Happy Birthday to me...

Yes, today is my birthday. Good ol' December the 16th.

And like most of you, I've had my share of good birthday memories and bad. Poor Marty felt the pressure to make this year's day extra special, as it's been a rough past couple of months.

Well, it's only been my birthday for an hour, and I've already cried tears of joy at least three times. I feel loved and blessed and so appreciated for who I am--plain ol' me! Can you believe it?

See (story about to unfold, here), my best friend Candace is in New York City with hubby Bobby today, celebrating her own birthday. Since she knew she'd be gone on my big day, she gave me my present ahead of time and told me not to open it until my actual birthday. Curiosity nearly got the best of me several different times, but something told me to wait. To avoid trying to peek underneath the wrapper and just let myself open it when I was supposed to open it.

I'm glad I did. Marty and I stayed up past midnight watching "SNL", so we could be up to ring in the special day. Well not a couple minutes after twelve, Marty asked if I wanted to open my present from Candace. Duh!

In it was a DVD that simply said, "Watch me." It opened with one of my favorite songs, a worship song by Watermark, and the title, "Happy Birthday, Becky!" Then one by one, my close friends appeared on the screen, telling me what they loved about me. I cried through the whole thing. I guess I just never knew that I mattered so much to people, or that I was as special as they made me sound.

So thank you Candace, Sarah, Rachael, Pearcia, Bethany, Kristena, Heather, Billy, Bobby, Annette, and Marty. Your words spoke volumes, and my heart is so full right now. You've all made me feel worth something, and I haven't felt that in such a long time.

Man, oh man.

Later this morning Sarah is taking me to breakfast, then I have Moms Group with all my favorite gal pals, then Marty and I get to hang out all day and go somewhere fun for dinner. Then I still have a birthday celebration with my family to look forward to whenever we're all together next, and Bobby and Candace and Matt and Sarah and Marty and I are going to barbeque a couple steaks in the snow to celebrate even more, then Candace and I still have to throw ourselves the joint birthday party that we've been planning all year.

I think it's safe to say that this year's birthday is going to be one of the good birthdays.