Kiara turns 9

Kiara turned 9 years old last Saturday. Since I took ill, birthdays just aren't the same anymore. I thank God for every year that I can experience with Kiara. Time with your child is the most valuable thing in your life. The thought that haunts me the most is that I will not make it in the end and that I will have to leave such a young child behind, especially in our case, where she grew up without siblings or her dad in the house. I any case it was a real time of celebration. Last year I did not see Kiara on her birthday. She turned 8 years old in a summer camp while I was in the hospital. On Saturday when she woke up I gave her her presents. She was lucky this year as she was spoilt rotten. The family bought her a brand new BMX bike. She had many phone calls and cards. Thank you for that! In the afternoon we had a few kids over from the neighborhood come over to play. We didn't have the party yet, but I served poffertjes and we went to the ice-cream parlour in the afternoon. On or way there we picked up the Birthday cake. I used to make them myself but it is so much work that I decided to order one instead. This year''s theme was karting which is what we did on Sunday with a very select group of children. But before it was time to do that, Marc, the kids and I went to Nam Kee, a well known Chinese restaurant in Amsterdam.

On Sunday we headed to Utrecht to go Karting. I had found a pretty cool place called De Fabrique (the factory) where they catered to kids parties. I have to say that the service was excellent.

We had a really relaxed party, very different to the parties which we used to have in the woods with 25 odd children. Crazy! The kids got short course in karting by one of the employees,

a student that had not expected to work that day and had been out partying the night before. We were pleasantly suprised about his dedication.

After putting on their clothes the race started.

They were given their own secluded area to race in. Sidney was to small for the Karts so he was allowed to flag them.

The race took off to an exiting start.

Kiara and Dilara both stranded once.

Collin, our champion won of course.

But Kiara was awarded the medal as she was the birthday girl. After the race we headed for the restaurant where we were served fries, lemonade, and deep-fried goodies.

We topped it off with cake.

After the cake we were through. I brought the kids back to Hilversum and took Kiara and Dilara to Zevenaar to my parents. They stayed there two days. Wow what a party! Everything we had to miss last year was well made up for this year.