Favorite holiday, favorite new friend.

4th of July is my favorite holiday, for many reasons.

• It is exactly one week after my birthday. I try to join the two celebrations together in one big week of summer fun! 
• Red being my favorite color, it's a great excuse to dress up and decorate everything red, white and blue! 
• I love barbecue. We have a hot dog party, and everyone brings side dishes (having done this for a few years, we settled into a routine: potato salad (Aunt Cheryl), green bean salad (Aunt Candi), Donna's famous brown sugar beans, usually a box of ice cream sandwiches from the Willhoits, and everything else in between!
• Who doesn't love fireworks? It's the best part of the day! When we are home, we like to avoid the crowds,walk up the hill and watch several shows from there. Orange County's best kept secret. Except for the year that the sprinklers came on. Whoops! (Never happened again.)
• I come from a family where we are proud to be Americans, and so growing up, I had a healthy dose of patriotism instilled in me. 

So, when I was scheduled to be in Argentina for most of July this year, I had lots of friends asking, "What are you going to do for 4th of July?" and truthfully, I wasn't sure.  Secretly, I had hidden my July magazines with all the great ideas for 4th of July so I wouldn't see them, because that might have bummed me out (just a bit). So, I just waited to see what God had in store for that day.  
Of course, He's so good. He had plans for the day.
Letty, my favorite new American friend from this trip, gave us daily encouragements every day. Little surprises that came with a Scripture to boost our spirits in the morning. Today's surprise came at lunchtime, when we all paused to say the pledge to the flag, and sweet Kaley (with the voice of an angel) sang the National Anthem, and Letty busted out bags of poppers, noisemakers, silly string, and little American flags to share with our new amigos.
Their comment was: "How fun that you celebrate your independence day so much! We don't really do that. It's just a day off." (Argentina's Independence Day is July 9, so we were all about to ask what they do for their big day!)
Here's a photo I snagged from Facebook. (I love the wonder of modern technology as I try to stay connected with new friends across the world. As I was composing this blog, I had chat windows open on Facebook to New York, Argentina, and Paris. Thank you, Lord for technology!!!) This is me, dressed up in all my red and blue (no white, we were working, but actually, now there's white paint all over that jacket... can't remember which day that happened.) It's obvious that it's cold, not like an American 4th of July, but it was awesome, in ways I could not have expected. I'm posed with Sandra, my favorite new friend from Argentina. Here, we had just begun our friendship, and already had a special bond: little did I know that by the end of this trip we would be the kind of friends that could talk about anything!  Sandra always makes me laugh, and this day, the joke was about teasing me about getting up high on the scaffolding to paint (was not going to happen. a ladder, maybe. the scaffolding, no chance!) I think she loved this hat (like anyone with a great sense of humor does) and I love this picture that she got this picture of the two of us: my favorite day, with my favorite new friend. I couldn't have asked for a better 4th of July!!!