This was the first birthday I had ever spent away from my mother.  It was October 9, 2014 and I turned 44 years old.  My father passed when I was 28 and I knew my mother was in frail health.  I wanted to escape to the city that I love and focus on the happiness within my own family of three — my husband and my little girl.  She would be turning three when we got home and I was having her birthday at the house with a Madeline theme.  This day would not prove to be epic in the way in which I was searching.  Breakfast started off delightfully with croissants and Nutella.  I wanted to revisit Notre Dame — the cathedral dedicated to the Blessed Mother Mary, where my child took her first steps less than two years earlier.  It was a chilly day and afterward we went to a little cafe across the street and I enjoyed this cup of chocolat chaud.  No one, but no one, does hot chocolate like the French!  I remember on our honeymoon, on a sweltering day in June, the first thing I did after we checked into our hotel was to go across the street where I ordered us two hot chocolates.  They are THAT good!  And so I found myself sitting on the corner overlooking Notre Dame enjoying a simple cup of hot chocolate.  There was no party; no great fanfare; just me and my precious little family all together at my favorite place on earth enjoying one of the many things the French do best.  That night I had made dinner reservations at La Petite Chaise (the little chair) based solely upon my love for history.  Founded in 1680 during the reign of Louis XIV (the “Sun King”,) it is open literally year round.  Yes, we brought our almost three year old.  But I will tell you, she was an angel!  Note I did not say she was always an angel, but she has known what we expect of her in public from the beginning.  The service was snooty, the average age of the patrons well into their ’80’s, and I was disappointed.  But you know what?  That is life, isn’t it?  Some days we want to be perfect and they just aren’t.  Other days we’re not expecting it and it turns out to be a treasure.  When we got back to our hotel, our little one had fallen asleep in the middle of our bed in the “French” fox pajamas I’d gotten her that said “Bonjour” with hearts and fox couples all over them.  The evangelical Texas Christian pastor Charles R. Swindoll — also born in October — said, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.”  I could choose to focus on losing my original family of three (my parents) or I could be grateful to God for the great blessings He gave me when He allowed me to meet my husband and conceive our precious child.  I have always said that ANY day in Paris is a good day.  And I have meant it.  Rain, heat, or cold; nothing can compare with her history and her beauty.  There was no party, no singing, and no cake.  I had the privilege of spending my birthday with the most handsome man I have ever met and our beautiful, miracle child here only by the grace of God.  In a way it was simply an ordinary day in the city I love most, and I was blessed to be able to spend it with my precious new family.  This was my birthday in Paris.