Southland Christian Camp 2012

Good Morning!!

(This is the Counselor/Staff Choir singing during one of the evening services!)

Summer Camp 2012

When I discovered that my 8-year old had lice, 5 days before we were scheduled to drive 4 hours away to summer church camp, I wasn't sure that the camp would even let us come.
Lice is never a welcome visitor at an overnight church camp.....never.
So on that Wednesday night, I was just overwhelmed with all the work we were going to have to cram into the next 72 hours just to make this trip a possibility.

My husband assured me not to cancel everything as we still had time to make it happen.
No one that I talked to seemed to think it was an impossible task, and my children had been looking forward to it all year.
We had worked through the summer to earn some money (though candy sales were dismal this year surprisingly), my husband had taken a week of vacation to stay with our other 3 children, so I felt I just couldn't throw my hands into the air and give-up without a fight.
And lots of prayer!

I didn't try calling the camp on Friday because I knew it would be hard to reach anyone while they had a camp going on.  So I tried to reach someone on Saturday.  Couldn't get an answer.
I tried a couple times.
I called our youth pastor later that day to let him know what had been going on and he suggested that I try e-mailing the camp nurse.  Which I did.
By Sunday, I still hadn't heard anything.
I mentioned this to our youth pastor again, and he said that if I couldn't find anything on any of the three children going (and myself!) that we would go on (it wasn't our fault they weren't answering their phones.)
Sunday afternoon we were pretty much packed to go.....just a couple things left to launder and children's heads to shampoo with tea tree oil shampoo.......but a storm came through.
It knocked our power out.
This was at about 3:30 pm.
We went on to church and I was so thankful for a nice air conditioned building to go to that evening.

(I snapped this picture on the way home from church that night.  I think it was a secret message from the Lord....a teaser, if you will.....to remind me at that moment that He keeps His promises and is still here in control of things...especially in light of what we still had to face in the next 24 hours!)

When we arrived home, around 8:30 pm, we still had no power.
And it was starting to get dark, and we realized we had no matches....or batteries.
So we quick packed everyone back up into the van and scooted to my mother-in-laws home where we showered everyone, and did a quick bit of laundry!!
Thankfully, we got text messages from neighbors that our power did come back on around 10:30 so we were able to get everyone to bed at a pretty decent time and sleep comfortably.

In the morning, we scrambled around and had just about gotten everything loaded up when my phone rang.
5 minutes before we needed to leave for the church.
It was the camp.

There was a new nurse this year, and she had only just gotten the email that I had sent to the other girl.
She began quizzing me on who had had the lice and what we had done to treat it.
Who had been treated?
How many times?
What else did you do?
How long since you've found any nits?
"I'll have to consult with the other nurses and call you back because it all depends on how long you've been nit-free and I forget how long that is."
5 minutes before we need to leave.
I was NOT a happy camper (no pun intended).

Thankfully, she did call back within a few minutes and said that we could come, but that they would have to check all 4 of us and that if a nit was found that person could not stay.
Fair enough.....but no pressure there!!

I was pretty emotional about that and was a nervous/anxious wreck.
What if I had missed one?
It's incredibly difficult to see those nasty nits and nearly impossible to get them all out on the first pass.
I'd found a stray one on our youngest on Saturday!!
I checked those of us going again in the van on the way, but saw nothing.

As we traveled those 4 hours to the camp, I tried not to dwell on the "what-ifs."
A very dear, sweet friend had hugged me at the church as I started to crack a little bit, and said,
"You've done your best and have to leave it up to God."
I tried to focus on the fact that God had amazingly provided all the funds for 3 children to get to camp, and even though it had been a nightmare to get here.....we were on our way!!

When we arrived, we went straight to registration where the nurse was waiting.
My children had run on ahead of me, and by the time I got there, both my girls had already gotten the all clear!!
My son had never had them so I knew that he was fine!
I was worried about myself though as I had been itching like crazy all weekend.
My husband and daughter had checked and checked and assured me that there was nothing,
but I was worried they didn't know what to look for and I was the one who would have to go home.
All clear.
(I really think using that tea tree oil shampoo every day had dried my scalp out!)

