Remember Camp?

I dropped my daughter off at summer camp this morning. It's only a day camp. I wasn't ready to admit that she's big enough to do sleep away camp. It's the next best thing, though. It starts before breakfast and ends after dinner.

I never know with my kids. With all their mood, temperament, and health issues, I never know if something will be The Best Thing Ever, or if it will be a nightmare of epic proportions. The descent into epic crazy happens on a fairly regular basis. There's a mathematical equation for determining the odds that your kids will freak out about something, but it's complicated, and seeing as it's summer and all, I won't get into the details. It's basically that for each kid present, the probability of meltdown increases to the infinity-ith degree. It's pretty solid math. Ask a math teacher to explain it to you.

So dropping Tater Tot off at camp was a trifle nerve wracking for all of us.

There were several factors stacked against us:

1. Hobbes stayed home. Hobbes goes everywhere with her. If he's left home, she begs to go back for him. For the duration of the trip. If he's left somewhere, heart stopping wails clog our ears until we find him. Sleep will not come unless he's next to her. But today she decided to leave him home. She's big now, she told us. It would be better not to carry him around at camp, in case he got lost or sunburned. 

Besides, now I can take him with me during the day! All day! Everywhere! What a treat for me... 

Hanging out with his other best friend.

        

Getting some breffy in the drive-thru. Not all of us
get a fancy camp breakfast!

            

2. Tater is NOT a morning person. Under the best circumstances, she and I will willingly roll out of bed around eleven. Noon is better. Best is when we can sweet talk the boys into serving all our meals in bed while we alternate between napping and reading. Camp is EARLY!

3. Camp is unknown. My kids often find themselves surprised and mildly confused that new things can be, wait for it... fun! It's hard to see into the unknown and anticipate good things when you are constantly battling with anxiety, mood disorders, and shyness. I'm amazed at how brave they are when they do try new things, but it doesn't come easy for any of us. And when one of them sets his or her mind against doing something, usually at the very last possible second, there is No Going Back. (Reference: The Ear Piercing Debacle of 2013, The Great Hiking Hiatus of 2011, The Swim Lesson Lesson of 2009, etc.)

We were nervous. She was nervous. Hobbes wasn't there, but I'm pretty sure he would've been nervous, too.

Hobbes slept all day, but I kept praying that Tater would have an amazing day.

And you know what? She did! It was great. She absolutely loves it.

That's an off the charts GREAT day kind of face!

This is the face that met me at the end of the day. A happy, laughing, sun kissed, freckly face. Tired from a day that rated a 35 on a scale of 1 to 10. So now, camp isn't an unknown anymore, and we have one more awesome success story.

To all of my friends, near and far, who are struggling, suffering, worried, or in pain

Today, in response to the news that a friend was suffering, I mentioned to someone that God may not allow us to suffer more than we can bear, but sometimes that's not very comforting. She pointed out that there is no mention of that particular platitude in the Bible. And, she's correct. Turns out that Mother Teresa said something like that, and, while she's pretty high up there, she's not actually God.

She pointed out that God DOES allow us to experience more than we can bear. And it happens all the time. Personally, the amount of stuff that I can bear is quite small. I can take on one kid at a time, a small dinner party, or sometimes even a very minor crisis. Anything beyond that, and I'm in lockdown mode, hiding in the bathroom, wrapped in the shower curtain. I've also spent time under someone's guest bed with a pillow over my head.

There are a lot of people suffering more than they can bear right now. Sick kids, bodies in pain, death of loved ones, emotional trauma, financial burdens. The list could go on forever.

Image via Crescat

Fortunately though, that's not the end of the story.

Fortunately, God is bigger that all our problems. And while we may have to live through these awful seasons, and we may not be able to handle them on our own, we have to remember that we aren't alone.

God is with us.

But sometimes even that may seem like a small consolation.

Pain and suffering often make our field of vision narrow. How can I see anything but the face of my suffering child? How can I see beyond the pain of my damaged, broken body? How do I look past all the emotional turmoil that keeps my mind so tied up in knots that I can't even leave the house?

But God really IS with us. And even though we can't actually see him, I know he's here.

I see him in the faces of my friends that show up at my door when I can't leave the house. I hear him in the voices of the people who call, or in the words of emails and texts. There's the obvious places, of course; devotionals, scripture, messages at church. But I see God in other places, too. The play of light over my fluffy pup sleeping in a patch of sunlight, the chiming of the teacups hanging from tree branches in my backyard, the angry chattering of the hummingbird when the feeder is empty; all these things pull me out of my misery and remind me that I am not shouldering this alone. There are people and reminders all around me that tell me that I am not alone.

And knowing we are not alone in our suffering is a comfort. It may be a small comfort when squared up with whatever it is you're struggling over, but sometimes a small comfort can make all the difference.

So take heart, dear friends. You are not alone.