Happy Birthday, Angelina

There are times when it’s hard not to take a step back and think, “Wow! This is really what my life has become!” This past weekend on Saturday afternoon was one of those times. Doug and I joined one of my students for her 10th birthday celebration at a Chuck-E-Cheese’s sort of place. As soon as we got there, we found ourselves wedged in between about 20 Arab children behind the cake table. They were all under the age of 10. While we sang “Happy Birthday” in Arabic to blaring music, there were many video cameras and other cameras in our faces, capturing the moment. I felt like a star, a bit embarrassed to be the only adults with all the kids. However, we just sang our lungs out with the rest of the children like we’d done it for years. (That’s much of what we do around here, pretend we know what we’re doing.) We even helped Angelina blow out her candles. I just kept thinking to myself, “Angelina is going to have this moment on tape for the rest of her life!” Yikes. Yet very cool because in a short amount of time we’ve become like family to them. I’ve got to tell ya: the rest of the afternoon was a blast, jumping in a moonwalk-type thing with a bunch of my students. It honestly doesn’t get much better than that.