Camp! Camp! Camp!

We have caught up on laundry, emails and sleep and not necessarily in that order. We were so excited to be going to camp and yet we had no idea what God had in store for us.

The counselor who had requested to be one-on-one with a camper and who was then assigned to stay with Sarah all week was the daughter of a family at our church, Bent Tree, who has helped us so much. We hadn't known them personally, but when our list of needs came out in the church as we were moving back, this family answered the call in a big way. And now their amazingly gifted godly daughter was Sarah's counselor. Of course, my heart was at ease, and more importantly my nerves, so that I was able to enjoy my time and focus on what God had for me while my children were being taken care of and taught about Jesus.

Block Party (Sarah's counselor's camp name) was so diligent and wonderful at her task of helping Sarah that by the third night, Sarah was dancing on the tables with the other girls in her small group! And the next day she came back from her class and told me she did the zip line! We saw lots of glimpses of the the pre-cancer Sarah, and it was encouraging. Sarah was on steroids for some of the camp and she was on two antibiotics and her daily chemo plus her 1 time a week 9-pill chemo. She was upset at times about having to fast two hours before pills at night and also about wearing her leg braces (which we didn't enforce but a little bit a few nights). Poor Block Party had to endure a bit of 'roid rage' as the steroids zipped around Sarah's body, but all in all, I was amazed at the great time God gave us. Even with Sarah's shyness about her bald head, God took care of that by putting it on the hearts of the girls and counselors in her small group to take their group picture all wearing head scarfs and not showing their hair!

Hannah jumped right in to her group making friends easily with everyone and winning the hearts of her counselors. Rebekah had her own class called the Rollie Pollies, and she got to go swimming and ride in the wagon. I also heard that she talked a lot and was such a happy baby.

Jay and I experienced such renewal and help in our marriage during the couples' sessions. And two of the nights were date nights, childcare and all!

And God did even more to confirm his hand in our lives and future. When we arrived at camp and went through the registration lines, we ran into a family from our home group at Pantego Bible Church 8 years ago! And they said another of the families from that group were there too! We were able to see meet all their children and renew our friendship. We were so excited to see that we all hadn't changed much! :) This home group has been one of the biggest blessings to us as they sent a love offering to us when we had Sarah as we didn't have maternity insurance at the time. And this same group that helped pay for Sarah's birth, also sent us a love offering complete with toys and crafts to Hong Kong when Sarah was diagnosed with Leukemia. By being with them at camp all week, God clearly reminded us of his provision and care for us through the family of Christ!

I could write many stories of God's grace to us throughout the week - maybe in the posts to come. Today, God's grace to us came as we had to get Sarah's blood checked today and her counts were right on target - wanting to be kept lower than normal so as not to allow her body to make any Leukemia cells. Her ANC was 1495 - perfect!