Anyway, we were IN, and I could finally relax!!
What a week!!

(Can you see Abby in the middle of the picture...loving her very first group game ever at summer camp!)

The unexpected intruder.....lice!

It was worse than I thought.
When Abby came into our bathroom that morning, I got a better look at her head, and could see multiple big louse scrambling for cover on the top of her head!!
When you see the big bugs...you know that they've been festering for awhile.
Long enough for the original pest to get in her hair and lay some eggs, and for those eggs to hatch and produce tiny, little bugs.
For information on how long the life cycle of lice are, read here.

I checked our other children and amazingly, found nothing in either the 2 boys, my husband, and Ashlyn.
I found about 4 nits in Lexi's hair.
My husband assured me that he could see nothing in my hair.
(This was an enormous relief to me as I had just gotten home from staying my 96 year old grandmother's apartment and sleeping on her bed, not to mention my daily visits with her in the nursing home!)
I found it astounding that with all the places Abby had been in the house (on sister's beds, in the van, laying on Mommy's pillow, laying on Grandma's bed earlier in the week, on my lap) that more of the household wasn't infested.
God's mercy.

I called our pediatrician for advice as soon as I knew they were open.
I needed confirmation that what I was seeing was what I thought it was!
Instead, he preferred I not bring Abby in, but that we just treat the whole family.
The nurse recommended treating with "Cetaphil: Gentle Skin Cleanser" instead of the very chemically treatments like "Rid" or "Nix."
For information on how this works, read here and here.
I had also heard from a missionary friend of mine that Tea Tree Oil shampoo worked to get rid of lice as well.
So I ran out and stocked up on the Cetaphil, nit combs, and tea tree oil shampoo.
In the meantime, my husband turned himself into the Laundry Monster.
We had the children strip off all the bedding on their beds and he started piling everything into the dryer for 10 minutes, then the washing machine for cleaning.
The piles were enormous.
All the stuffed animals and pillow pets got shoved into air tight garbage bags where they would stay for 2 weeks.
By the time I got back from the stores with our treatments, he had a good start on all that.

These became our best friends for the next 48 hours.

All 8 of us had to be treated and our hair combed through. 

It took me two hours on Abby's hair alone!

I cut Abby and Aryn's hair into cute little bobs!

I think we finally had everyone shampooed and one treatment done by 10 pm that night.

My mother-in-law had also been over for a couple hours to help us with vacuuming, and the other things that still had to go on.  She also took some laundry home with her to do as well!!

On Friday morning, I checked everyone again, and retreated.

This time, I found some live bugs in Aryn's hair and several nits.

Abby had just a few nits, and I found a couple more in Lexi's thick carpet-like red hair!

We treated and shampooed every day until Saturday.

I checked everybody's head twice a day, and the laundry looked like this:

I had already prepped the children that if I found one nit in anybody's hair, that person would have to stay home from church with me on Sunday.

Mercifully, we were all clear.

All 8 of us.

And we had decided (my husband, our youth pastor, and myself) that if everyone was still clear on Monday morning, we would be going to summer camp as well.

It worked out quite nicely that as we washed up every stitch of clothing that had been laying around and possibly in contact with those infested, I would just fold and pack into bags for camp.

We just had to get the all clear from the camp.

But I couldn't get them to answer the phone.......

The unexpected intruder

Seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!
The very. same. evening I flew back home to my sweet family from Philadelphia we ended up in a mess!
A gut-wrenching, drop me to my knees, begging God for mercy, mess!
Not only was I mentally and physically tired from my amazing journey to unexpectedly visit my grandmother, but I had only 4 days to get myself and 3 children completely packed for a week at summer church camp 4 hours from our home.
I tend to be a bit OCD about the packing thing, so I was trying to get myself mentally organized for the task at hand.
There was much hugging and kissing at the airport and everyone wanted to cram all around me in the van during our ride home.
Abby even had to sit on my lap.
It was all very sweet.
We had so much fun unpacking all the goodies I had brought home, and there was much story telling all around.
Then, about 8:30 or 9:00 pm, Abby comes to me quietly in the kitchen and she says rather off-handedly, "Mom, my head has been itching a lot lately."

