Yesterday after Ace came home from school he sat down in the living room and was reading a book. Out of nowhere he announced, "I learned a prayer in school today." So I asked him to tell me the prayer, which was a simple, Thank you God for my food, family and friends. Then I asked him, "Did you still do your cross before you ate?" and he said, "Yes but I was the only one." I went on to tell him that there aren't a lot of Orthodox people around here and he'll often be the only one but that's o.k. because many of our saints were "the only ones" too.

But the conversation got me thinking about how great it would be if all of our kids {and us, maybe moms could include a note to eachother} could meet eachother. I think it would be such a blessing for them to have more interaction with kids that have the same beliefs and customs. So that got me to thinking of ways to make that possible. So I thought why not see if anyone would be interested in being an Orthodox pen pal? While our children still might not be going down the slide together they could be traveling a journey together. A journey that for some of our children is kind of lonely right now.

Children will be assigned partners based on gender, age and interests and can write one letter (we're talking snail mail here not e-mail) per month to their pal. There's not so much an "age" requirement as long as the child has basic writing skills. (This will be great practice too!) Letters can be about whatever is on the child's mind that month but we should try to encourage them to write about things involving our Faith or church functions, etc. Parents will be responsible for making sure the content of the letters are appropriate. They can add little icons, stickers, coloring pages, etc with their letters if they want. I think it will be a lot of fun!

Would anyone be interested in doing this? If so we can set a deadline to get me your information and then I'll assign pals and we'll set a date for getting the first letter out! I was even thinking I can post a monthly challenge or something that they can all work on and discuss. Feel free to pass this on to other Orthodox kids and Sunday School classes!

Any other ideas?