea what that might be. We’re not sure what the right decision is at the moment, but we’re all praying about it and waiting to see what God does. Needless to say, the idea of having my best friend with me in Brooklyn is a very exciting prospect. What a blessing that would be!
No, my best birthday present ever wasn’t my yummy birthday breakfast or dinner, or my lovely mani/pedi. It wasn’t strolling down the streets of Manhattan holding hands with my sweet husband, or even the fabulous surprise of Shannon coming for a visit and all the fun things we did while she was here. Certainly each and every one of these were wonderful, fantastic, very special birthday presents, and they all made for a birthday I’ll never, ever forget. I hope it doesn't sound like I've been complaining about all of these wonderful things. It's just that, as fantastic as all of these things were, they still pale in comparison to ...
My very best birthday present EVER is the one that I found out about while we were in Napa with my parents, and is due mid-March, 2005. Yes ladies, I AM PREGNANT!!! I am getting more and more excited every day and simply ecstatic to be beginning this wondrous journey again. I’m already more tired, making more trips to the restroom, and I’m definitely more hungry. Other than that, I’m still feeling great and looking forward to what this pregnancy will hold. I am so incredibly thankful for this baby, and can’t wait to feel those first flutters and kicks. I am hoping that I will feel as well as I did with Aidan, though I don’t expect or assume that will be the case. I also hope that I will love being pregnant this time as much as I did the first time, and look forward to watching my belly grow again. Above all, I am blessed that God has given Toby and I another child to love and raise to know Him. Let this baby’s journey begin!
More to come soon …
Rebekah and Aidan (2/26/02)
LB#2 EDD March 2005
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