a day in my life...

i'm sure lots have wondered what it is that i actually do at the hope centre. well, today you get to see a small snippet of what i do! i had my lovely friend jay swanson, who followed me around the hope centre for a day with his iPhone & here it is.....

quarter of a century.

this past friday i turned 25 years old! what a day it was. full of love from the beginning to the very end. woke up to find so many cards and happy birthday signs on my cabin door.

 i felt so special and so very loved.

i ventured into the dining room to grab a quick bite to eat before heading out to work at the hope centre. low and behold, my roomie had the whole dining room serenading me & singing
"happy birthday" at 7:30 in the morning!

shortly after that, my teammate christoph & I arrived at the hope centre to start our day of work. Only to find that some of my lovely day-workers had decorated the hope centre in honor of my birthday!

some of my wonderful day-workers, myself, & a few patients. did i mention that they sang happy birthday to me 3 times! all in french, english, & then a local language susu.

came back from a wondrous day at work ( have i mentioned that I love my job?!) to find that some of my amazing friends decorated my cabin with polka dotted balloons & pictures of george clooney with fun captions. if you know me well, it's a known fact that I happen to think that george clooney is the dreamiest man alive. So this made my day a trillion and a half times better!

A close-up of one of my favorites.( such a dreamboat, i tell you :] )

feasting on one of my favorite things, funfetti cupcakes!

the evening continued at one of my favorite spots in conakry, jardin de guinee. it's a cute little outdoor restaurant that has live local music on the weekends. my friends were so sneaky & had the band sing happy birthday to me.

you would think that the birthday festivities would stop there. i was already so overwhelmed by all of the love, but no,unbeknownst to me, my friends had something else up their sleeves for saturday.  

 A fabulous bbq beach bash, with carne asada tacos & corn tortillas ( this was such a treat..corn tortillas & carne asada are pretty non-existent in west africa.)

 twenty-five is looking pretty good thus far!this was my favorite birthday i have ever had!  i'm looking forward to seeing what wonderful things & challenges 25 brings my way. 

i couldn't ask for better family & friends & supporters. i feel so incredibly blessed and so undeserving to have all of you wonderful people in my life. thanks for allowing me to be here & continue to serve with mercy ships & experience the best birthday of my life thus far!

thanks to my friend christina fast for the majority of these wonderful photos.

will have a special treat coming for you all soon. stay tuned later this week.