Letters From Rifka

"The ocean is so big; everywhere you look in every direction swells this dark, billowing water.  It rises and falls as if it were breathing, and the ship skates over the surface."

"The seas, which had seemed so gentle yesterday, rose like hungry beasts, mouths open, hovering and crashing over the sides of the ship."  ~Letters From Rifka, by Karen Hesse

I was reading this to the boys at dinner tonight and it reminded me of my time dancing for cruise lines... the first excerpt more than the 2nd, but I love how Karen Hesse describes the two personalities of the ocean.  In fact, the first one, we read three times..."the ship skates over the surface."
This is a wonderful account of a girl's struggle to escape from Russia to find freedom in America.  The boys hungered for each chapter and  we enjoyed living the adventure through the story.  A great story about the risks and challenges of immigrating to America in hope and expectation of freedom and opportunity.

"As I was finishing this letter a cry went up from the deck. When I went out to see what it was, I found all the passengers gathered on one side of the ship, looking up.  They were looking at Miss Liberty, Tovah, the great statue of a woman standing in the middle of the harbor.  She was lifting a lamp to light the way for us."

Yes, this is where we live.  And where many have found their bliss...though their journey was immersed in challenges.