Away

Hello friends.

Laura and I are in Hawaii.  We do a big trip every "big" anniversary, so we had been saving up to go to Hawaii for our 25th, but our 25th was last year, and last year we had no desire to leave Luke's side, so we're in Hawaii for our 26th instead.  It's beautiful here.  The weather is flawless.  Today alone we saw many unique pieces of God's creation...driftwood and crashing waves and a huge Hawaiian rainbow.  We are in a rental house, very private and peaceful.  I think you never realize how weary your soul truly is until you are given some space.  We need this time, even though it does absolutely nothing to change the deep ache of our loss.

It's hard, very hard, to be here without Luke.  We see him everywhere.  When we go snorkeling, we call the bright little yellow fish, "Luke fish."  The other day we drove past a chocolate shop called, "Donkey Balls."  Anyone who knew Luke can only imagine how much he would have loved that store.  When we left the shop the woman even said, "would you like a bag for your balls?"  Classic.  Man I wish Luke was with us for that...I swore I could hear him laughing.  Today we found this crazy tree, with huge branches growing parallel to the ground.  As we got closer we saw the name "Luke" was carved into one of the branches, at eye level.  We sure do miss our boy.

On Sunday we went to church.  The music helped remind us of God's grace in our lives.  The sermon was about being bold in proclaiming Jesus, because He has conquered death and we have nothing to be ashamed or afraid of in this life.  We are grateful that Luke knows Jesus, and is with Jesus.

But we sure do miss our boy.

God bless!
James and Lu,
(for Sam, Jay, and Luke)