Birthday Bash.

Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it a birthday bash but it sounded good for a title.

You see, It was my 22nd birthday this past sunday and it actually didn’t hit me until I woke up that day. Birthdays have a completely different meaning when you know God and this one was not different. Birthdays set special dates for beginnings and ends of stages. They have a special way of making you feel overwhelmingly grateful, but they also remind you that time has not time to stop. There is also something special about having a birthday on a Sunday, for you worship God with that heart-felt gratitude and the sweet taste of the grave given.

22 years is a long time. It’s bit over a fifth of a century. Yikes.
This birthday also came with a few life lessons. Every time another year goes by I like to look back on the year that just passed and reflect on what God did, how I reacted to things or acted about them and obviously about the teachings they leave [by the way, when you live for God, looking back on things doesn’t have to be full of regrets, but just the opposite. Maybe I’ll write something about this later] This past year has exactly been just that. It has been all about lessons. They came in different ways and God has really put in time to teach me SO many different things, some in subtle ways and others not so subtle. And thankfully, I am not the end of it itself, for they can be even a bigger blessing when shared with other people. I really don’t find any other better thing than to waste, spend, give, invest and pour out the years of my life for Jesus. I pray He gives me another 22 x 4 and still live for HIM!
And of course I always like to share a photo or two, I also realized it’s much faster on here than Facebook.

This is Lala. I first loved photography because of her!

I took the opportunity to get some shots of beautiful Meredith. Here is a few

Things got a little fishy at times.

BTW, this is Jared

I ended the day at The Ascent, at their first Friday of the month worship night, which was aweosome. After all, I guess I did have my birthday bash, with Jesus of course.

We all walk.

I keep promising that I will blog more often, it seldom happens as promised. Maybe today is that day.
Today was the American Heart Association annual walk and we were excited to be a part of it.
Excited for a few reasons. First, because any heart related cause it’s very close to my heart [I’ll tell you why shortly]
Second, because It’s My Heart South Florida is having its first annual walk this coming February. In case you didn’t know who we are, I’m gonna tell you right now. It’s My Heart South Florida is one of the many chapters of a national organization that serves all over the country. We advocate for Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) as well as educate the community and give support to families who have children with CHD among many other things. We are also working in two of the major hospitals in the area by bringing comfort bags that have a variety of items we know families we’ll need one time or another while they are at the hospital and the children are undergoing surgery. In addition to that, we have activities with the families at the hospital. It will be the very FIRST walk in south Florida in honor and for those affected with CHD. We are looking forward to this event and more than anything we want you to walk with us. You can walk in remembrance or in honor of someone or just in support of someone who is still fighting. I will give you more details about the walk later, but for now make sure you draw a little heart on your calendar for the month of February 2011 reminding you of the walk. It will be a family event so we want you to bring all the kids! and if you are in high school, what a better way to get community hours than to walk with us?!

All the information about It’s My Heart can be found on http://www.itsmyheart.org or you can send me an e-mail at ungria.castillo@itsmyheart.org

Here are some shots from today’s walk.

on the survivor’s bench”]

THANK YOU Jessica and Danny for running/walking for Paula and their friends came along as well. It was great!

In case you are wondering, this beautiful little girl is my niece Paula. She is a ballerina, the best drummer on the planet (ok, maybe I’m biased about her) and a survivor of CHD. She was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and had two open heart surgeries by the time she was six months. We are SO blessed to have her.

She is why I walk.

We look forward to having you in our event next February. For more info remember to check the It’s My Heart website http://www.itsmyheart.org