Last Week at KD/Back Home Again

Week 7 turned out to be a very chill week and a very good week to end on. I left off last time telling you that I was heading to the lake. It was beautiful out there. The weather was cool, but comfortably so. We didn't do a lot of tubing or anything extreme, but Ashley and Sarah and I just chilled on the boat- ate some watermelon, listened to David Crowder, took a small nap. It was good.

Monday we didn't have our usual Bible study in the morning, but we combined it with our usual Monday afternoon girl time. Meredith decided to focus on the themes of surrender and Christian suffering, which seemed to be reoccuring issues throughout project. We thought about what we valued and protected, if we would give that up if God asked, and how we would respond if it was taken away. Some pretty hard questions really. Then we talked about some examples of suffering in the Bible and the was that God used it. Then we all chose a rock, a decently-sized rock, and wrote down all those things that we burden ourselves with. Hebrews 12:1 tells us to "throw off everything that hinders." So we did that. We threw our rocks down into this creek below the outdoor chapel where we were. It was very liberating. Since we still had some extra time before dinner we all went to Graeter's to get some icecream! Mmm!

A little while after dinner City Cure had a surprise-ish party for us, to show us how much they appreciate our work. Barry Baker gave us each a rock to remind us that we are stone-rollers. To summarize what he said, in the story of the Ressurection, the stone was rolled away from the tomb not so that Jesus could get out, but so that people could see in and see the truth of Jesus. Basically, that is what we did for these children. We rolled away the stone so they could see the truth of Jesus. Pretty cool stuff.

Tuesday before the kids came I had to go to the post office to take care of some random stuff. I was going to go to the Lebanon one, because it was easy to get to, but Tonya had to pick up a package at the Oregonia post office, so we went there. It was the smallest post office I'd ever seen!! Tiny! It was so quaint because when they found out we were from King's Domain they went ahead and gave us all the mail for King's Domain to take back with us, haha. It was cute.

The kids came as usual. I was in cabin two with Kelly, but because she is one of the judges, she wasn't with me when the cabins were announced. I was a little worried at first because half of the girls were crying from the get-go. Not a good start. However, they cheered up pretty fast. The rest of the day went pretty well. We had a few trouble-makers, but in general they listened to directions and got along well. They were definitely more open than in past weeks. They shared a lot about their lives, good and bad. One of my campers had a mom in jail, that was really sad to hear. But she was a great girl. It was just about the best F.O.B time I'd had alls summer. They were all out like a light almost right away. In the evening, our small group didn't seem to go very well. Most were falling asleep or distracted. But Kelly and I still trusted that God was going to show them what they needed even if we didn't see it happening.

Tuesday night Kelly and I went outside to de-brief for the day and ended up talking for about 2 hours! Luckily the kids were asleep pretty fast, so we could have more time to talk. It was really great to help her with what she was going through and also be able to sort of some stuff that was going on in my life. I'm a very external processor, so it's necessary for me to talk through things to understand and figure out stuff.

Wednesday was a pretty good day. We still only had minor discipline problems. It was ballet week, so instead of our normal workshops all the kids had ballet class in the morning. Leadership divided up our time, so each day we only had to be at an hour of dance class. Seeing the ballet really brought me back to my dancing days, making me regret my fateful decision to quit. Anyway, Wednesday I got some free time, so I got an extra nap, that was nice. F.O.B. time was good again, but this time it was because one of my little girls, DeMaya, had basically brought a library with her and was sharing all of her books with everyone. It was awesome to see them all reading for fun!! Wednesday night is commando night, which is always very fun. My kids were really close to winning and got really upset that they didn't. It got a little crazy because we had some girls who were really disrespecting because they were pouting so much, but Kelly and I were somehow able to get it under some kind of control before showers.

Thursday is always my favorite day of the week. Instead of free time during dance I got discipleship time with Meredith. I hadn't really gotten any time to talk to her all project, so it was nice to talk through some stuff with her and confirm some things I had talked about with Kelly the previous nights. It started to rain a little, so we didn't do the Expedition like we normally do it. We went down the road rather than the muddy trail and just went through the colors at the cross. Instead of only one or two girls having to go, we had about half the group that had to go in the woods, haha. That was interesting. It started raining again while we were at the pool, so they bussed us up to the top of the hill to watch a movie (Barnyard). It was cute. I love watching movies like that with kids because of their comments. Jaylah was sitting in my lap and she had some pretty cute questions (although she fell asleep half-way through). Then after dinner, instead of playing games on the lower fields, they had various activities by the DH for everyone. Jaylah and I had fun at the dance party.

