Birthday Parties!!

Every child (and most adults!) loves a good birthday party and at CSC it's no different! As you can imagine we get to enjoy many birthdays here. Sometimes many birthdays in a single week. That is A LOT of cake and ice-cream :) Birthdays are extra special with the kiddos here. They don't have a lot to call their own, but their birthday is THEIR day! We get to celebrate them as individuals. I have tried hard to capture the smiles and the happiness that a birthday party brings and I will post a few pictures below. Another thing the children love is getting birthday messages from you! Many of you have "liked" the CSC Facebook page and you have seen something similar to this: "Mady celebrates her 7th birthday today. Leave a message below and we will give it to her tonight" This, you guys, is gold to these kiddos. They pour over these messages and it is a great way for them to feel connected. The children are so proud of their messages. They read them and re-read them and share them with their siblings and friends. I had no idea how much these messages meant to the kids until I got here. If you happen to see that message please take the time to say Happy Birthday to them. What a simple way to make a child feel the love. If you haven't "liked" CSC's fb page yet you can find it under Children's Shelter of Cebu. A birthday party here looks just like any other birthday party. There is delicious food, cake, ice cream, presents, balloons, friends, and singing! A child gets to invite 2 special friends from to their party. Sometimes that is a child from another house and sometimes it is a teacher from school. They get dressed up in their nicest day and put on their biggest smile. We LOVE birthday parties here and for more reasons then just eat cake :) Thanks for reading! Love you guys!! *Pam

A video of the kiddos singing

Yummy cake

Jake sitting with the littlest among us

A house parent welcoming everyone to the party

Each child gets to pick the staff member who says a prayer for the child and the meal

Mady and her friend with homemade flowers in their hair

A new pillow case filled with presents 

This little guy didn't know what to think of the cake :)

Getting a good view of the new presents

CAKE!