Birthday Girl

We drove up to Visalia on Sunday to be on hand to celebrate Kiti's birthday. She is thirty. That doesn't seem possible. Just last month she was a curious three year old, playing in the dirt, running barefoot around the Papuan village where we lived, eating sweet potatoes and sugar cane. And last week she was a university student, TAing human biology, studying organic chemistry and parasitology. Wasn't it yesterday she was a rocket scientist at Boeing? But today, she's a lovely wife, daughter and sister. Still curious, still studying, still pursuing knowledge and still eating sweet potatoes with her java chip frappacinos or Earl Grey tea.

I think if I asked Kiti what she loves most in the world, she'd say, "My husband, my kitties, my mum and dad, my sibs, my in-laws, reading books, learning about ancient cultures and tropical parasites, studying the Bible."

What a privilege and blessing it is to have raised this beautiful, remarkably intelligent woman and have her as my friend.

And it really helps that she knows how to get me out of any kind of computer black hole I've gotten myself into.

May you have many, many more happy birthdays, Kiti!