Happy 16th Birthday Katrina!

October 18, 2007 my baby turned 16. It is so hard to believe! It was just yesterday that I had a beautiful baby girl in my arms and now I have to look up to see into her beautiful eyes.
I just want to say how God has blessed be by giving me this wonderful young woman as my daughter.

Katrina has always had a heart that embraces any baby within a 100 mile radius.
I remember her crying at the least little thing. Every Disney movie we would make sure there were plenty of tissues around. She cried for hours after seeing a dog sitting on the road. For miles she was upset, until I told her if he was still there when we came back we would stop. So a week later driving back to FL she had her nose pressed against the window looking for that dog sure she would find him. We had a litter of kittens and it was a nightmare. Everything went fine until it was time to find homes for them. We would have to interview prospective owners, where did they live, did they have kids, and did they have other cats, could we visit? Even when we gave them to my Mom Katrina was upset and she lived 5 minutes away!
She always carried around two or three baby dolls. And if there was a real baby she would be right there with it for hours, running to get diapers or bottles, helping to dress it, and it was heaven if she got to hold the baby.
She told me that when she grew up she was going to have ten children, her husband was going to stay home to take care of them and she was going to be a vet and put broken legs back on horses.


She was also very shy and timid. She was literally scared of her shadow, No I mean we saw her shadow in front of her on a walk and she was scared of it.
She is a little different now; she still has a heart of mush. I rarely see her without a baby on her hip and all of the little ones flock to her side. The condition of most dogs over here is very hard for her and I have found her using her own money to feed them. She no longer says she will have ten kids, but I think she will have many more because all the kids on the mountain already look to her for love and care. They may not be her biological children but they are her kids.







She started coming here about five years ago. She loves building houses and working in the community. That is when she first met Bryan. She was baptized at Son Quest when she was 11 years old and has embraced Christ and his will in her life with gusto.
Bryan is her boyfriend. They have been going steady for the last two years. He is exactly one year older than she is. He lives in Mololoa and goes to Church with us as well as volunteers in the kitchen and with the Sunday school class. He is a great boy whom I love and look at as a son.
They spend a lot of time together. He really likes children too so they usually have a couple of kids hanging around.

Katrina’s Spanish is amazing, her accent, the slang, the speed. She is very comfortable with her second language and I even have her translate when I get stuck. She loves to go out and work, keeping her home almost drives us all crazy!

Her birthday this year was very interesting. Her Father has had to return to the states for a while to work on our financial situation and had to miss her birthday. This was very hard for her as she is a Daddy’s girl. But I was very proud of her! She told him it was fine and he needed to do what he needed to do to take care of us and she understood.
So the plan was to go out to the community and see everybody, pick up Bryan, lunch out for us three for “our” birthdays (Bryan’s was the 13th and mine the 20th) and then have a really nice dinner at home with family .
I get all ready to go, Trina wears old clothes knowing that they will be throwing eggs and water at her. I don’t know why but it is what they do! So we are driving the blue truck. It will not start because I left a light on. Well we decided to pop the clutch. Oh no not enough speed. Now we are stuck in the middle of the road. We push it a little and Jen tries to jump it but it just doesn’t work. So we decide to push it further over and then down the mountain and try the clutch again. Well it was heavy, really heavy. We, Jen, Katrina and I were having a few problems. A man stops to help, gets off his bike and we get it all lined up ready to go and he ask if we want him to do it? Well I was shaky on my ability. So I figured we had a better chance with him behind the wheel. So us girls line up at the back of the truck and push for all we were worth and it slowly rolls forward and then thankfully it hits the slope and picks up a little speed and pop it is running and he is driving and I start to think, I sure hope he comes back, I mean sure we have his bike but I really hope that he comes back. Jen and I look at each other and shrug.
But here comes the blue truck backing up down the road. We were so happy, sweaty and dirty and we were out of there. We made it to the kitchen and I was a little afraid for the truck so I parked with it on a slight hill.



Everyone was so happy to see Katrina. They all love her out there and she got drenched with water and love. She got a small gift and lots of cards and colored pictures.
It was time to leave and the truck wouldn’t start. So a group of ladies troop down from the kitchen and they all push and I pop the clutch and Katrina and Bryan run after me, trying to catch up because I was afraid to stop for a while.
We drove through for lunch because I am afraid to stop the truck. And we head home.

I fixed dinner and Jen made a cake. I set the table with flowers and candles. We use the good china, glasses beautiful tablecloth and linen napkins. It was beautiful and Katrina said Mom I want to wear PJ’s. I don’t want to get dressed up.
Okay it is her birthday and if she wants to wear PJ’s we will. So we all put on our pajamas and had a beautiful dinner.

Bryan gave her an Eyor stuffed animal and a heart shaped piggy bank. We gave her one of the carved wooden boxes that they sell here. It made a beautiful hope chest and I filled it with special photos, favorite recipes, some things of my mothers, just a sampling of our family’s history. She loved it. Well we had cake and homemade ice-cream and it turned out to be a fun busy day.


At first I was irritated that everything seemed to go wrong but later I saw that it was a good thing. We laughed at the situation and at ourselves. We were kept busy and the day was full of friends. We had little time to dwell on Randy not being here.
So a different birthday, not at all what we had planned but it was a special day that I will treasure.

I thank God everyday for entrusting me with such a priceless treasure. A daughter who loves God, and her family and friends, Who loves living in a third world country surrounded by people who love and need her. Who is not focused on the mall and the latest trends but on the kitchen and the church and on the starving families needing help. Who is not afraid to pick up a wet, filth baby and snuggle it close to her chest and whisper words of love and comfort to it. Who has a servant’s heart. Yes I have been blessed.