Happy Birthday! and sickness.

I have the best friends. I always consider birthdays special, but this year, my friends have really done so very awesome. My great friends Heather and Renee took me out for a birthday breakfast on Saturday and I got some AWESOME things for our trip. Hello?! Books! and spray on pocket neosporin! and airport approved plastic bags and a crank light with no batteries and more? Genius. Also, my mother-in-law brought me a piece of cake on Sunday. Mmmm.

Then, I had the BEST birthday Monday EVER thanks to my great friend Becky. She bought me a frapuccino, then we went to get a pedicure. We then went back to her apartment and she had baked a pink cake. We ordered pizza and watched our bonding show from college days, 'Dawson's Creek.'

The problem this morning? I was up half the night with horrible stomach cramps, apparently spun from the pizza. Angry, angry! pizza.
So I am awake at 6:30 a.m. on my birthday.

I think I've noticed that since I've been eating more organically, anytime I stray from that, I usually get a sick stomach. Not fun at all.

And to think, I'll probably be going through these changes just as much overseas. I'm not looking forward to the getting sick part of things. While I'm (sometimes) no baby when it comes to getting sick, I do like to have a nice comfortable place to cuddle up in when I feel bad. My mother was always either great or horrible when I would get sick. When I was younger, she was great about it. She would give me one sippy cup with Coke and one sippy cup with Sprite, and make me white rice and noodle soup. She would always warn against drinking the sodas though, saying they were just for "sipping". But since initially, there wasn't a lot of soda around the house, when I was sick, this was one of the best things, because mom would have to buy it. I would lay on the couch all day and watch movies. It was the best.

When I got older, mom would often tell me to 'suck it up' and go to school.

Mom's latter instructions will work better during the trip. While I know I will have to take some time to rest when I get to that point, other days when I'm feeling achy and tired and homesick, I am going to have to 'suck it up' and do what God has sent me there to do.

I know I'll be able to do it, because God will equip me to do it. Hebrews 13:21 says that Jesus will "equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

And amen.