cake! cake! cake!

I didn't know Nina until today. Well, I still don't really know her. But I know that she was happy with her birthday cake...and, as a result, I feel like I made a fast friend! One of the downsides of the Free Cakes for Kids (now Bake a Wish) is that we don't usually get to see the people for whom we bake. I guess I feel sort of lucky in that out of five or so deliveries, I have actually seen the recipient a couple of times. And Nina continued that pattern for me.
On a quiet residential street in east Austin, one house was clearly bustling with activity even in the mid-July mid-afternoon heat. I tentatively pulled up to Posada Esperanza not sure exactly how this delivery would work. I had learned that Posada Esperanza was part of Casa Marianella, which I'm familiar with and have actually baked cupcakes for before. Casa Marianella provides all sorts of services for immigrant families in Austin from temporary shelter to food, clothing, and English classes and Posada Esperanza is an emergency shelter for immigrant women and their families aiming to support the well-being of the entire family. Families typically stay at Posada Esperanza longer than they might stay in the beds at Casa Marianella. I was intrigued, already supporting this place in my heart, and, as of this week, baking a cake for a little girl who was living there.
As I approached the door, two little boys ran out to meet me. I said "Hi! What a nice welcome! Is Lauren here?" They nodded, but it was clear that before they were going to tell me where I might find her I was going to have to reveal the contents of the box that I was holding.
"What's in there?", they asked eagerly. I responded, "Well, I hear it's someone's birthday today. Is it your birthday?" They grinned (I knew it wasn't their birthday because I figured that neither of them was named Nina!) and giggled, "No...it's Nina's birthday!"
Nina was sitting in the living room (I was still in the entry way) and I could not see her, but she quickly poked her head around as soon as she saw the cake box and heard the boys saying, "Nina, Nina, it's for you!" while they were literally bouncing off the walls shouting "Cake! Cake! Cake!" As if she could fly, Nina was suddenly on the stairs to my left peering at the box.
At this moment Lauren appeared and said, "Thank you so much" before I could even explain exactly who I was and why I was there. I guess she sort of had that figured out. With Nina patiently looking on, I handed the cake box over to Lauren. And as I did I said, "Well, birthday girl, would you like to see your cake or do you want it to be a surprise?" Her face lit up. "Can I see it now?" I nodded and started to open the box saying, "I think you must like dogs? Well, this cake is for a dog lover because it has paw prints all over it!" (Mind you, as you can see from the photo, I might have also felt the need to explain the decorations because I'm not very confident that my artistic skills were obvious attempts at paw prints!)
"I love it. Thank you. Thank you a lot."
"Happy birthday, Nina...I think your friends - maybe your brothers? - are excited about this cake, but I made it especially for you. Enjoy it!"
There were no more words exchanged, but I will not forget Nina's glowing face...even before she saw the cake...for a long time now.
I've actually struggled with my baking recently because there are loads of new guidelines for Bake a Wish. I understand them - and some of the pictures of cakes/treats that were made and either damaged during delivery or simply not put together very well give me an idea of why some stricter guidelines are in place. But I would hate to not be allowed to bake like this because I am not a super fancy decorator and I can't always get my buttercream frosting perfect smooth. Because I'm pretty sure that Nina didn't care about and/or notice either of those things. She reminded me that simple acts can make a difference and when I talked to Gran on my way home and told her the story of what I'd just been doing she said, "I bet you spent a lot of time on that." My reply, "Well, only because I'm not a very good decorator! For a little girl to have her own birthday cake, I would have spent even more time." Gran laughed and said, "And to think that for your first birthdays you didn't even insist on a cake of your own." Clearly I didn't know better!
So...happy birthday, Nina. Thank you for the reminder that small, personal acts can make a difference. In a world where I sometimes feel overwhelmed with all that I could be doing to try to make it a better place and where I risk feeling terribly insufficient at nearly every turn on that account, I'm glad to have things like birthday cakes with paw prints on them to re-center my thinking.