Luca is FOUR

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY LUCA!

Our precious baby of the family, how can it be four years already since we welcomed you in to the world?! Luca, you bring so much life, energy, joy, laughter and love to our family. We are so thankful for just who God has made you. We wouldn't trade you for the world! We pray that you will trust in Jesus and make him king of your life at a young age. We pray that all that fierce determination and will in your personality will be directed and energized to serving Jesus unwaveringly and zealously in your future. We are excited to witness how God will mature you physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually this coming year. You are our precious little buddy and we love you SO SO much, Luca!

We started the birthday celebrations for Luca over the weekend and finished them out today. We had a small gathering of friends over on Saturday afternoon. We had originally planned to have a party on Sunday afternoon, but then on Friday we found out some families could no longer come on Sunday. We did a last minute switch to Saturday and I was glad that although it was a little rushed in getting a cake done and house cleaned etc. that I was able to then totally relax and recoup on Sunday.

Luca has recently gotten in to playing Super Mario Bros. Wii with his siblings. He was very excited about the idea of having a Mario birthday cake. I had a blast making it and just wish I had more cake space to place all the added figures that I had made. The cake was made from buttercream frosting and marshmallow fondant...everything is edible!

I think that pretty much captures all sides of the cake

Mario popping out of the clouds

Patrizia & Aurora (neighbors and classmate of Samuel's)

Aurora and Emma love playing together...finally a girl to play with for Emma!

This morning Luca opened up presents from family and enjoyed some outside playtime with some new games and toys, helped washed the van and now is napping for the afternoon. Funny how Samuel was more excited about today than Luca. The first thing Samuel said as he popped up in his bed was "LUCA! Happy Birthday!"

Thank you Papa & Nano for my outdoor play toys...bat/ball, frisbee, bouncy ball, racket/birdie

New jammies from Munga & Gramma...couldn't wait til bedtime for these. Who says you can't sport new jammies all day?

Playing outdoor Twister game from Mamma, Dada & siblings.

School Spettacolo

Yesterday Samuel's elementary school had a Spettacolo (show/program) starring the first and second grades. These programs always make us laugh. The second grade performed a skit and the first grade did a dance. And both classes also demonstrated their English skills. I was amused as you will be when watching the video of the kids speaking English. A quick glance around the room during the performance and I caught several eyes from parents looking to see what our reaction was. Of course, the parents had no idea what their kids were saying. And come to think of it even I had to strain to understand what they were saying with their Italian-English accents. Samuel goes along with the poor pronunciation, so you have to ask him to speak it in American-English and then he says it right.

Waiting for the show to start

And We're Off...

Thanks to all those who prayed for our church launch this past weekend. Even though it was our 3rd service together in Caselle, we now consider ourselves to be officially off the ground. From this point we will hold services on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month. It is an exciting thing to have reached this point! We would not be here or at this point without the backing of your faithful prayers! So thank you from the bottom of our hearts!



Lino took the lead with the music having picked out the songs, playing lead guitar while also vocally leading. No easy task, but he did a fantastic job! Jonathan more or less served as moral support. (He did accompany Lino, this was just a pre-service shot I took of the two of them).


Catherine taught the kids and they enjoyed Part 1 of the lesson using the Resurrection Eggs. I had a hard time concentrating during Jonathan's sermon as my ears were more in tune with the voices of my own children. Not that they were unruly...you just have to understand that at this point anything over a whisper from them sounds loud. I finally caved in and went to assist in at least making sure our kids were keeping hushed voices. We really need to do something about that curtain divider we have!!




We kept the trend of averaging 21 in attendance. And we followed the service with an Agape. Funny thing was that two families were missing because they didn't realize that we were meeting in Caselle. Here I thought I was being all organized and such by giving each family a calendar the first of the month with all our activity dates and times. I guess it doesn't do much good if they don't read it! Haha! At least we were on the same page for the Agape location and food being brought. So more bodies were in attendance for lunch. From this point it won't be a random date but rather the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month, so hopefully no more confusion with that. So there's my recap in a nutshell.

Luna Park

Tomorrow Spring officially begins--yeah, for Spring time!! With that also begins the season of street fairs and festivals here that will carry on through mid-fall. Many cities welcome spring with a city festival. This weekend Leini' will celebrate. Each year they also bring in a "Luna Park" for the children. However, this is the first year in which we actually took the kids. It was our "Family Fun Night" for this week and man, did the kids enjoy it! We treated them to 4 rides and that is about all our pockets could handle even with our coupons. But hey, it was so worth it to see their smiles and giddy excitement over these simple rides.

