With uncles & aunties yesterday. Couple of them are missing.

It's my dad's birthday today. We celebrated it yesterday at my uncle's place.

I don't know words beautiful enough to describe how much it means to me what my uncles and aunties have done for us. Strangely enough my dad's side of the family has been rather distant, also over the past months. But it has been compensated abundantly by my mum's family. Her bothers and sister and my cousins have basically adopted us. So it was my mum's oldest brother who organised my dad's birthday and invited us all over for a lazy Sunday. It was great seeing them all and spending some quality time with them. And the most beautiful moment was when we all gathered around my grandpa's old kitchen table with my grandma's old white table cloth on it, and we had an improvised memorial service to my mum. As my uncle said, "two pastors of this family" had to conduct it, and so it was that me and my dad talked about my mum and shared our Christian hope and looked forward to the great morning when we all get to be together again. There were many tears shed around that table but they weren't tears of desperation, they were tears of unity and love and yearning. And then we stood up, Christians and non-Christians alike, and we all prayed the Lord's Prayer together. It was truly beautiful.

And then we had lunch and discussed theology and politics. And had a lot of fun.

There truly is a lot of love out there.

Happy birthday, dear daddy!

Oh, and also - happy birthday, dear Estonia. Cherish your independence. It's not to be taken for granted.