Hiking the Trail

When my son graduated from North Carolina State University, we dropped him off at Mount Katahdin, Maine and five months later we picked him up at Springer Mountain, Georgia. Amazingly, he hiked the entire Appalachian Trail which is a total of 2,174 miles. Leaving him on that cool, brisk sunny day in May was one of the hardest things that I have ever done. It was something that he desperately wanted to do and I had to put my faith and trust in God that He would look over my son and protect him, but if this was not God's will and something went wrong; my faith and trust allowed me to believe that God would give me the strength that I needed to survive. My son made it and along the way spent a lot of time with God, enjoyed the beauty of God's creation, made lasting friendships, but struggled each day with the strenuous effort that it took to survive walking for 20 or so miles most days. He persevered and learned many life lessons along the way. I was BLESSED as I watched my son continue on his quest. I prayed continuously, hiked some of the trail with him, mailed him packages to the mail drops along the trail, and waited patiently on the precious and few phone calls that he could make along the way. It is hard to describe the feeling of pride and love that I felt as I saw him walking toward me at the end of that trail. I hugged that dirty, smelly, son of mine and thanked God for all of the BLESSINGS along the way!