Annie and Natalie are home safe and sound from camp. They both had an amazing time! If you prayed for them, thank you so much! I was a bit nervous since Natalie is only 10. I probably would not have allowed her to go if it weren't for the fact that Bryan works at SL and we know so many of the staff there. She did great though and I believe the experience was good for both of the girls. As we were dropping them off that Monday Annie (12) turned to me and said "Don't worry mom, I'll watch out for Natalie." Brought tears to my eyes and made my heart swell big.
They were able to room together and their other two roommates were also sisters. Twin sisters. That was fun. We dropped them at the church parking lot on Monday morning. Ally and I both went into town with Bryan that day so we could see them off. Ally was sad that Natalie was going to be away that week. She was sad over Annie being gone too but Natalie and Ally share a room together and are pretty close and it was hard for Ally to see Natalie go away for the week. Throughout the week she kept saying how much she missed Natalie and things like "I wonder what Natalie is doing right now?" "I wonder if Natalie is having fun?", or "I hope Natalie is ok."While I hate that Ally was sad without Natalie it also warmed my heart to see the closeness between them. I hope and pray that that bond between them will always remain. The first thing Natalie wanted to do when she got home was tell Ally all about camp. ;)
We dropped them at 10am on Monday and they were off.
Ally seeing them off.
The only issue Natalie had during the week was a minor one and it was on the drive out to camp. The church rented a school bus to get the kids to camp. At one point on the drive out it went over a bridge and all of the kids started screaming. Natalie, as I mentioned in my post for prayer for her, has sensitivity issues with sound. The mixture of the noise from the kids screaming hurting her ears and the anxiety of going over the bridge, made her cry. She calmed down pretty quickly once everyone else did. I do believe the anxiety was mostly in part to all of the other kids screaming. She just doesn't handle high pitched noises well. I can relate to that since I struggle with sound issues myself since coming down with my Fibro. What might sound normal to most people is amplified in sound to her so when someone yells or screams it really hurts her ears. Outside of that though- Annie said their were no other issues that week. The bus stopped on the way to camp to get lunch at a food court in the mall. Annie said she and Natalie got Auntie Anne's Pretzels.
The house seemed so empty with them gone. It felt so odd. Everyone missed them. On Monday after dropping them at church Bryan dropped Ally and I at a local bookstore to browse for a few hours. It's funny because I usually go to the bookstores by myself. About half way through our time at the store Ally turned to me and said "I thought shopping in a bookstore would be boring but you know mom, this is actually really fun!" That made me smile. The store is in Hoover right across from the Galleria. It's a new store (new as in just this past two years opened up) and it's huge! It was once a Ross Dress For Less Store and it's now filled with used and new books. It's a place you can take your books that you don't want anymore and get credit for them to apply to books in store. The children's selection is half of the store and it's truly overwhelming. Every time I go I spend hours there and only make a dent in the shelves. They also sell puzzles and toys, thus one reason Ally was loving it. Bryan dropped us at 10 and came back and got us at 12:30. We went to our favorite local Mexican restaurant for lunch and then he dropped us at the theater before heading back to the office. We saw the movie Brave that afternoon. It was a great day of spending some time with just Ally.
On Tuesday afternoon our entire family headed out to Shocco Springs in Talladega (where camp was taking place). Annie and Natalie knew we were coming. During camp season Bryan has to make multiple trips out to Shocco to help the SL office staff that are set up there so our family typically goes out with him on a few occasions each year to eat dinner in the cafeteria and attend worship that evening. The kids always love "visiting camp". Especially the worship times. I think the fact that Annie and Natalie had been on campus before during our previous visits and knew the layout of the camp really helped them since this was their first time to attend an actual camp out their. Seeing behind the scenes of something always helps you understand it better. ;) We got a flat tire on our suburban on the drive out to Shocco. While we have had tires go flat before- it's always been a situation where we went out to get in the car and the tire was flat. This was the first time that we had ever gotten a flat while driving. Thankfully the drive to camp from our home is back roads. You can go the main interstate too but it takes longer. I'm glad we were not on the interstate when the tired popped as Bryan would have had a horrible time changing it had that been the case.
