Home Again, Home Again...Jiggity Jig

“Home is where one starts from,” wrote T. S. Eliot in the second part of Four Quartets, and we find ourselves back again at our starting point in North Carolina. Hank and I have resigned from the Thornwell Home for Children and are now back in Mebane. This was a gut-wrenching and painful decision, not made lightly but after prayerful consideration and a growing concern that we simply could not deliver love the way they wanted it delivered.

We leave with the knowledge that while we were at Thornwell we loved and nurtured "our boys” to the best of our abilities. We wanted them to know as much as possible about their world, and to develop a respect for their planet and for all the diversity of cultures that people this Earth. Teaching them to recycle, entertaining international visitors, learning more about organic and healthy food choices, taking pride in using proper etiquette and proper English, and living each day with laughter were de rigueur with "Mr. Hank" and "Mrs. Sara."

In a previous blog entry we wrote about adapting a wonderful line from the movie "The Cider House Rules" for the boys of Georgia-Beatie ("Good night, you princes of South Carolina, you kings of the Upstate!"). We end this blog pondering powerful lines from the same movie. It is where Dr. Larch laments in his journal about "creating a monster" when you try to give an institution like an orphanage the love meant to invest in a family. "We have managed to make the orphange his home, and that is the problem," Larch continues. Let us pray for these and all children everywhere....and may they always know too much love!

Blackberry Wisdom

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You might not think there's much to be learned from a blackberry bush, but I can assure you there are lessons a-plenty. Sure, it's fun to go pick those luscious fruits of summer, tote them home and cook up one mean cobbler. I have loved explaining to the boys that my mother always makes a special white sauce to go with her own out-of-this-world blackberry cobbler, so that's why I do the same thing. Heck, I even turned this into a spelling lesson as I taught them about the word "roux" and how with a little sugar your basic roux becomes the supreme accompaniment to a blackberry cobbler. Are you getting hungry yet?!
Like most things in life, if you start to dig a little bit deeper, you'll find a wealth of wisdom. What do two old Family Teachers and three young lads actually learn down on the fenceline as we pick these berries?

• Nature provides abundantly for us and our bounty has been plentiful. In fact, we know to leave berries on the bush for the birds and insects.
  
• You can learn about harmony and peace from otherwise threatening sources, such as yellow jackets and wasps. They are only trying to get the berries like us!
• Patience! You need to wait a week or so between pickings so that the berries will be their sweetest.
• You learn quickly how to get out of a tangled mess! The thing NOT to do is panic and tear yourself away in a rush. You have to keep calm, actually lean in to the brambles and then lift up a bit letting the branch fall away.

I thought I'd ask the boys if any Bible verses came to mind while picking blackberries. Randy never hesitated and said, "I am the vine and you are the branches." Well, now. What can you say after that but God is love, and if we love one another, God lives in us, and God's love is perfected in us. Let the people of God say, Amen!

Friday Morning Literary Society

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Oh, the joys of summer reading! Literature is an important component of life here at Thornwell, and the children are encouraged to read at least 30 minutes every day (whether school is in session or not!). Hank and I decided to begin a Summer Book Club for the boys. We'd let them choose their subject (we're beginning with biographies) and then treat them to an outing to our local coffee shop where we could discuss our books. A couple of Fridays ago found us at the Harmony House in downtown Clinton, where the owners kindly provided a beautiful table and chairs and served us delicious coffee, hot chocolate and the biggest cinnamon rolls we'd ever seen! Our first discussion centered around Thomas Alva Edison. We loved learning that he was an "outstanding failure," remarking that he had simply found 10,000 ways that didn't work when inventing the light bulb! All the Family Teachers and the boys posed outside the coffee shop in their customized golf cart! Now we're reading about Christopher Columbus! I think we could compete with the Algonquin Hotel's Round Table!

Sand in Our Shoes!

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Through the generous gift of our cottage sponsor, we traveled to Kiawah Island last week to stay at her wonderful beach house! The weather was glorious every single day and we enjoyed not only the sun and the sand but had a ball navigating the island on bicycles! Imagine our SHOCK as we came upon an ALLIGATOR on the bike trail one day!? These animals are protected so we just waited for the huge thing to finish crawling across the trail in to the woods. We were entertained one evening by a Gullah storyteller, attended the "Kiawah Karnival" where the boys had fun with pugil sticks and big bounce houses, and ate our fill of watermelon and shrimp! Because Cortney and Quinn have returned home, Hank and I were back to "my three sons" with Randy, David, and Michael. When we were discussing the fact that our cottage is relatively new and therefore it will take some time to save funds to be able to take a "big" trip to some place like Disney World, all the boys said, "No! We're coming back to Kiawah!"

In the Garden of Weeden!

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I'm not sure we'll ever be able to open a roadside stand this summer, but we're off to a good start with our vegetable garden. The Thornwell grounds crew tilled a bunch of extra land for the cottages and many of us (OK, mostly Hank!) have worked hard at planting and watering our crops. Cortney was pleasantly surprised that the cows would eat from his hand! Mama Bear painted some garden signs while the Baby Bears helped with digging, watering, and thinning out the corn. Papa Bear found two little "scarecrows" at a yard sale for $2! We were even gifted some heirloom tomatoes from another Family Teacher. Ah....the thought of 'mater sammiches makes our mouths water! Pray for gentle rains and just the right amount of summer sun so that our crops might yield a bountiful harvest. We also pray that these children will be thrilled to discover one of God's greatest miracles as the soil produces a growing plant and finally food.

UP IN ARMED FORCES!

Talk about your perfect day! Put a young boy on an Army post...throw in a dress parade, rifle range, air show (complete with skydiving and F-16 flyover), rock climbing wall, patriotic songs, hamburgers and hot dogs... and you've got yourself some happy children! We took the boys to Fort Jackson (about an hour up the road in Columbia) on Saturday and they were just thrilled. (Hank was probably thinking great National Guard material in a few years!?!) Quinn had gone home for the weekend but we still filled up the van with Randy and David, Cortney, and Michael. It was a great way to honor all members of our armed forces, past and present. Hank took a "stroll" down memory lane as he went through the replica of a Viet Nam fire support base (camp). I think he was touched most of all though when we returned home and David asked him, "Mister Hank, can you please teach me to do that salute thing?" It only took a few attempts, and he can deliver it!

The Fifth Dimension

Michael is our newest addition to Georgia-Beatie. He's 13 years old making him the oldest member of the cottage (well, except for us FIFTY-something Family Teachers!?). He really enjoys sports of all kinds and has set as one of his goals "thirty minutes of physical activity per day." This goes along with his other two goals: to pass the 7th grade and to go to college. Michael has adapted well to life here at Thornwell and we are very happy to have him with us. I remember what David (our youngest boy) said to me after Michael came to interview here and spent an afternoon with us a couple of months ago. We were coming in to the house from a walk around the campus, and I had asked David what he thought about Michael. Without hesitating for a second, he looked straight at me and said, "Take him!" So we did. No regrets!