I'm 17 now (I'm old, I know). That means I've had 17 birthdays now. 17!! That's a lot. Every year I would usually do the typical "birthday shenanigans" like going to dinner with my family, slumber parties, etc. This year, I did something that's extremely special to my heart. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the usual birthday shenanigans, but what I did this birthday really impacted me and was an amazing change to my usual birthdays.

My grandparents, on behalf of my name and family, decided to go to an orphanage home in India and payed for everyone's lunch meals for my birthday. Even though I physically wasn't present there, and the kids didn't know anything about me except my name, the affection and gratitude.

What I saw from the kids through the videos and pictures was unreal. Imagine your face if someone had handed you a check for a million dollars. Now triple whatever you're thinking because that was how thankful and happy they were. They had the biggest and most radiant smiles I'd ever seen.

Before my grandparents passed out all the food, all the kids and people who managed the orphanage blessed my entire family and said happy birthday to me. The love and warmth in their eyes was exceptionally touching and felt real. Once they did that, the food was passed out, and all the children contentedly ate like they were having a Thanksgiving feast. All the kids thanked my grandparents and everyone else in my family.

When they thanked everyone, it wasn't a, "Thanks for helping me on my math homework" thank you. It was the most genuine and heartwarming thank you I've ever received. Even though, they didn't say thank you to me face to face, I didn't need to have these children saying it to my face to know how much this day meant to them. After seeing all the videos and pictures, I have never felt more honored and proud for my family for doing this for my birthday.

Even though I didn't go to Olive Garden and have a full-pledged meal on my birthday, seeing all those kids have a full course meal because of my family made me feel like I had not only one but a gazillion full course meals at Olive Garden! After experiencing something like this, I highly think that my new "birthday shenanigan" is going to be something like this for sure next year.