Olivia's birthday

Olivia feeling shy or tired at the water park.

Our sweet Olivia not wanting to blow out the candle

Today we celebrate Olivia's third birthday! It has been fun. Yesterday we went to a water park with several people from church, so we had a cake and piñata with everyone. By the time we got to the birthday festivities yesterday, the kids had been in the sun and water all day, so Olivia was a little waterlogged and tired. She had talked and talked about her cake; blowing out the candles, and "mordida" (where you take a big bite out of the cake and hope your friends don't shove your face into the cake), and she had also talked about the piñata and how she was going to hit it. However, at the moment of truth, she didn't want to do any of it! It was sad, but she did enjoy a piece of cake and wishing she had hit the piñata after it was all done.
Today after church, we had a low-key family celebration. We ordered pizza, and had cake (with the same water theme) hoping she might want to blow out the candle, at least and presents. But again, she got shy and let her sisters do all the work. She finished her afternoon off with a great nap!
I thought back to the the day she was born, to the blessing she has been since that day. The night before, as we waited eagerly for her, was a night of wrestling for me.  We wanted so much for her to come, but it just wasn't happening, so it was a wrestling with my body to try and get it do what I wanted then (didn't work at all!!!).  It was also a night of spiritual wrestling.  I remember drifting in and out of the pain of contractions and in and out of praying for our friends Jake and Mandy who were upstairs with their baby daughter, fighting for her life.  It was intense and long, but at the end of it all, we got to meet our beautiful Olivia and she has been a joy since then.  It's funny, I also remember the ride home from the hospital and noticing how life just went on around us.  It was no big deal for anybody, but for us, we were headed home as different people, with something so incredibly amazing and life changing.  Everyone was just going on in the usual.  Weird, I should think that time should stand still for everyone else as our lives changed so dramatically.

So, here we are, three years later enjoying a beautiful, expressive girl.  She is just as cute as the day she was born, and she keeps us laughing.  Happy birthday, sweet girl!

Some of the kids at the water park.

The piñata ready to be beat up!  It didn't take long to get it open and dumping candy.