When she said that to me, I practically froze in horror where I was standing.
Somehow, I knew this was my worst nightmare come true!

You see, nearly 19 years ago, I was working in a group home for abused and neglected girls in Manchester, NH as a child care worker.
We had been through some staffing turnovers, and it was down to just myself and two other amazing child care workers caring for 10-12 girls by ourselves.
As God had predetermined, while we were short staffed, we had an epidemic of lice come through brought back to the home by one of the girls who had been home with her biological mother for awhile.  It was a nightmare for us.
Come to find out only 1 or 2 of the girls did not have it.
The amount of work we had to do to rid the home of this was just staggering and exhausting!
It was a couple months before we stopped getting calls from the school that one of the girls still had a nit in her hair!
As a young mother, I would relive that experience and try to think ahead to how I would handle a situation like that if it ever occurred in my own home.

No one could have prepared me for Abby coming to me that evening.
I just knew what it was.
I immediately began looking around her ears and at the nape of her neck, and sure enough, I immediately found 2 nits and one tiny louse just behind her ear.

I crumbled.
Literally.
It wasn't pretty.
I had to go and sit on the edge of my bathtub because I was so nauseous and overwhelmed with what that meant for our family for the next 72 hours.
I didn't want to think about it.
I was so mad!!
Why now!!
Why couldn't we have come home from camp with it!!  Why not two years ago?  I was flying all through these other scenarios of when it would have been better timing!
I was so upset about what just slammed in my face that I frightened my children.
Poor Abby became hysterical because she thought this might make her die.
She couldn't understand why I was so distraught.

I had to pull myself together.
My husband was a little baffled at my response, but he was my hero!
This is what he said very gently to me:  "Whatever this means, we'll get through it together."
That was just the voice of God whispering grace to me in that moment.

I wish I could've been stronger.
I wish I hadn't crumbled.
I wish I could've seen the big picture in that moment.
I wish I could've had some big spiritual thought fill my tired brain.
Instead, I was very human.

At that moment I knew I needed help.
God's Divine help.
So, I stood in the hallway with Abby and Ashlyn (who were crying) and we prayed together that the Lord would help us get through this.
And I told my husband that he would have to call in to work the next day and let them know he couldn't come to work until we knew he was clear of lice.
I went to bed and hardly slept that night knowing what was ahead the next day, yet being uncertain how this would affect the plans we had had since the beginning of the year for the children to attend summer church camp that was to begin in only 5 days!!

An Unexpected Gift....Philadelphia (Series Finale!)

"Does Jesus care when I've said 'goodbye'

To the dearest on earth to me,

And my sad heart aches till it nearly breaks-

Is it aught to Him?  Does He care?

Refrain:

Oh, yes, He cares, I know He cares,

His heart is touched with my grief;

When the days are weary, the long nights dreary,

I know my Savior cares.

I have to admit that I was dreading Wednesday morning and having to say goodbye!

What an indescribable gift this entire trip had been for me!

At the beginning of this year, I had no idea I would have an opportunity like this.

I had no idea we would almost lose my sweet grandmother.

I had no idea how the Lord would bless this entire thing and effortlessly provide the funds, the child care, the lodging, the friends, the health!

I didn't want to say goodbye to such an amazing experience, but more importantly, to my grandmother.

Thinking realistically, (which is a bad habit I've acquired over the years and been accused of being pessimistic because of!) I knew the odds were high that this might be the last time I had the opportunity to speak with her face-to-face.

I was so glad to see she had been reading her Bible when I arrived that morning.

I asked her if she had a favorite passage of Scripture, but she was a bit vague about that.

So I asked if I could read one of my favorite passages....Psalm 55.

