Three is the number...

(Dylan and Mom at the hospital)

The number three is the first odd prime number.

A human elbow consists of three bones.

There are three primary colors, red, blue, and green.

Earth is the third planet in our solar system.

In Muslim devotional rites, certain phrases are repeated three times, and others thirty-three times.

In ice hockey, a game consists of 3 periods of twenty minutes each.

In Christianity, there is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Counting to three is common in situations where a group of people wish to perform an action in synchrony: Now, on the count of three, everybody pull!

In Vietnam, there is a superstition that considers it bad luck to take a photo with three people in it; it is professed that the person in the middle will die soon.

But most importantly, Luck, especially Bad Luck, is often said to "come in threes". In the last three weeks, the African Valdmanis Family has had a lot of bad luck.

1. Our house was broken into. Three treasures that had photos and videos of the boys were stolen. (The computer, the camera, and the video camera).

2. Richard became very sick with Hepatitis A. (He is fully recovered and is no longer ‘yellow’.)

3. Our son Dylan was hospitalized for three days and three nights at the Clinique de Madeleine here in Dakar. Despite many blood tests and examinations, no one is still quite sure about what caused his high temperature. He is home now, and very happy to be back in action with Brother Laird. (And for the record, three days is the longest amount of time the two brothers have been apart. Prior to this hospitalization, it was three hours.)

Ask us how we are doing and we will say, ‘Things could be worse’.

If Bad Luck happens in three’s, then we are ‘smooth sailing’ ahead.

In fact, just yesterday my Dad called to say he and Cilla (aka Nana and Grampy) have booked tickets to come visit. We are on the countdown to having our first guests visit us in Africa.

And after writing this entry, Laird took his first steps…and would you believe there were three of them?

Life is good.