family

Saying Goodbye

I drove Tomas up to Bangor yesterday morning. I had originally planned on just dropping him off at the curb at the airport, but then I realized he was checking bags, and that wasn’t something we’ve really done when flying before, so I parked and went in with him to give him one last bit of support before he headed off on his own. I went up with him to security (it was his first time in Bangor’s small airport, though I’m sure he could have figured it out himself), gave him a hug, told him I was proud of

Dual Citizens

This past weekend, Denisa and I took the family down to New York City for a quick there and back again trip that’s been a long time coming. When we were first married, all our attention was on getting Denisa her US citizenship. It was a long process, filled with many hoops to jump through and fees to be paid, but we got through it all after . . . five years or so? I can’t honestly remember. But once we had children, we always wanted them to get their Slovak citizenship to go along with their American passports. Naturally,

In Memoriam: Stephen Coltrin

Hmm. This one’s going to be a hard one to write. I alluded to some tough times I was going through the last bit, and here’s the reason. My step-father, Steve Coltrin, passed away a few days ago. He’d been in and out of the hospital steadily for the past few months, and this past time (a few weeks ago) the decision was made to move him to hospice care. When that happened, I came down to Pennsylvania from Maine to see him and help take care of him as he passed. At the time, it seemed like it wouldn’t

Tomas: Graduation Day

So Tomas went and graduated from high school yesterday. It was a gorgeous day. Puffy clouds. Mid-seventies. A light breeze. The ceremony took about an hour, and he and the other graduating Fiddlers played a set as part of the festivities. He’s got a busy summer ahead of him: heading to Europe for a month next week with Denisa and the girls, and then he’s got a week of Fiddle Camp in August. After that, it’s “off” to the home MTC on September 19th, the Provo MTC on October 5th, and then Slovakia on November 22nd, where he’ll be until

Tomas Has His Mission Call

[Yes, I’m going to bury the lede here. Sue me.] Tomas got his mission call this morning, quite out of the blue. Well, not entirely out of the blue, of course. This is something he’s been working on for months, if not years. Putting in your mission application involves multiple interviews with church leaders, doctor visits, and dentist visits, not to mention the big question of “do I really want to do this?” Missions are a two year commitment. You don’t get to say where you go, or when. They’re largely an act of faith. You trust God will send