Luca loves the Italian "line" system here. Whoever gets their first gets the ride. Speed and aggressiveness is a must--which is no problem for Luca!

It was a great evening just with sweatshirts. We've been in the upper 50s all week, which for my boys constitutes as t-shirt weather. Emma and I are holding out for the 60s at least.

Samuel pulled down the dangling "mop" to win a free ride. Which of course meant another ride for his siblings too. *Notice* the absence of seatbelts on these rides? Luca gave my heart a scare when he tried to reach over and touch the lights on the extended arms while up in the air. That was his last turn on that ride!

Band Member {Again}

For those who know Jonathan well, you would know that in his "second life" he would make his living playing in a band. Not to say he regrets anything about what he is doing now...most definitely not!! It's just a way to say how much he really loves music, the art of playing, composing and performing. Just after Jonathan and I met in college he joined/created a band, "Saving Face." Thankfully, a name change did occur which led to "Semblance." For five years he was thrilled to be playing gigs on weekends, and I was the proud groupie following them from place to place. He has never given up his passion for writing and throughout our married years he continues to create and record as time allows.

Last September, Jonathan began to build a relationship with one of his English students who owns a small music store in Caselle. While the store is not a money maker due to a larger shop here in Leini, this guy builds his own Amps as his main source of income. Some pretty amazing and mouth watering stuff from what Jonathan has told me. Apparently, this guys band recently broke up and he is looking to reform. D. has heard some demos of stuff that Jonathan has written and was impressed enough to ask him to join his band. So on Monday night Jonathan is meeting the rest of the band members. The guys have mainly performed covers in the past (very much an Italian in-thing to do), but D. told Jonathan he wants to play Jonathan's original music. His presence was wanted enough that the guys changed their practice nights just to accommodate Jonathan's schedule.

So who knows where this will go. I guess we'll see what the expectations are after Monday night's meet. At minimum he will have met two other new friends who share a passion for music. We were joking about our whole "RE:" theme we have going on and got a good laugh over the thought of this band becoming "ReSemblance." (Andrew, Jason, Mark and Kyle...you guys will forever hold a special place in our memories of the glory days of Semblance)

P.S. If you are wondering what happened to the Guitar Club idea, that is still on the radar and will start up in September.

Lisbon :: Portugal

Jonathan recently attended a Leader's Conference in Lisbon, February 22-26, for those working in Western Europe with our mission. When people have asked about his trip this has been his response: "The conference was great, but the trip was bad!" I'll explain briefly. Jonathan and two other colleagues from Italy flew out of Torino on Monday afternoon. The trip began with delays and kept that trend up for each leg of the trip both in going and returning. When they arrived in Lisbon, none of them received their luggage. Upon inquiry and tracking of the bags, they were told that 2 bags would be there later that night and the other never left the Torino airport. But not to worry they would send it to Rome (?!) to be rerouted to them in Lisbon. Interesting because their flight route was from Torino-Madrid-Lisbon. Jonathan was the owner of that 3rd bag. Tuesday rolled around and the airline told them they had 2 bags but would wait on the third before delivering. One bag arrived at lunchtime and the other at dinnertime on Tuesday.

Jonathan still in his same traveling clothes and no toothbrush etc. finally was taken to a store on Wednesday to acquire some needy basic essentials. I'm sure all in attendance were very thankful too! Long story short, his bag finally showed up at the airport on Friday about an hour after he arrived there himself for his return flight home. Not having exchanged cell numbers with the Portugal contact left him clueless about the bags arrival. The bag was then rerouted back to Torino where we finally received in on the following Tuesday.

Upside to the story: I didn't have to do laundry after his trip. He got some new underclothes and was even able to find antiperspirant deodorant in Portugal! And it made for a memorable trip.

The conference was good as they examined much in the toolbox of leadership. The fellowship was even sweeter and always serves as such a refreshing time for Jonathan to interact with other men in similar circumstances and challenges. He took a lot of pictures as he at least had his camera's in hand. Here are a few pics:

Where they stayed. A Christian school started by our mission was also attached to this complex.

From the balcony overlooking Lisbon below at sunrise.

It rained all but one afternoon during that week. They took advantage of the break in rain and toured the city just a bit. The port in Lisbon was where many explorers departed from and this world map gives a history of their discoveries.

Everyone ate very well. This custard type pastry originated in Lisbon and they ate at the original bakery where it was first produced. I am told they were fabulous!

"Steak on a rock." This one-person serving was given to you to then cut yourself, adding your desired seasonings from the bowls above to then cook on the pipping hot rock. Sounds fun!

I believe this is the maritime museum.

The only people-shot captured on film.