Celebrating Luka!

Luke Patty turned 3 yesterday!! The kids and I drove down to Ljubljana, got a quick tour of the work the Patty family and team have been doing on their new home and then headed to Luke's birthday party.

We started at a play-place in a new mall near the Jackson's home and ended at a cafe, with Luke blowing out candles placed very carefully in his ice-cream cone! It was a perfect 3-year-old's party! Lots of chaos, screaming, laughing, sliding & climbing, presents and ice-cream!All the adults worked really hard to get a picture where they were all at least looking at the camera. This was the best one I got...hopefully Kristi got a better one. Abigail and Luke were the most distracted...when Abby would look at the camera, Luka would turn his head and vice-versa. We were all laughing so hard, I'm surprised my pictures aren't blurry!

Luka is Abigail's closest friend here--she's the most herself when she's with him--even though she only sees him a couple times a month. They just pick up right where they left off when they see each other. They're both so proud of being potty trained, when they're together, it's "Hey, Abby, come watch me go pee!" and "hey, Luke, come watch me!" It's what good friends are for! : ) To celebrate their little victories!Also there were Hondo & Trisha Wynn and their son, Caleb. They have joined our Josiah Venture team here in Slovenia recently (although, in their hearts and spirits, they joined a LONG time ago!) Caleb is just 3 months younger than Elijah, so it was fun to see those two little guys together. We're hoping to get some more time with them before we make our move back to the states in September. We're sad that our paths are crossing in this way...wishing it could be different and knowing God knew all along it would be this way. What can you say besides, "bummer!" ?? ; )
So now with Luka's birthday done, Abigail's is just right around the corner! She'll be turning 3 on the 29th! Oh my!! In all my years of praying for a baby, I never thought about her being a "3 year old!" I can hardly believe it!! I keep telling Joel "can you believe that we're going to have a 3 year old soon??!"