As camp is coming to an end, I am filled with the usual mixed emotions. I am more than ready to reintegrate into community and to have a bathroom that does not smell like stale urine but will greatly miss the lifestyle (and help) at camp. Since most are not familiar with what we do, here is a typical day for us at camp

700 boys rise and put on pirate gear
730 Cherly Anne (our nanny and dear friend) arrives
800 breakfast in the dining hall
830 play in woods by dining hall
900 morning Chapel
945-1030 play somewhere on camp
1030 snack time (cheezets) at the ranch house (where the campers get their snacks)
1030-1230 pool, sandbox, play around camp, library, or some other random activity
1230 lunch in dining hall
130 come home and eat popcycles
200 watch "Calliou"
230-430 naps
430-515 still a depressing time of day for me....even with help
515 Daddy time for the boys
600 dinner in dining hall
700 pirate skit at chapel
745-830 ready for bed
830 bedtime

So that is pretty much our summer for the most part. I love routine so this really works well with me. It is also nice being able to eat meals with Jeremy and see him throughout the day. It has been a fabulous summer. The boys play so hard and are incredibly dirty...as they should be. It brings me so much joy to see them running around in the woods playing pirates, knights, or camp (K likes to be a camper and C likes to play "Jeremy White the camp director" which in his mind consist of spraying wasp nests and talking to homesick campers:) There are so many things about life here I will miss, but perhaps the most (besides Cherly Anne) is the freedom the boys have to run and play.

Camp Care

 
 
 
 

Two night ago, my older boys participated in a camp wide activity with two cabins of children ages 6-8 who have been struck by cancer. Some are in remission, others currently in treatment, others are the siblings. Camp Care has been coming to Lurecrest for over 20 years. They bring their team of doctors, nurses, goofy clowns w big hats, musicians and child life specialist to create a week of camp for these sick kids...a week where a bald head is not glanced at twice...a week where everyone in your cabin is receiving some type of medicines....a week that allows these kids to do what cancer often robs them of...being children.

I love Camp Care. I love their energy. I love their staff. They all have a story. Many of the staff have lost a child to cancer or are cancer survivors themselves. They bring a huge dose of reality to our summer yet with such joy. I love seeing these bald kids, not hooked up to IV's but swimming in the pool, singing goofy songs, eating ice cream.

During one of the music times....a nurse, who I now consider a friend, was telling me about the different kids and all their stories. It took everything in me not to loose it. It was evening, the sun was setting behind the mountains, all the kids were lining up doing the "locamotion" around the chapel...a typical camp summer evening, and I was allowed access to parts of the stories of these kids, it really was heartbreaking. One little boy has had cancer since he was "months old," another the treatment caused his eye to fall down into his cheek (he has been on hospice for three years now....and is a star here as he has survived the odds once again), another the treatment has grossly stunted his growth. As I looked around the chapel that night, I was struck at the resilence of these childrens hearts. They are not letting cancer destroy them...not who they really are. I also deeply mourned at how fast they have had to grow up and the experiences they have had to endure at such a young age.

I am thankful that my boys will be exposed to Camp Care and to see that hard things happen but there is joy in it. I hope it will sew on their hearts a knowledge that this world can not be all there is...it is too painful. I hope it will point them to Jesus to help make sense of so much suffering. I love seeing them with these kids...they have no clue they are different...they have not even asked about the boy with the drooped eye (and they have seen him)....they just see them all as kids. Keller told me that the camp care campers were his favorite so far...when I asked why, he said "because they really have fun." wow....there is alot to be learned watching these kids.