Toddlers, Falafels, & the Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Eliot’s birthday with some new friends this year.

For every birthday celebration, Eliot chooses a country to be the theme of his party, and this year he chose Jordan.

Hummus, falafels, oranges and carrot sticks.

Homemade hot chocolate, cupcakes with mocha icing.

Vases filled with dried leaf bouquets.

Something beautiful happens when you invite people into your child’s life and into your home for this type of celebration.

They show up with Batman postcards and star stickers; with hummus and Chic-Fil-A gift cards.

They draw foxes on orange construction paper and bring squirrel board games.

Somehow, everyone becomes like long-lost family to me, all because they’re here to celebrate my son’s life.

Wes and Melissa  bring their little girl, who dances herself into the room and into our hearts– chin length bob, Jordanian dress, and all.

And Eliot has a friend for the evening, so the adults gather in the living room, around our piled hummus plates and sticky chocolate fingers.

And Hannah asks what it’s really like to be a mom.

And Parker holds Isaiah, who forces him to read the same book over and over again.

Aaron and Leanna prepare for a long road trip, but bring a bag of cuties anyway.

And Lydia holds Reid, and we hold Reid, and we all dance around each other in some sort of familiar way, because something treasured is happening.

Life upon life, intermingled hearts and full bellies.

Can you feel the sacredness of it all?

I think it’s called community, koinonia, the very blood in the very veins of our need for human likeness and friendship.