Thursday night was interesting. At Domainia, one of my girls was really deeply touched by the gospel message, which is awesome. But three of my girls decided that silly putty looked like bubblegum... which created an embarrassing situation for them when they realized it wasn't. Poor things had sore throats for the rest of the evening. I had a pretty serious talk with them about not eating things that aren't clearly labeled as food! It was pretty funny though.

Then at midnight about 6 or 7 of the girls came into my room and whispered happy birthday to me because I wouldn't get up and go outside, haha. It is amazing that none of my campers woke up. In the morning my campers sung happy birthday to me and gave me hugs. I loved that. Meredith got me and Ty (whose Birthday it also was) some starbucks. I got a skinny caramel latte. Mmm! Of course they sang us the Birthday Rap during breakfast. I wanted to record it, but didn't. Instead, I will at least write down the lyrics here so I don't forget!

Everybody put your hands in the air!
One, two, three, and to the fo'
It's birthday time in the KD yo!
So come on everybody and get on your feet
And dance to the rhythm of the birthday beat!
clap your hands!
clap your hands!
stomp your feet!
stomp your feet!
Now lean back, lean back, lean back lean back.
Now everybody just jump jump jump!
Everybody just jump jump jump!
Here we go,
Happy Birthday to you
wikki wikki
Happy Birthday to you
wikki wikki
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to you!
wikki wikki word

Friday was a day so full of mixed feelings. I was happy because it was my 19th birthday, but it was sad because I was leaving a place I had grown to love so much. Normally when the kid's leave there's always the hope they'll be back in weeks to come, but this Friday I couldn't have that hope. They were going back for good, at least until next summer. I went back on the bus with the kids, Jaylah fell asleep on my lap. I cried. I couldn't help myself. I knew I was going to miss these kids so much. Especially little Jaylah who had grown so attached to me. When we got to church and her uncle came to pick her up, it was really hard to say bye, for both of us. Her uncle didn't even look happy to see her, this precious little bundle of joy and cuteness. It broke my heart. I wish I lived closer. Jaylah wanted me to come visit, but I had to explain that I don't live in Cincinnati. I can still feel her little arms around me so tight. It still makes me tear up just thinking about it.

After all the kids were taken care of, the staff who had gone with the kids went out to lunch at Penn Station, that was yummy. I'd never had it before, I think it's a Cincinnati thing. When we got back to camp we didn't have a formal de-brief like normal, we just did camp close-out stuff. Then showered and got ready to go to Niwana's house for dinner and fun.

Some people left Friday night, that was hard. I left Saturday morning around 9, trying to make my good-byes as short as possible. I didn't want to start crying. I with-held my tears while I was around people, but as soon as I started to drive out of camp the tears came. I cried most of the way home really. Other than that it was a pretty easy drive.

When I got home, Nanny and Chris were there to welcome me and give me my cards and gifts. A few hours later Austin came. Then we went to a show Chris had in some random barn. Kat came with, it was a pretty good show. I only stayed for Chris's set because I was really tired, but he played well. He says he bombed it, but I still think it was good.

After the show Austin gave me all of his gifts. He had already given me three roses earlier (which are still blooming beautifully) just for seeing me again. The gifts were awesome! He got me a rock from Mt. Fuji, and a scarf thing from there, as well as some Yen. He also got me these Japanese Koala cookies that I loved when I was kid. So yummy! On top of that he got me two stuffed bunnies from Japan's Disney. They have magnets that makes them stick together. The boy bunny has flowers that transfer to the girl bunny's arm. It's so cute. And it's not done there! He also got me a book of the complete C.S. Lewis essentials, and Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. I'm pretty sure that's all. It was really great.

Unfortunately, after he had given me all that, we had to have a more serious talk. We decided that God really wants us to take a break from the relationship to work on some things individually. After a lot of prayer, we're pretty sure that God still wants us to get back together, but that we just need some time not in a relationship to work things out. Both of us are pretty excited about what God is going to do in this time apart.

It's still weird to be home. I'm not quite used to all this free time yet. But I guess it doesn't matter because I move back in for RA training on Monday already. I don't feel quite ready for that either. I'm only beginning to process all the stuff I learned in the 7 weeks I spent at King's Domain. It's going to take awhile for me to really understand it all and apply it as well. I'm glad that facebook and phone calls still keep me in contact with all the awesome ladies that I grew so close to, that will be awesome support for the weeks.

Overall, I can say that my heart now has a special place reserved for Cincinnati, or at least for it's children.