I received an incredible gift that was unexpected, and not even something I told anyone I wanted. And I have no idea how but it arrived just in time for my birthday.

A year ago my Different Kind of Birthday Party started what I didn’t know then would become a whole new lifestyle of living life in friendship with the homeless. Now here I am this year, unexpectedly finding myself spending my birthday with the homeless again. And this time it’s even better.

Everyone knows helping a friend move is a big undertaking. Being asked to help a friend move on a Saturday is even worse. Invitations like this usually have me reaching for the calendar to quickly find ‘other plans!’ So I’m definitely surprised to say that my incredible birthday gift turned out to be my friends asking me to help them move – on a Saturday.

But things have changed since last year because now I have friends that are homeless. And when a homeless friend asks you to help them move, it’s a completely different experience.

So my husband and I ended up going on a date with another married couple: to move them from their tent and into a home. After years of homelessness, this family was finally able to leave the tent, shopping carts, and garbage behind. It was pure exhilaration to pack their stuff into our car and drive away together, literally leaving homelessness in the rear view mirror.

I’ve heard of people ‘getting off the streets’ before but have never been such an intimate part of the process. Picking someone up (especially someone you care about) from a tent in the middle of winter, and driving them to a warm home, felt like a once in a lifetime experience.

And so far for me, it was.

But I hope this doesn’t end up being once in my lifetime! In fact, I hope this happens so often that it no longer feels out of the ordinary. The look (and tears) on our friend’s faces as we exited homelessness and drove into their new chapter of freedom, has inspired me to want to be a part of this as much as possible.

It was hard to believe how so many years of captivity felt brought to an end with just a 20 minute drive. A different kind of life for this couple had felt so far away, so unattainable, so much farther than 20 minutes.

We shared excitement, but mostly relief.

No more sleeping outside, no more freezing nights, no more weeks without showers or clean clothes, no more difficulties finding and cooking food. And most importantly, no more hopelessness in assuming this is how it’s always going to be.

I didn’t think any birthday could ever mean more than the Different Kind of Birthday Party I spent with the homeless last year. But that experience had still been about me, and this one was about them. Last year I had been the one who felt liberated, but this year they experienced liberation. At last year’s birthday I was celebrated, and this year I celebrated them.

And what better celebration is there than seeing someone you love move forward.