My favorite birthday moment…

I had a great 30th birthday today!! The facebook and twitter birthday wishes started coming in before I woke up this morning and haven’t stopped – including a wonderful rendition of Happy Birthday sung by my friend Kate and her beautiful little girls via video. It’s nice to feel so loved.  A friend took me out to lunch, another brought me beautiful pink roses and my friend in NYC sent me a couple of pounds of Starbucks coffee. Yum!

Tonight was Rec night and several of the kids remembered that today was the bit 3-0. One of my students brought me a beautiful battery operated fountain for my office and one of the parents stopped in with enough cupcakes for everyone.

So much more than I deserve.

But my favorite moment was right at the beginning of Rec – when we opened the doors.  One of our middle schoolers who is full of struggles and heart breaking stories, who never really looks you in the eye – walked in and fished a votive candle in a glass holder out of his pocket and quietly said “Happy Birthday Sara” … melted my heart. Even typing it right now, my eyes are filling with tears.

When we were walking home at 9:00 (we live in the same neighborhood) he asked me if I remembered my candle. I told him I could never forget that and that it was tucked safely in my bag.

How did I end up with such an AWESOME job??