Camp: The short version

I have much, much more processing left to do from camp, but for now, I will give you the short version of things.  Obviously we made it back home safe and sound after a week of volunteering with Royal Family Kids Camp, a camp for kids in the foster care system in the Mankato area.  It was an amazing (and also exhausting week)!  The week was filled with lots of challenging moments but also many touching and heartbreaking ones as well.  Kids got to swim, fish, build in the woodshop, make crafts, play games, mini golf, sing, and dance.  Every day we had two different times with singing (Brian was part of the band that led the music) and Bible stories.  On a few nights we had special events.  One night was a superhero party for the boys and a tea party for the girls.  They both involved costumes and lots of fun activities.  Another night we held a birthday party for all the kids where each one got an individual sized 3-tier cake with their name on it and a box of birthday presents.  The girls did a lot of fingernail painting (they went through four bottles of nailpolish remover in the week!) and the boys played a lot of basketball. 

Brian and I kept busy doing behind the scenes work like setting up for events and jumping in wherever help was needed.  We both got to experience and/or watch a lot of cool moments with the kids.  The hardest part of camp was definitely having to send them back to their guardians (some parents, some foster families) at the end of the week.  All of the kids we had at camp this year are eligible to come again next year, so hopefully we will get to see them again.

Maya also had a great week.  Grandma Cher and Grandpa Al were gracious (and brave) enough to take her for the week.  From the sound of things, Maya was a champ.  She slept 12 hours a night straight through and took 2-3 hour naps each day with almost no crying.  She had a blast helping with the sheep, geese, and chickens around the farm.  When Brian and I went to pick her up, she kept pointing things out to us, "I see a goose!", "I see a sheep!".  They kept her busy with lots of outings to visit friends and family each day.  She didn't seem to miss us much at all, but she was a little extra cuddly, so I think she did.  Yesterday I was carrying her and gave her a kiss on the cheek and she said, "I missed you mommy."  Melt!

Anyway, now it's back to our regular routine.  Brian is back down to working once a week and every other weekend.  I will go back to my regular work hours next week.  I hope to finish writing up a few more detailed stories from camp to share later this week, so stay tuned if you want to hear more.