Unforgettable Birthdays & Newsletter Giveaway Winners

Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears. — John Lennon

I’ve had fun sharing some of the birthday stories friends shared with me after I sent out my birthday newsletter a few weeks ago. These will be the last reader stories for a while, but they’re good ones.

First I’ll share about the picture. Loretta was another wonderful church friend. I wrote about my amazing church friend, Grace, on Sunday. Both of these beautiful Christian women are in heaven now. I’ve written about Loretta here too, and how we hoped to celebrate her 100th birthday with her. She died a few months before that birthday, but we still celebrated by collecting money to donate Gideon Bibles in her memory. If you want to read that post, here’s the link.  We did love celebrating her birthdays with her. Brenda, our pastor’s wife’s sister, always made her a beautiful cake. We were blessed to have Loretta with us for so many years. She was our church’s prayer warrior.

And now here are some unforgettable birthdays from readers. First up is Amy who got a great birthday weekend just when she needed it most.

A birthday I’ll never forget … I was born on Thanksgiving and live out of state, away from my family. I’m a teacher, and I married in that new state where I moved for a job, and it wasn’t long before our first baby was born. Six months later found me teaching a new grade level, stressed about the baby I didn’t spend enough time with, and I felt like I never saw my new family or my old one. Trying to keep in touch with everyone and on top of things at work was crazy hard. For my birthday, then, my husband surprised me with a weekend getaway to a restored Civil War-era cabin on his friend’s farm. He took care of getting everything there, of cooking while we were there, and I got to have a weekend with my favorite people in a beautiful place. We spent lots of time playing games by the fire, napping under quilts, and just being together. It was fabulous.

Isn’t it great when someone you love and who loves you knows exactly the right thing to do for you? Something the same happened for Jessica for her 18th birthday.

One of my favorite birthday memories was the year I turned 18. I lived with an aunt and cousin at the time, and they became heartbroken to learn that my family hadn’t done much of anything to celebrate my birthday growing up, even going so far as to forget my birthday altogether the year I turned 15. So my aunt and cousin took it upon themselves to give me the best birthday ever. They took me clothes shopping and for a haircut, and then convinced a friend who owned a boat to take us all out on the lake for most of the day. To top off the day, my cousin (who hated to cook) fixed me all my favorite foods for dinner and they bought me a beautiful cake. The last time I remembered having a cake was on my 8th birthday. It was truly such a special day and I am so grateful my aunt and cousin took the effort to make the day special for me. 

Oh, the special blessing of feeling loved and being pampered.

Story number 3 is a little different. One Yvie and her friend will never forget for sure, but they came through in a crisis. A girl scout is always ready for anything.

It wasn’t MY birthday, but the year my little sister turned 10, my parents let her have a sleepover…and left myself and my best friend in charge while they went into the city that evening. They knew we were expecting rain, but did not anticipate an F-4 tornado to form in said rain, putting our house squarely in its path.

While they were stranded in the city, my friend and I were herding ten-year-olds into the basement. (Thank heavens we had a basement!) The power was out for days. A tree fell through the kitchen roof. We had a few kitchen pots for toilets down there. And the little girls were terrified! I think we used every ounce of knowledge we had gleaned from our years of Girl Scouts that evening.

Our parents made it home sometime after midnight, and ended up taking a few of the really scared girls home, still in the middle of the storm, but the tornado had passed. The rest of the girls saw it as an adventure. But my friend and I did not….and my sister never had a sleepover again!

But what a sleepover she had that one time!! That’s one birthday party no one could forget.

Thanks to all of you who shared stories with me and took part in my newsletter fun. I love hearing from you. Next week, I’m going to come up with something fun for a giveaway here. So check back Sunday night or Monday and see if I’ve thought up anything.

And the Winners of My Recent Newsletter Giveaway

The two 2nd place winners were Edward from Virginia and Deb from Minnesota. They won their choice of one of my books.

Edward picked my nonfiction book, Angels at the Crossroads, because he’s read a number of my fiction books. He knew he hadn’t read the book I wrote with Jerry Shepherd that is Jerry’s story of a life gone astray when he was young and how the Lord helped him turn that life around and begin serving the Lord.

With Christmas on the way, Deb picked my Shaker book, Christmas at Harmony Hill. 

Anita from New Hampshire was the 1st place winner. She gets the cuddly blanket and one of my books. She says to just send her whichever book I want to send her. That leaves me not knowing which book to send. So, I’m asking for suggestions. Which of my books should I send her? She didn’t say whether she’d read any of my books or what kind of books she likes. Plus, she’s having me autograph it to a different name which maybe means she’s giving it as a gift.

I need your help. What book should I send Anita?

If I get a variety of suggestions, I might put the titles in a hat and draw one out!