Every July, we share a personal update. We exclude these from our regular letters because we want to focus on the ministry. 

For me, Joey, this last year has been super special in terms of reconnecting with my Italian roots. Every time I cooked for the ISI student ministry, I would ask my immigrant Italian mom about whether I had the recipe just right. It was neat for us to chat for hours about the food but also the childhood memories that all came flooding to her. I have also been able to reconnect with or meet for the first time many family members across the Atlantic. What is neat about this is so many of them are walking with Jesus and are in ministry. This has all been life-giving and enjoyable!

Moving on to Jenn, obviously her update was going to be about her Librarian position! It’s more than sitting at a desk and reading books. Her library is very much like a community center. She loves it. This last year, she created a program for patrons who are in need of help getting their ID’s. Hoboken has a large homeless population so Jenn has been fortunate enough to help them with forms and mailing submissions. Her Spanish has also come in handy with being able to serve the hispanic community as well.  She also oversees the after school program for teens and has been able to care for many “latchkey” kids who otherwise may be on the streets. Jenn also shared this prayer request:, “please pray for my work life balance. I want to be a great Christian, wife, mother, librarian and international student caretaker all in one! Of course this requires the power of the Holy Spirit.”

As for our oldest, Gianluca (12), our boy has been flourishing despite his autism. This last year has been great in terms of his cognitive, social and other development. We were able to find several free programs after school and on the weekends for Gianluca.  On top of this, with Jenn’s health insurance, we pay nothing out of pocket for his speech and occupational therapy! As always he is still the funny, silly, artistic, dancing boy we have always had…just with a dash of autism. I have shared before but it is such a mind-boggling thing, because in one moment, he may seem completely neurotypical and the next he is freaking out because of irrational sensory overload. 

Gabriel (10) continues to impress us. He is like a little man, mature in a lot of ways that we don’t deserve. He’s thoughtful, caring, compassionate. He’s a great student, brother, friend and even enjoys sports. He was in soccer and baseball this last year—even winning the game ball twice! He’s also somewhat of an apologist by default. A friend of his happens to be an atheist (yea a ten year old atheist) but Gabriel came home to tell me, “I respect his beliefs, but how can anyone think we got here by chance. The universe, earth and life are way too complex for chance to have brought us here!” Of course that made us smile big time. 

As for our little princess, Lana (6), she’s growing too fast! This last year she was involved in a dance program at a local church which she was so nervous about – until she actually went… then she loved it. She was totally in her element and all the songs were Christian worship songs. She even had no problem in the showcase at the end of her term! Another fun update about Lana is she’s a reader now! She went into Kindergarten not knowing how to read much at all and she finished her year knowing how to read almost any word. Pretty fun stuff!

Overall this last year, God has treated us better than we deserve. We are excited for what’s to come! Please pray for us as a family. Pray for confidence in our identity, conviction of sin when necessary and protection from the enemy. 

Please also pray for our upcoming student field trips and for the new semester. On July 29, we have a beach day, and on August 12, we want to go to Six Flags. The week after that we hit the ground running by welcoming a whole new slew of international students for the fall. Woot!