I love surprises!!! Not receiving them.  That’s no fun.  I like to be in on the secret.  I’m like a little kid as I giggle to myself about what the unsuspecting recipient will be in for.

  Such was the case a couple of weeks ago. I was planning a birthday party for my darling wife, Valarie, and she had no idea.  I invited over 20 of her very close friends to attend.  A few were even coming in from out of town.  It took several weeks to coordinate the evening.   The challenge, of course, was to avoid suspicion by doing the obvious. In other words be cool and act like nothing was going on.  Easier said than done.

  Our daughter’s Godmother was in on the bash.  And she warned me to delete every phone call, text message and voice mail from my cell.  She told me not to leave any receipts around the house, or my car.  I even had to change the password to my email address!!!  After three weeks, my head was spinning. 

We had the party at Fleming’s Steakhouse.  I told guests to arrive at 6:30 that Saturday night.  I told them I would have Valarie at the restaurant by 7:00.  Of course, now I was paranoid about everything that could go wrong.  I had a hundred different scenarios running through my head.  What if she got sick the day of the party.  What if I had a flat tire on the way to the party.  What if someone called my cell about the party.. and she picked up.  What if she changed her mind and wanted to go to a different restaurant!!!  What if the babysitter had to change her plans!! What if, what if, what if!!! Ah!!!!!!  Thankfully, God had his hand in every detail and everything happened according to plan - almost.

  We got to the restaurant, went to the back room, walked through the door and……. no one immediatley turned on the light to yell surprise.  Valarie had enough time to see the silhouette of one of the guests.  She even realized it was a surprise party before the “great reveal!”  The good news is, she was so shocked it didn’t matter.  She was moved to tears.  It was truly a beautiful night. 

  And I pulled it off!!!!  It was a lot of work, but well worth it for my baby!!!

  Happy birthday, honey!!!