The Great Outdoors!

One of the first things we noticed as a team when we moved from Charlotte, NC to Blacksburg, VA is that the pace of life here is a lot slower. Blacksburg is the largest town in Virginia, but it is not considered a city. In Blacksburg, I don't have to worry about traffic jams before I head out the door, even if it is five o'clock in the afternoon. Granted, the students are not here because it's summer, but as a whole, the town seems to travel in a slower pace than the city of Charlotte, which is what we're used to. This gives us a chance to enjoy what the city has to offer.

Since we've been here (it has been one month and two days!) we have enjoyed going on hikes, riding our bikes, playing tennis, going on walks and running through our neighborhood. That doesn't seem like a lot, but for someone that has always lived in fairly big cities, this has been a great treat! My favorite hike was when we went to the "Cascades." We hiked for two miles and then we reached a beautiful waterfall. We were determined to dive in, even though it wasn't a very hot day and we had been told that the water would be freezing.

This is our (Haley and I's) second time jumping in, because the first time we did it we did not get a good picture, and what's the point of jumping into freezing cold water if you don't have a picture to prove it? You can click on the picture to see more of our trip.

The students are not going to be here till August, so we have a few months to get to know our surroundings, our teammates and ourselves. I told you a little bit about the surroundings, and it has been a joy to look out of our windows and see layers of mountains! But another thing that has been great has been getting to know my teammates. Because we live so close to one another we get to see each other almost on a daily basis. The Schwartz' are not going to be with us until the first week of August, so we are looking forward to have them with us full time. In the picture below you can see our whole team (minus baby Tera and baby Toby) when we crossed the Virginia state line.

Top Row (L to R): Andrew and Maria Schwartz, Me, and JoshLayfield.
Bottom Row (L to R): Doug Rose, Haley Devine, Collin Setterberg, Julia, Isaiah and Matt Bradner.
Click on the picture for our NEW website!

One of the ways in which I have seen our team's unity has been through the eyes of the children. Isaiah, Toby and Tera are getting more comfortable with us and that reveals an intimacy in our team that has increased since we've arrived. I look forward to seeing how the joy of our team overflows into the community around us.

As we continue to learn about our surroundings and to be impacted by what Blacksburg has to offer, we hope that it will be a two way relationship and that as we receive from this community, that they also receive from us.