We shared some thoughts back and forth about that, and then I asked her if she had a favorite hymn.

Immediately she responded, "Out of the Ivory Palaces."

I tried to play a version of George Beverly Shea singing that piece on YouTube, but I had trouble with my phone's connection in her room.

Anyway, what sweet conversation we had until an aide came to take her for her therapy.

The lady snapped this picture for us.

You can't really tell that my heart was breaking at this moment.

Only after she was whisked away did the tears begin to flow.

What a blessed girl I am!!

Thank you, Grandma, for always being an example to me of sweetness even in the difficult places of life! 

Thank you for teaching me what a giving spirit looks like.

Thank you for never giving up!

Thank you for being so practical and willing to share your wisdom and experience with those coming up behind you!  

Thank for seeing the humor in silly situations!

Thank you for teaching me how to love the life God has given me to the fullest!

Thank you for loving your nursing career and being the best at it you could be!

Thank you for faithfully loving your church, and attending the same church for more than 5 decades, and for taking my mother and her sisters with you every week.

Thank you for being a prayer warrior.....for praying for me every day.....for being famous in your church as a prayer warrior!

Thank you for remaining faithful to your husband, who often was not an easy man to love, and ultimately seeing him come to know Jesus Christ as His Savior much later in life because of your "chaste and respectful behavior."  I Peter 3:2

You are my hero!

I love you, Grandma!

"Parting is such sweet sorrow!"

An Unexpected Gift......Philadelphia (Part 8)

"...Do not forsake your mother's teaching:

Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head.....

During the evenings while I was visiting my grandmother in Philadelphia, I stayed in and enjoyed the peace and stillness.

It was during these quiet evenings that I took the opportunity to look through her vast collection of jewelry.

Before anyone thinks I just snooped around and plundered her belongings while she was away, let me explain the situation.

My mother and a friend of hers had visited with her and stayed in her apartment a couple weeks before I could get there.

At the time, my grandmother was in the hospital and not expected to come home to live by herself any longer.

So in an effort to help get the apartment ready for whatever was going to happen next, my mother and her friend began cleaning and organizing some things (with my grandmother's permission.)

It struck me that at 96 years old, having arthritic knees that make it difficult to get around, one is not as motivated to stay on top of keeping your things organized.

My grandmother has a cleaning lady who helps with the cleaning, but she does not de-clutter or organize her belongings.

One of the things that my mother's friend did was go through her jewelry collection and neatly put each and every piece in individual little baggies.  She grouped sets of necklaces, bracelets and earrings together, and put together all the brooches/pins into one place, etc.

So my mother encouraged me to look through some of that while I was there to see if there was anything I might want.

I had no idea what a large collection of things she had!!

Neither did she (come to find out later!)

It took me more than one evening to look at each piece.

You can learn a lot about a person when you study the jewelry they wear or collect!

I discovered my grandmother enjoyed butterfly and flower motifs!

I also discovered that she loved earrings (based on the dozens and dozens of pairs she had), but had never had her ears pierced.  They were all clip on type earrings.

I found a random bag of cuff links, and thought of my husband who had just recently commented that he would like to get himself a couple of french cuff dress shirts for church again, but had no cuff links.

I thought he would enjoy wearing my grandfather's cuff links.

I then thought about my girls and how delighted they would be if I would bring home a piece of jewelry for them!

On Monday afternoon, I mentioned to my grandmother that I had been looking through her collection and wondered if she could tell me some stories about how she acquired some of these pieces.

I was really hoping for a great sentimental story about some of the pieces that I had found.

She told me to bring them in for her look at them.

When I brought what I loved the most, I was mildly disappointed that she couldn't remember where she purchased any of the pieces.

She told me that she would just buy what she liked.

She only remembered one set that my grandfather had purchased for her and that everything else she had picked up along the way as she was shopping.

I even asked her if she could remember an event or special outfit she bought some of the pieces for, but nothing special stood out in her mind.

When she looked at what I brought, she asked "Would you like to have them?"

