Been awhile I know. In fact I'm sitting in the exact same place when I wrote my last blog, Fort Smith. The roads have been a challenge for sure. I had no idea that they could make bumps and pot holes in so many sizes. Then just when you think you have them figured out they come by in a big truck and flood the road with thousands of gallons of water and mix in some slippery stuff all to make the roads better. Not sure how that works out, I can tell you on a motorcycle it will get your attention quick. The celebration at the Arctic Circle and Coldfoot was incredible. It was different than our past rides, only different because this was being celebrated for reaching a destination instead of riding into our 48th state, then it was was just a simple ride home. The Arctic Circle just brings us to the half way point and then we have to ride for another 10 days to get back home. Between all the bumps, dust and mud, going home sinks into my mind. You think about the kids and all the bumps that they have had in their lives, you think about the pot holes that seem like there is no bottom when you hit one. The life of a child taken out of a bad situation must feel a lot worse than that. What is home for them? The one that they were in was something that I could not even imagine, but it is all that they know and in some strange way I would think it is what they call home. Now that they have been pulled from that environment and placed in a safer place it still has to be hard for them. The night we pull back into Columbus we will know we are loved...we will KNOW we are loved. We know that we are home!!!!! When that child walks thru the door of Carpenter Way Ranch or the Arabella home there will not be hundreds of people cheering them on, but there will be love from the inside. I'm sure that it will be hard for them to even understand that kind of love at first. How foreign that must feel to them. Questions must pop up in their mind like why would anyone care about me. I'm also sure that it will be hard for them to recognize the love at first. I can feel it when I'm there. And I feel it from the stories that the staff members tell me, but at first the kids are still falling into that pothole. I still don't see how the staff is able to reach in and save them but they do. Each child is different just like the different bumps and holes that we hit on the road to the Arctic, each one has to be handled differently. One wrong turn or angle that you hit it will send you off in the ditch, the same with helping a child that has been brought to one of our homes. I do know that there is love inside and that the staff will find a way to reach it and show them a better way. They do this one child at a time. This is what we ride for. To help make a difference in one child's life. To give these kids a place that they can call home and feel loved.