Davenports on Mission: Birthdays

We’ve already celebrated three birthdays in our first three months in Rwanda. We celebrated Brinson turning 14 and Wendy getting a year older.

However, the most special birthday of all was Pierce’s. Don’t get me wrong. With all three we continued our tradition of letting the birthday boy/girl plan out the whole day right down to the time we wake up and the menu for all three meals. For all three we played, sang, and prayed over them. Each was special because each person is special. But this was the first birthday Pierce has ever celebrated. He came into our family on September 22, 2014, and over the next 11 ½ months he participated in celebrating every family member’s birthday….except his own.

As the parties passed and he caught on to what birthdays were all about his excitement and anticipation for celebrating his own day grew exponentially. The daily question of “how many more days til my birthday?” was first answered with a three-digit number. As the countdown continued his plans for his special day slowly evolved and were eventually written down in pen. Every hour was planned beginning with an early wakeup….actually we wakes up early every morning, but on his birthday morning he was allowed to get out of bed.