"Love Winston-Salem" - Day Four (Landscaping at inner city elementary school)

Well. We had good intentions. Really. We actually spent kind of a leisurely morning today...me drinking coffee and reading, them playing nicely with legos. And then we leisurely got ready to go and left about 10:40 a.m. talking about how we can help to make the school look pretty and how the parents of these students may not have enough money to help the school do this. And then a bit further in the neighborhood we had to turn around and retrieve forgotten shovels (that we were requested to bring). And then we were off! Flying down the highway! To where the school is! You know - that part of town that I'm not familiar with! But, never fear, I have directions in hand! So, we're driving down the highway, and I'm not seeing the exit come up as the miles fly by. So, I call Al who works in that area. He gets totally confused about where I am and where I'm going and what I'm doing. So, we hang up, and I get off the highway and turn around and go the other way for a bit - maybe it's on the other side of I-40?? And I'm still not seeing the exit. Did they take the sign off before I got there? So, I pull off a few miles down and call my mom who used to work at this school. Thirteen years ago. And she hasn't been back since. And while she did give me some rather sketchy directions, I was willing to give it a whirl. So, back on the highway! And, THE EXIT SIGN MAGICALLY APPEARS. It was a Landscaping Miracle (meanwhile, I'm trying not to think of how much gas I'm using). And from there, finding the school was a piece of cake (I think the sign - not kidding about this - is labeled with a different road on the other side of the highway). And it's about 11:20, so we're not too late. Because they were starting at 11 a.m. Only guess what - they didn't. This site actually started at 10 a.m. Clearly, I didn't recheck the time this morning. And since we had to be somewhere at 12:30 p.m., we had about an hour to work. But we did work hard in that area spreading pine straw and chatting with the neighborhood children that came up as we were working. Tonight, after Matthew's final swim lesson, I heard Matthew telling his cousin about what we have been doing this week and why. So, we may not be the most timely workers. We may be directionally challenged. But what we have done this week has made an impression on my little tots and hopefully is a step forward in showing Christ's love to our community.