About an hour ago, I was sitting under a tree, watching a group of teenagers passing around a ukulele, strumming and singing, and talking about the differences between Croatia and Macedonia, and Greece and Italy. Which country has better bread, what the coffee is like, which has the best coast. It was a totally normal conversation for them. These kids have grown up in these countries, with parents serving as missionaries. Their lives are so different from the average American teenager. But so normal to them. They are Third Culture Kids.

Samuel visited his first European castle yesterday. And I’m just beginning to feel the weight of the decision we’ve made to live here. It really affects his life too. In some ways, I feel like we’ve taken away some significant things. Number one on that list would be living near his grandparents.

But I know that we’re giving him incredibly significant things too. In just the past week, at least 4 of Samuel’s new Slovak high school friends came to know Jesus personally. In a country that used to be “unreachable,” behind the Iron Curtain. Now we get to live here freely and share Jesus openly. And Samuel will get to learn their heart language, and someday after he believes, he will get to share too.

This life is different. Every day people talk to my little Samko in baby talk that sounds really sweet, but I can’t understand a word of it. In some ways, this life will get easier. But I think it will get harder in some ways too.

I was reading in James earlier today- ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from… the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.’ I am thankful that He won’t change.

Oh, by the way, you might have noticed Samuel's first big boy wound. He fell off a riding toy and caught the sidewalk with his sweet little nose. I get sad every time I look at him, although he forgot about it days ago.

Here We Are

From some of our first conversations when we started dating, Patrick and I shared how we both felt like we were made to live overseas. We love learning about cultures, being a part of how God is working around the world, seeing things first-hand.

Fast-forward 3 years, and here we are, in Slovakia with our little boy. We didn't make a decision about where we would live until after we were married. All along, I thought (we both thought) that it would be East Asia. Then the Lord began leading towards Slovakia. Patrick felt confident about it before I did. Coming from the capital of a very large country, Slovakia would be too small for him, I thought. But he liked the idea of re-launching the Cru ministry in another capital, even though it was a significantly smaller one. And around that same time, we found out I was pregnant and were further convinced that Slovakia would be a good fit for our family. I would be spending more time in our home, and I was already comfortable in Slovakia and had a head-start on the language.

So we had a baby, spent some time in the States adjusting, then moved to Bratislava. We spent our first 2 weeks settling in to our new little apartment, and now we're in a tiny "resort" town on the other side of the country, preparing for 2 weeks of SpeakOut English camps. We're making new Slovak friends, helping the newly-arrived Americans learn about this place, listening to incredibly loud techno music blasting through the streets at night, and figuring out how to feed an almost 1-year old with the things we can find.

Last meal in America at the Dwarf House

 No air conditioning, so we bought a pool!

Samko is helping put some furniture together.

Speaking of Samuel, he is loving life! He has about 50 new best friends, and he just about jumps of out my arms with excitement every time he sees any one of them. This little extrovert baby is living the dream.