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Thursday, February 07, 2008

Luke Turns 15




Today is Luke’s 15th Birthday, here in the very spot where he celebrated his 1st Birthday. Then he was a strawberry-blond toddler with a skinned nose from learning to walk on the rough cement floors of this house which we had moved into a few days earlier, delighted by the attention of the “big kids” (Matt and Libby, Lydia and Luke H). Now he’s tall, strong, competent and accomplished, and by far the biggest kid around. We gave him a couple of photography books, as he enjoys the artistic composition of pictures as well as the technical challenge of working with digital imagery. Today the only person (besides his parents!) who was present when he turned 1 as well as 15, Pat, will have him work with her on a mural she’s painting on the Paediatric Ward. Tonight he’ll have three school friends eat with us and sleep over for a big hike through the Ituri rainforest tomorrow, one of his other passions being the African wilderness with its unpredictable beauty and the physical challenge of a day’s trek. Pause with us to thank God for Luke. It is no small thing to grow from baby to man in Uganda, no small thing to have not only survived but to have come to love this place and have friends here. We’re grateful.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday, Luke! You don't know us, but your parents do. Their lives and ours had several parallels in those early years leading up to your birth. Our oldest son, David, will be 15 on the 20th. As I recall, he was due before you, but you were in a hurry to arrive! Hope you all had a great day celebrating.

Brad & Stacey said...

Happy Birthday Luke!

Love-
The Hunters 5

Andrea said...

Happy Birthday Luke!!!

Anonymous said...

Great work.Great Family.Great faith

Am impressed by your blog.keep going.it 's a great thing to have xtians in the new media

May the lord bless you be it so severly

Eddie Ssemakula
www.semakeddie.multiply.com

Scott Ickes said...

Hope the hike through the rain forest was fun!

jane. said...

* happy birthday, luke! may you find yourself around people who care and know that others who care that aren't around are thinking about you and your uber-radness.

shannon said...

it's hard to see the boy i knew and played with in the last picture. he looked a lot more like the boy in the first picture with pat. i was looking at my africa scrapbook the other day and am so grateful for what you all gave me. i can't believe it was so long ago. happy birthday luke!

Anonymous said...

Hey Scott-
My name is Hannah, and I am the daughter of Kaarin, the woman who went to Pakistan with Sonja. Recently I was given a report in science, and I chose to do the disease Ebola. Thouhgh the report is over, I have become really interested in the virus. Do you have any experiences or ideas on Ebola?
bless you
Hannah Smith