Birthday Party for Doris

I see that another few days have gone by since we had time to add another blog. Life just seems to happen doesn't it? Julie is busy homeschooling, and I have had jury duty. I served on a jury that concluded yesterday afternoon, and thankfully had the day off today.
I am going to post several photos of our friend Doris, and her birthday party. Doris is a German lady, who has lived in the U.S. for 14 years. Her husband was a client of the insurance man, and he passed away last July. Since then we have slowly gotten to know Doris and have found her to be a delightful and fun lady. Her mother passed away when Doris was 13, so she has not celebrated holidays much in her life. When we found she had not had a birthday party since she was 3 years old, or a wrapped gift, we set about changing that along with our Bible Study group. Doris was raised Catholic when young, and has been enjoying attending our group with us. She is brave to tackle reading and understanding the Bible in English! Anyway, last week our group had a party for Doris. We had two cakes (one chocolate and one angel food) and I provided the candles. Doris turned 49, so we had 4 on one cake...and 9 on the other. Since she had never blown out candles, we decided it was about time. She said that she has not had anyone to take photos of her since she was a child either, so we enjoyed taking several and she plans on sending copies to her sister in Berlin, which is the only family she has left.

Doris is a very educated lady with college degrees in biology, computer science and German. She took classes here in Oregon (in English), to get her Masters in teaching, so she can teach those subjects in any grade level through college. She loves to discuss a good topic...

and keeps the insurance man and me on our toes...trying to keep one step ahead of her.

We did the whole party thing, including balloons, which she was thrilled with and took home to enjoy. Our group went together to get Doris a Bible, as she has not had one since getting one for her confirmation at age 8 or so. She specifically wanted a King James version (after she learned what that was), so she is in for some tough vocabulary to absorb and learn. She has also signed up and attended her first class at our local Bible College. She is taking New Testament Survey from our Pastor Syd, and will be reading through the N.T. in the next 14 weeks.

Her she is, the proud owner of her new Bible. The insurance man and I also gave her a gift coupon for a dinner out and a movie with us, sometime when there is a movie she would like to see. She has not been to the movie theatre, and really no restaurants. The 'girls' and I took her to Sonic over Christmas and she thought she had landed on an alien planet : ) We had lots of fun celebrating her birthday, and I am looking forward to a fun year ahead!