Happy Cows Come from Wisconsin and so do Happy Walkers!

Greetings all!

You may have noticed posts from the Northern Walk are few and far between–okay, there’s only one post from the North!  At least the family and friends of the Northern Walk has noticed.  See, this post is coming from the sister of one of the walkers.  I’m fed up with no updates so I’ve interviewed my sister and will fill you in!

It’s week 7, where are you at in your journey?
We near the Wisconsin-Illinois border currently making our way from the Land of Cheese to the Land of Lincoln.

Have the seven weeks flown by?
It seems like the weeks pass by pretty slowly, but when I look back we sure have traveled far in that short time.

What was your most rewarding experience thus far?
There have been many experiences that have touched the hearts of those of us on the walk.  Last week we were invited to a dinner with a Right to Life group in Iowa.  While we were there we met a couple that showed interest in walking with us for a day.  They got the go-ahead from our Walk Leader, Jason, and today joined us during the day shift.  While the couple may have thought we were inspiring, it was truly they who inspired us.  Through their stories and the work they have done to restore a culture of life they were a beautiful witness to us.  During our lengthy-goodbye, our new friend said, “I didn’t know you could love someone this quickly.”  It was beautiful to see fighting for a common cause could bring people together so quickly.

On a lighter note, describe the smell of the RV you’ve used since Seattle.
There are no words to describe it.

If you had to describe your experience thus far in one sentence, what would you say?
It’s not always fun, but I have hope that through uniting my suffering with that of Christ I can change hearts.

 What has been your biggest challenge thus far?
Living in close quarters for 7+ weeks with the same 10 people can be hard; it has been a beautiful challenge trying to love them even when they annoy me! 🙂

Tell me a funny story.
Oh gosh, there’s so many.  For example, have you even been asked the question, “Did you have good crack?”  Well, we have fun!  Niamh, our resident Irish walker, sometimes says things that we don’t understand.  We’ve now learned that, “Did you have good crack?” really means, “Did you have good fun?”.  🙂  Also, speaking of our lack of understanding the Irish, Niamh joined us two weeks late.  Prior to her arrival we all thought her name was pronounced “name”.  As it turns out, it’s pronounced like “eve” with a “n” in front!  After anxiously awaiting the arrival of “name” and then finding out she was “n-eve”, more than one of us accidentally called her “name” to her face.  We’ve got things all straightened out now and are so very happy to have had her join us!

Any last words or thoughts from the North?
Bed time.
So, that’s that for the seemingly never-going-to-happen update from the Northern Walk.  I hope that all the family and friends of the walkers–and regular blog checkers–are as happy to see an update as I was to write it and finally get some details from my sister.  Hopefully, another walker has family a few states East so we can get another update!

And, on behalf of all family, friends and the unborn, a huge “Thank you!” goes out to the walkers on all the walks.  Thank you so much for all the walking and witnessing you do for our unborn.

God bless you all!
St. Benedict, pray for us!