Houston now knows how to change a tire. They had it off and changed in 20 minutes so we still arrived at camp in time for dinner.
We pulled in right at 5pm and saw Annie and Natalie going into the cafeteria as we were parking. They were very excited to see us. We got in line to get our trays of food and then headed into to the cafeteria room and the girls were sitting down at the end of one of the tables. Natalie jumped up and ran over to us when she saw us. The first thing Annie said to me was "I'm learning so much about God, mom!" *Happy Tears*
Camden and Annie in the cafeteria. They served spaghetti, pears, salad, veggies, and cheese bread for dinner on Tuesday. They also had packs of oreos for dessert in the main cafeteria their are a couple of ice cream machines and the kids can get ice cream each night for dessert from them. I have to say that Shoccos food is actually pretty good for camp food.
For those that may not know, Shocco Springs is a Southern Baptist campus that hosts Student Life and other camps year round along with conferences. That is why the rooms that the kids stay in are more like hotel rooms than camp cabins. You do not have to be southern baptist to host your camp or conference out at Shocco though. Student Life camps are non-denominational. The campus has a lake with paddle boats and other water activities available. Some of the lake activities have a small fee and it's up to the individual churches as to whether they will book a time slot for the lake activities. The lake activities are always Emmys favorite part of camp when she goes.
The campus also has tennis courts, a put-put course, a swimming pool, basketball courts, a chapel, an indoor area with a cafe and ping pong tables and several other worship centers in addition to all of the rooms and large cafeteria. The kids can choose any of the above activities during their free time each afternoon and they also have some indoor activities set up in the gym like Wii dance on the big screen and other indoor games.
After dinner the girls wanted to show us their room which was in the section right next to the cafeteria and on the 3rd floor so we took the elevator over to check it out.
They had card keys for their room and we had to send a deposit for both of the girls and their keys. They both did great in keeping track of their keys and didn't loose them.
Something fun- at the end of camp week the rooms are inspected and awards are given for the cleanest rooms. Annie, Natalie, and their roommates won the award for the cleanest room at camp (out of 800 students that were at camp that week!) They were pretty excited over it. They got to go up on stage and were put in a video that was shown at the last worship gathering at camp.
After seeing their room it was close to 6pm and the girls had small group bible time with just our church at 6pm so they headed off for it and the rest of us headed down to the lake to hang out until worship at 7:15pm. Here are some pictures from our time hanging out and playing....
Can you tell who won? ;)
Houston reached a point just a few seconds after I snapped this picture where his body was even with the bars but he also lost his grip at that point and his nose went right down into the dirt. Actually gave him a bloody nose. 15 years old and his first bloody nose.....not too bad. We have been joking with him that that is what he gets for letting his dad spin him. ;)
Student Life keeps the chapel doors shut until 7:15 pm sharp so the kids can't get into worship early but we headed up at 7pm and used Bryan's pass to get in the back door.
The kids were able to meet the leader of the band while we were hanging out waiting.
We also visited the Compassion displays. Compassion INTL and Student Life have a very close relationship. They have been working together for years now. Every summer Student Life brings over several 18-20 year olds from Africa that were sponsored through Compassion through the years and the kids travel around to the different camps and share their testimonies of how being sponsored literally changed their lives. Their testimonies are always heart wrenching and tearful to hear. Sad and happy tears. Sad to hear of the conditions and situations that many of these students faced. Some are orphaned. Most have only one parent and all come from the slums in Africa. Being sponsored by Compassion meant they got a hot meal to eat every day, an education, and most importantly that they learned about God- all things that would not have happened had it not been for their sponsorship. Many of them were facing diseases that they were able to get help for too. Ally and Camden are standing in this picture in what is a typical sized home in the slums of Africa.
At 7:15pm sharp the doors opened up and 800 kids started filing in.
Annie and Natalie found us when they first came into worship but they sat with the church group.
We sat on the same side as Brook Hills (our church) so we would be on the same side as the girls.
