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40!

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 Matt smith, best spouse ever, put together a 30 minute video of friends and family wishing me well. This is the message I sent them after I laughed and cried while watching it: 

Sweet Corn on the Cob y'all got me in the feels with the 40th birthday video! I love y'all and I just wanna make y'all proud and I always hope that my actions show you how much I care about your friendship and even though we don't always get to see each other we often joke that once we're friends you are stuck with me (just ask Dr. Laden! lol) ! Most of y'all know what I mean when I say y'all have helped me heal and really influenced my life and the lessons y'all give me continue to challenge me to be a better person every day and to be present and have gratitude and show love. The grace extended to me moving through adulthood when I made mistakes or stumbled has manifested into a deep well of forgiveness and acceptance for myself and for others. The peace that lies over my path has been hard fought and well worth it. My birthday wish to be able to give back even a quarter of the love y'all have poured into me. And shoutout to us all entering a new decade- 40 will be awesome!! 

Best part of my birthday was going to Belize. A full week of family time and rest. It was hard- I was distracted. The night we arrived, there was an tragedy on our campus back home. But, my staff and colleagues handled it in the most compassionate and competent way, and supported me in taking a real break. San Pedro Island is not known for good wifi! I stayed in touch by text with a handful of people and it was heavy on my heart that I was not there. And had no easy way of getting there. We had been preparing for months, knowing we were one incident away from true crisis and we had weathered a few close calls. Each day, I did a check in, then turned it off to focus on being present with my family. Which felt even more important than before....

Belize highlights:

1. It was super safe. They still had curfew and masks mandates and covid was not political, but an illness they took serious. We could not even leave the airport without showing our vaccine cards, negative tests, and proof of Belizean insurance! Took 2 hours to get out of customs.

2. Super diverse culturally!! Y'all, do yourselves a favor and do some reading up on how Belize came to be. It's in Central America and shares a border wit Mexico and Guatemala. With its gorgeous coasts, everybody has tried to colonize it (hello trauma) but the Mayan's and indigenous folx still have a significant presence and land (hey resilience!)  we had french pastries, lebanese coffee, italian pizza, vietnamese dumplings, pupasas, conche, lobster, all kinds of fruits and veggies and chocolate...lots of chocolate!

3. Swimming with sharks and sea turtles and rays was probably Cass's favorite. 

4. Savannah preferred swimming at the not so secret Secert Beach. Lol.

5. Matt made a last minute decision to sign us up for a river boat tour of protected jungle and a hike through Lamanai.

6. The exchange rate for the dollar is 2 to 1!!! Probably the most affordable vacay we have ever taken.

7. The folx who run the place we stayed were so kind and helpful. The condo had a full kitchen and cooked a lot. The beach was outside our balcony. 

Alright, time for pictures!



































































































































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