Shh! It's a Surprise!!!

My special day!  

November 25, 2012

I can hardly believe it!  But it is true!

I have reached the half-century milestone!!

And at this age, I am shocked that I can still be totally and wholeheartedly SURPRISED!!!!

My husband & kids, and best friends Robin and Doug, conspired with Pastor Petrucci and Pastor Ben and Pastor Flagstad, to throw a surprise party for me in the Morning Star Café, at noon on Saturday, the 24^th. 

My husband has always been a stickler about celebrating birthdays ON the DAY of the birth, so of course, I never suspected a thing that day.  Not only that, I didn’t really think anything at all was going to happen on Sunday the 25^th, except maybe go out for lunch at my favorite restaurant, since I knew I would be tired from working in the morning and would have to return to work at night—we are ONE WEEK away from our annual Kidz Christmas play, and Ms. Heather and I are very BUSY getting everything just right for next Sunday.

So when my daughter, home from college for Thanksgiving break, suggested going on a road trip to Aberdeen, MD, to pick up her boyfriend, and hang out all Saturday, I was thrilled to spend the day before my birthday, doing that!  I love hanging out with my girl!  We are very close and I miss her so much!  We chit chatted all the way there and back and discussed going shopping all afternoon in tax-free Delaware.  But she suggested that before going shopping, we should stop at church to watch Elliott play football with the church youth group—it was the day of their annual Turkey Bowl and I knew my husband was bringing our Newfoundland to watch the kids play, like we did last year. 

I quickly agreed, since I love football and I love our youth, and since I hadn’t seen Elliott for 24 hours because he’d spent the night with some friends—funny how I miss my kids so much, even if they are only 5 minutes down the road, like Elliott was! 

Anyway, when we got to church, Ashleigh decided she wanted her boyfriend to see the Chapel, where I work on Sundays.  I saw that the lights were on in the Café, through which you can walk directly to the Chapel, and realized that it was lunch time, so naturally, all the youth kids would be having lunch and we could kill two birds with one stone (see the chapel and my son).

We parked right in front of the Café, and as we got closer to the entrance, I saw a bunch of people in there with huge balloons and cakes and streamers.  Ashleigh proceeded to walk right in ahead of me!  I immediately yelled at her to STOP!!!  I said, “We can’t go in there—the church is having some sort of party and we can’t just walk in on it!!!!”

She totally ignored me!!!!

I was panicking!!!  I yelled again, “Ashleigh, don’t go in there!!!  You can’t!!!” 

She turned to me and said, “Come on Mom!”

I just looked at her in horror as she walked away from me, into the private party, and was thinking to myself, “What am I going to do now!!! How can I possibly get her out of here, and save face with all these people.” 

That was when I actually looked at the people, who were all frozen, looking at me!  And then I thought, “Well, they are all church people, at least I know them!!  I feel so on the spot because they are all looking at me and my rude daughter, just walking in on them!!!” 

As my eyes scanned the crowd, thinking of how I was going to grab Ashleigh and wring her neck in front of them all and make her apologize, I noticed my husband in the back of the Café, holding a video camera aimed at me!  And Troy and Lisa Frey were each holding cameras aimed at me!!!  That was when I looked at the cakes on the table, and realized that this private party was FOR ME!!!! 

I literally was in total shock for a few minutes!!!  I just stood there, completely overtaken with surprise!!!  I just could not believe that all those people were there looking AT ME because I was the person being honored!!!!  I was told later that just before I entered the room, all of them yelled, “SURPRISE!!!”

Can you believe that I NEVER heard that?  I truly was in such anguish about crashing this private party and how I was going to get my girl out of there, that I never heard them greeting me!!!!

It’s not very easy to surprise me!!!! 

And Shawn told me that the surprise party had been all over Facebook for 2 weeks, and announced from the podium in big people’s church, in front of 400 people!  How did NO ONE spill the beans???  That whole feat was absolutely, astoundingly, WONDERFUL!!! 

I am so thankful for the BEST family on earth and such close and dear friends!!!

It was a great and fun party and I just can’t even begin to tell you how blessed I feel to belong to such a loving church family.  I never expected this.  I frankly don’t feel like I deserve it!  I am completely humbled and yet so, so thankful for everyone’s generosity and time and attention!!! 

And just a couple of quick statements about my turning 50:  

(1)  I still feel so young!

(2)  I feel like I have so much left to do in life!

(3)  I am a blessed woman!

(4)  I will always give glory to God for all He's given me!

Thank you for reading this blog and sharing a few moments of your life with me today.  I pray that you now go forth, to sparkle and shine for Jesus, the way I intend to, for the next “50” years!

Ms. Lucie