The worship service always starts out with the band and worship music. Every time we go out to one of the worship services I am always so moved by watching and listening to so many students praise God. The week before this week Student Life had 1000 kids at kids camp at Shocco! Here is a short video clip (a little over 1 minute) of some of the worship time.
Then their is a drama performance that ties into the sermon.
Then comes the sermon.
Emmy helped paint that backdrop in the warehouse at the Student Life office. :)
Camden and Ally during worship.
Camden likes to stand out in the isle during worship where he could see the band real good and he was pretending to play a guitar himself during the songs. ;)
After the sermon one of the Compassion students speak and share their story. Compassion has tables set up at each camp where you can get information to sponsor a child and they have the packets for the children sitting out. When we chose to sponsor our two we got our first child from off of one of the tables at camp.
This is Maria with Annie. She is the younger sister of one of Emmys friends. She was adopted from the Ukraine and has been in the states for 2 years now. Emmy noticed when we were out at camp that Maria was wandering around alone during free time so she took it upon herself to introduce Maria to Annie and Natalie and the three of them hung out together the rest of the week. ;)
After the sermon is over the band comes back on with some closing worship music. Here is one last very short video clip of the last song sung at worship on the night we were out there.
Their is something called Late Night which takes place immediately following the worship service. It starts at 9pm and it is optional while the worship service is mandatory. We stayed for late night. It is some fun and games on stage and competitions between the youth pastors. Silly competitions like putting the youth pastors in tutus and having a hula hoop competition for them. ;) They involved the students in the games too. We left for home after late night. The girls were at camp all day Wednesday and Thursday morning they had small group and worship and then they loaded up on the bus and headed home.
This is a picture of the group of kids that went to camp from our church. One of the leaders emailed it to us. It's too small to see everyone clearly but Natalie is in the 2nd row 3rd in from left and Annie is the very back row behind the guy in the blue shirt.
Both girls had a wonderful time. They are eager to go back next year. They were able to follow the schedule just fine. At the start of the week Annie went to the wrong room for her first small group with the church but she was early enough that she had time to get to the right room. She said everything was easy to find and figure out overall. Natalie has been drawing pictures about what she learned at camp. She tends to express herself through drawing. I am loving her pictures. At camp the girls received a booklet that had the scriptures in it for their small group times and worship times. Students use the book and their bibles to follow along and their is a continued study in the book for them to keep doing once they are home. I have been going through their books with them this week as we continue that study.
I went back into town on Thursday with Bryan so I could be with him when he picked up the girls from the church parking lot. We all went to Taco Bell for lunch and then back to Bryan's office where the girls and I hung out that afternoon, most of which was spent talking about camp. Annie bought a small pony toy for Ally and she bought Camden a ball in the gift shop at camp. She surprised them with them when we got home. I thought that was so sweet that she used some her camp money to bring them something home. Natalie bought a glow stick wand and a big sucker and used the rest of her money for snacks from the snack bar. She used the glow stick to wave around during worship time. :) Annie also bought herself a necklace that has a blue cross on it.
The girls were exhausted on Friday and slept off and on throughout the day. They had to be up and going from 7am until 10pm each day at camp. Needless to say they were wiped when they got home. I was too after getting out of the house twice in a row. With the girls gone and I out of the house for those 2 days we didn't get much school done last week at all. We relaxed and enjoyed some family time on Saturday. On Sunday we all headed into town around 2pm to Bryan's work. He had some work that he had to get done that afternoon. We left for church at 5pm and then ran back by his work after church. We had pizza that afternoon at his office for a late lunch and we grabbed McDonald's after church and ate again at his office. We then ran by and grabbed a few groceries on the way home so we ended up getting in late on Sunday night. Made for a slow start this past Monday morning. ;)
I'm thankful to have all of my kiddos back safe and sound under our roof. I'm thankful for such a wonderful week and experience for the girls at camp. I'm thankful for all that they learned. Please continue to pray that the word that was planted in their hearts during camp would continue to grow them and their faith.
