The REAL life

Well, it's been a while since I've written.  We finally settled into the REAL life of school!  Yes, we brought the kids' school books with us and they are actually having to do it.  I must say, even as the teacher that what we've been doing lately is kind of boring to write about.  The boys went indoor rock climbing with scouts a couple of weeks ago and had fun with that.  We have started seeing a lot of cars and trucks with sleds on them training for the Iditarod. We are very excited about seeing that on March 5.  To be honest, if you ever want to travel to Alaska, the winter is not the time to do it.  There's really not a lot going on  up here right now.  I must say, though, that the snow-capped mountains with the pink sunset on them were beautiful last night!  We ARE hoping to fit in a ferry ride before coming home and would like to make a trip to Fairbanks, but we'll see.  We are making plans to come home on March 23.  It's about 3 weeks earlier than we had planned, but the boys have decided that they don't want to miss their annual Cooper River Bridge Run, which is on April 2.  So, when we get home...Charleston, here we come!  I do want to share something with you that really touched my heart and made me think.  Yesterday morning, we went to Church On The Rock, the church we've been attending since we've been here.  As we turned onto the road that the church is on, I noticed 2 hitchhikers.  What made them stand out to me was that one of the men was sitting down with a cane in his hand.  We went through the entire church service and at the end as everyone was going up to take communion, I looked over and there the two men were!  They were sitting with a member of the church.  Obviously, she saw them and invited them to church.  I couldn't help but think to myself "WOW!  How many people would do that?  Would I have stopped and picked up a complete stranger in my hometown?  Probably not!  As I've said before, people hitchhike here all of the time.  A lot of times people come here for an adventure and that's how they get around...the generosity of others.  It's not foreign to the ones who live here to see these people.  I've seen it almost everyday since I've been here...we even picked "Bear" up that time and give him a ride, but it is a scary thing to do.  That just impressed me and made me think about how often we refuse to step out of our comfort zone to help others and show them the love of Christ.  Something that I think ALL of us should consider.  I would love to hear your thoughts.  Better get school started!