14

So Micah turned 14 yesterday.

We were all together. We were in one place. We were not currently packing or unpacking bags. We weren’t getting on a plane, didn’t just get off one, or have immediate plans to get on one. That in itself sets this birthday for him apart from quite a few that have preceded it.

Last year he turned 13 in Kenya dropping off J& M at school.

he turned 12 in Kenya dropping off J & M at school

he turned 11 in Canada the day Jonah and I flew back to Kenya

he turned 10 in Kenya when we were dropping off Jonah for his first year at RVA

he turned 9 in Rwanda when we had temporarily evacuated there.

He turned 8 when we were travelling through Michigan the summer we were home between France and Burundi.

Birthdays 7, 6, 5, and 4 were in France. His fourth was supposed to be in Iceland, but we ended up moving to France just a week or so before his 4th birthday.

3, 2, 1 and the day of his birth were in Canada.

So if one could gather anythign from this pattern it’s: we move around a fair bit. Micah’s birthday seems to always happen when we’re activly moving around somewhere.

Not this year.

This has been a big year for Micah. We’ve been through a lot as a family, and he’s been through a lot. An early end to an abbreviated school year, moving back to Canada for a few months in the midst of a pandemic, getting ready to leave home for school in Kenya in Sept, then preparing to start high school online until January. And all that is just the last 6 months, after what we went through in February.

So … i guess all of that means it’s a year worth celebrating. Celebrating that he’s made it through all that, and it still doing well. That he’s

and i suppose if “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” then he’s become a lot stronger over the past year. And he has definitely gotten stronger this year.

So here’s to our strong, resilient, thoughtful boy. Proud of the young man he’s becoming -and proud to be his parents.

…and, here’s some pictures of what being 13 looked like for Micah