charlie and the moon archives.

-- is what I read next to her name on our paperwork on Sunday. She is nine years old and has been blind for three years. She had eye cancer and as a result now has 2 glass eyes and residual nerve damage in her legs from the chemo. She also has to have an inhaler and epipen with her at all times. She remembers colors and can tell you her favorite. She can also tell you what color her room is and that she does NOT like it. She loves horses and is excited to be in Rodeo camp this week, but is only really comfortable riding her own horse that she brought with her-- a white one named Duke. She sleeps on the top bunk and tells which counselor I am by all of the bracelets she feels on my wrists.

Less than 24 hours in and this week has already been amazing. I am so excited for what is to come in the next few days. Our girls this week are so cool, I can't even tell you. Rodeo camp is small, so we only have 9 in our cabin this week, which is awesome in itself. (9 kids, 3 counselors and 2 wranglers. That's a TON of one-on-one time.) However, when I got our paperwork on Sunday, I was worried. Reasons:

1. Our blind camper (I will call her T from now on). You guys, I seriously read that and was like, "WHAT?!" Last semester I took a class about how to teach/work with kids with disabilities (ALD 322, it's legit, take it.) and I had friends that were blind in school, but I have yet to actually have experience working with blind kids, much less living with them/taking care of them for a week. AND my brain was all, "How is she going to ride the horses and run the barrels?" And THEN I saw that she requested a top bunk and I said, "Are they serious right now?"

2. AGES. Because Rodeo camp is its own thing, we have all different ages in our cabin. We have 3 Sky 1 girls, 3 Sky 2 girls and 3 Sky 3 girls. Meaning we have a 3rd grader, a 9th grader and everything in between. My thoughts were, "The older girls are going to hate having to hang out with the younger ones all the time." and " How can I be a Sky 1 counselor and a Sky 3 counselor all at once?" and "Sky 1 I can do. Sky 2 I'm getting the hang of it. Sky 3? I don't know about that."

3. Our girls start to arrive and I find out that one of them has just been adopted from stinkin' Ethiopia (HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?!) and just got here in January. (I will now call her C). She is precious but doesn't speak English all that well yet. She does speak it well enough to communicate and probably a lot better than I would if I had just gotten here in January. But she is our 9th grader and I was really worried about her being able to relate to the other girls her age and/or them including her in things and honestly just how she would respond to summer camp in general. I'm like, "If I had just come here from Africa, I would think all these people were crazy." And also, "How can I play with these Sky 1 girls, love them, serve them. Play with T, love her, serve her and make sure she has everything she needs at all times. Love on these Sky 3 girls who are almost in high school at the same time as hanging with Sky 1. Show Jesus to this girl who just got here and doesn't speak English fully yet and probably already thinks I'm crazy. And how can I show all of them Jesus in a way that is going to make sense?"

I think I prayed all day yesterday.

Since then: T was so excited to get to cabin 18 and find out she had a top bunk. None of the other camps she has been to actually put her on a top bunk even though she had wanted to be. Girls started arriving and meeting each other and we pretty much skipped that whole, "I'm awkward because its the first day of camp and I don't know you" phase. The older ones started playing with the younger ones and it was awesome. So far, everyone in our cabin gets along and looks out for each other. The Sky 3's take turns giving the Sky 1's piggy back rides, and all of them take turns holding hands with/leading T when we are walking somewhere. T is pretty self-sufficient, although we have to help her find things and get food and stuff like that. That is going to require a LOT of patience this week, for the counselors as well as the other girls.

No one (that I can tell so far) is being left out, even C. It is still hard to tell what she is thinking/how she feels about camp and this whole thing, because I think she is kind of shy (that or she just doesn't know how to respond to all of this), but today at lunch she joined in our laughing and playing games, and that was GOOD. The girls all share snacks with each other and the older ones look out for and take care of the younger ones like they were their own sisters.

I don't think I have adequate words to explain how stinkin' cool my cabin is this week or talk about what kinds of things I have already seen the Lord doing this week. I know that it's only Monday, but I have seen so many cool things in these girls already. I hope that they continue to love on and take care of each other throughout the week and don't get frustrated by always having to do things a little differently because of T or always having a younger Sky 1 girl following them around and stuff like that. So far, I haven't seen any of this and that is AWESOME. I think this will be a very challenging very awesome week.

Fun storries:

1. Last night we were at the crazy pool after dinner and I was still dealing with some of my culture shock of having Sky 1 and Sky 3 all at the same time. I was hanging out with some of my girls- one of the Sky 1 girls and two of the Sky 3s. It was so fun because I LOVE Sky 1, but also began to discover how much I dig Sky 3. We were all hanging out and all of them were having a good time. And the Lord kind of just gave me one of those, "You got this. You're going to be fine." moments.

2. Yeah so I totally LOVE my Sky 3 girls. They are so much fun and they crack me up. One of them met me ONCE and decided that I was "the coolest counselor" and "her BFF" (as she put it). They also say that I look like a girl named Stevie from The Saddle Club? (Does anyone know what this is?) It is so fun to see them interact with the younger girls, and I love that none of them reacted like I expected them too. I wish that I could say that I was as cool as them when I was in middle school/going in to high school, but I doubt it. They are studs and I am pumped to get to know their hearts this week.

3. I still have some of that Sky 1 counselor in me though. Last summer I would always sing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" with my girls. I would start it and they would all join in at the top of their lungs and love it. We were walking to lunch today and I thought it would be fun so I started singing it. Yall, I sang the whole thing real loud by myself and my girls just looked at me and kept talking. Sam, one of the wrangers with us this week, looks at me and says, "Haley, you're just not cool enough for Sky 3." I laughed. Sky 3/Rodeo girls- not a fan of singing Mary Poppins at the top of their lungs. Duely noted.

4. While at camp this summer I have rediscovered the beauty of bedtime storries. I love reading to our girls before they go to sleep. Last week we read about Ruth, the woman at the well, and a few others I can't remember. Last night we read about Noah. My favorite is when I finish reading a story and one of the girls sits up and looks at me and says, "That was a cool story!"

4. HOW COOL IS GOD IN THIS STORY: Our first week of Rodeo camp (back during Session 2) it was cloudy every morning while we were at the arena and sunny and hot in the afternoons when we went to the pool. How sweet was it that the Lord provided clouds/shade from the sun during the morning hours when we were at the arena and it would have been insanely hot/we would have been baked. Every morning without fail it was cloudy during arena time. Since that week there has been no rain, no clouds, NOTHING. Sun and heat and 106 degrees and "I walk outside and can't breathe it is so hot." You guys, we get to the arena this morning and what happens? CLOUDS AND A BREEZE. Its sunny during breakfast, we go down to the arena and I realize, "Hey, I'm not DYING right now." Then I notice that out of nowhere the sky is totally overcast. And then it gets windy and I think it stayed in the low 90s this morning. HOW COOL IS THAT. How awesome is God in providing for us and taking care of us?! I LOVE IT.

I am so excited about this week. I am excited to share the Lord with these girls and to get to know their hearts. I am excited for the challenges to come and the cool things I am going to learn. This is my last week here. I will not waste it. I will not waste it being tired or complaining or being distracted or doubting. I will not allow myself to be attacked in some of the ways that I know I have already been attacked this summer.


I'm so pumped. I love it. One week left, lets DO IT. :D