When I told her, "Not these, but I know someone who would LOVE to have them."

"Who?" she asked.

When I told her "Lexi" she pushed them at me and said, "Take them."

She was concerned that there wouldn't be anything for the other girls, but I reassured her that indeed she did have some pieces Abby and Ashlyn would love!!

And those cuff links for my husband?

I brought them to her to see, and she said, "Oh, those were mine.  I wore them on my nurses uniform way back when nurses wore the long sleeve dresses with the french cuffs!"

But she said she was saving them for someone who would use them and she was so happy that my husband was interested in them.

I took her several more pieces that I was interested in for myself as well.  Several of them she wanted to keep, but these are the ones she gladly let me bring home!

We are keeping these set apart and special so as we wear them we can remember what a special, generous lady she is and how she loved sharing her beautiful things with us.

"......and ornaments about your neck."

Proverbs 1:8 and 9

An unexpected gift.....Philadelphia (Part 7)

Nearly as soon as I got there, my grandmother told me that she wanted me to have all the "Blue Willow" dishware that she had in her curio cabinet.
Wow.  What an amazing and completely unexpected gift!
So unexpected that I had made no preparations in advance for getting all these dishes back home.
Her gift included 7 dinner plates, 6 salad plates, 6 soup bowls, 6 dessert bowls, 7 cups and saucers, 1 very large serving plate, 1 divided vegetable server, 1 gravy boat, and 2 (taller) coffee mugs.

I was really so thrilled with all these pieces because I am an informal collector of all things "Blue Willow" and did not have several of these serving pieces.
We also use the blue willow as our everyday ware and had had a few plates and bowls broken over the years, and were needing to add to our inventory!
She told me that as she purchased these dishes, piece-by-piece, that she had thought of me.
She mentioned this to me on Sunday (I think), and I pulled everything out on Monday to look at it all, and by Tuesday was feeling that I had to do something that DAY about it because my flight home was the next day.
I thought I could just ship everything home, but as I began thinking about wrapping each and every individual piece, I began to see my time with my grandmother dwindling away and the expense going up as I would have to purchase all the packing materials!
So I thought I would just take it to a UPS store and have THEM wrap and ship it for me.
But I had no idea how much that would cost.
NO idea.
After several calls and two trips back and forth to get everything weighed, the total cost came to.......

$200!!

More than the value of all the dishes combined!

The folks at the UPS store tried helping me figure out how or if I could manage just carrying all the dishes onto my flight.

That would mean checking my duffle bag for $25 (considerably less than the $200), but carrying two boxes of dishes that weighed a total of 50 pounds.

I could see myself walking through security with all that, walking all the way to my gate, and then carrying it all on the plane.

I called the airport to ask if they offered assistance to people who needed help getting stuff to their plane, but I didn't get guaranteed answers.

One lady even told me that the attendants at the that gate were hired by American Airlines and were not required to carry stuff on the plane for people. 

I could see myself getting those two heavy boxes to my gate (after paying for a cart ride), but then struggling in front of a crowd of people to lift and carry these two boxes onto the plane and muscle-screwing them up into an over head bin.

I had a car to return, a shuttle to ride, and a LOT of walking to do to get to that plane.

My prospects were looking bleak.

By 5:30 on Tuesday evening, I finally decided (after talking with my husband about our options) that I would carry on ONE box of dishes (cramming everything else into my duffle bag so I didn't have to check anything), and I would ship ONE box.

The most important and unique pieces I carried with me, and the everyday dishes I carried to the UPS store for them to pack and ship for me!

My grandmother was just amazed at how complicated this all became and she wanted a picture of me wearing my duffle bag like a back-pack and carrying that box of dishes!!

She was also concerned about how much the shipping was going to cost and when I showed her the receipt for just over $100, she insisted on helping with the shipping!!
Thankfully, every. single. piece made it home to my house safely!!
We are using it every day, and it is such a sweet reminder of my grandmother's generosity and her eye for fun, colorful things that brighten up a kitchen!!
Thank you, Grandma!!