Girls! Girls! Girls!

Sometimes I'm just at a loss of words with Harper.  He is smart, stubborn, hilarious, witty, creative, secretly sensitive, confident, independent and oh-so-strong!  He was invited to a bowling birthday party tonight, for his sweet friend, Riley.  He knew he would be the only boy there....and he was totally fine with that.  It definitely didn't stop him from wanting to go celebrate!

The fun began when we attempted to pick out Riley's gift.  I knew Riley to be very girly and figured she might like something from the store, Justice.  The four of us walked in and clearly looked out of place.  As the store clerk came over to help, I explained the situation and she pointed us to some things.  However, Harper found a super cute outfit that we all thought looked like Riley.  As if watching my "boy family" pick out an outfit for an 8 year old girl wasn't funny enough....friends from church just happened to walk in at the exact moment we were joking about the small size, by holding the pink shorts up to Harper.  My friend, Angela, very calmly said, "Kim, you do know that this is going to require an explanation."   

Meanwhile, when Harper and Chris came home from the party, Harper walked in with a limp.  He immediately laid down on the couch, while Chris got an ice pack.  As he helped Harper get situated, they told Warren and me the story.  

Apparently, Chris was busy getting a couple of bowling balls for Harper and the girls at the same time Harper (who had already taken his shoes off) was busy getting his own bowling ball.  Harper dropped his bowling ball on his toe and, because Chris was at the other end of the building looking for bowling balls, he had no idea what happened.  So when he made his way back to Harper, he found him sitting down, by himself, crying hysterically.  After Chris settled him down, super strong Harp decided to "man up" (as his friend Riley tells him) and bowl with his friends.  

After we took his sock off, we found his big toe very much black and blue; I'm quite certain his big toenail is dead.  But I can tell you, had I not seen his toe, I would've had no idea anything was wrong.  Not one peep, not one complaint, not one tear.  In fact, even in his pain, he still kept us in stitches with his jokes, like: 

Q:  What do you call a donkey who doesn't know his name?

A:  Stupid.  

We helped him get a shower and tucked him in to bed...but not before he told me about the rest of the party.  (So, while Harper knew he would be the only boy...what he did not know was that there were going to be 20-ish people girls there.)  The only thing he had to say was "Mom!  I only went to the bathroom two times during the party.  That's all.  But those girls had to go at least five times!  And, they didn't go once by themselves.  At least five of them had to go at the same time....every time!"  Sounds about right!    

Flowers Don't Bloom....

They say flowers don't bloom without a little rain.  So, bring on the rain!

This summer, we've been preparing Warren for his first summer in the middle school camp at the Warren W. Willis Camp.  While he's been going to the camp for two years, he has always been with the elementary kids; this was our first "middle school" experience.  He had a blast the past two years...always immediately talking about the next year.  He was even more excited when we "roped" his school friend, Lincoln, into going this summer, too.

As camp neared, his excitement was met with lots of nerves, resulting in several nights of tears.  He was excited about going, but sad to leave us for the week.  Meanwhile, Harper was scheduled to start a LEGO Art Camp on Monday....so he would not be going with us to drop Warren off, like he had in years past.  That definitely played into Warren's nerves a bit.  But, we assured Warren that he would be just fine and once he got there, he would have a great time.

Our camp tradition has been that we stop at Fred's for lunch, before heading to Leesburg.  But since Harp was going to art camp, we decided to get up early and go for breakfast, before taking Harper.  When we got to Art Centric, Warren bravely held his tears back as he told Harper good bye.  (To clarify....he held his tears back long enough to get back to the car...at which point he unleashed!)

It was pouring when we got to camp, so check-in was a bit delayed.  When we finally got up to the check-in table, one of Warren's favorite counselors, Artemis (who happened to remember Warren's name....which made him feel super cool) told him that he was going to be in North Boys this week.  (While that meant nothing to me, for Chris and others who had experience with camp....it was pretty exciting.)  When a break in the rain came, we took off and rain out to North Boys.  Apparently, North Boys is one of the old, old cabins.  They've added a window unit for AC, but there are no bathrooms.  So, after we got his bunk ready....we rain over to the outhouse to check out where showers and bathroom would be.  Then, we made sure he was settled and said our goodbyes.

Though he did miss his big brother, I'd be lying if I said Harper didn't enjoy his week being a single child.  He had a blast at his LEGO camp, but did miss not having Warren around to play with in the pool.  So, as Saturday approached, we were all getting excited to head back and pick him up, though we were not looking forward to waking up so early.  (Because check-out starts around 8:30, we were planning to wake up at 6:30am to get on the road by 7am.)

But, God works in mysterious ways.  At 6:59pm, Friday, we got a phone call from an unknown number in Leesburg.  Normally, since I don't ever talk on the phone, I wouldn't answer it, but since it was Leesburg, I decided I probably should.  On the other end of the line was Nurse Karen, calling to tell me that Warren had been puking all day and we probably needed to come get him.  On the plus side, she said, he was in the Health Center with a friend of his from school.  (It's all in perspective.  While this was a plus for Warren, this was Lincoln's first experience at camp....not sure that would count as a plus for him.)

So, we quickly piled in the car (literally pulling Harper off the toilet), took off and made it to Leesburg in about an hour.  When we arrived at camp, they brought Warren out and he just fell into my arms in tears.  He looked weak and defeated and through his tears said "I just want to go home."  When we asked what was wrong, other than puking, he said he had a horrible week.  He shared some of the details of the week, telling us that some of the other middle school boys were pranking other cabins, some were turning off the lights in the outhouse, and lots were cussing.  Not only were we disappointed in the week, we were embarrassed for Lincoln's family.....first timers at camp!  We talked with Gwen and Ray (Lincoln's parents) who were also there, picking up Lincoln...and apologized for what seemed like a really rough week.  Gwen said perhaps there is a blessing among the week, that we just can't see yet.  What if God was using this week to prepare our very naive boys for what they may experience in middle school?  Perspective.  I hadn't considered that.

Our boys never hear curse words.  Those words just don't even slip out at our house, so it really bothers them when they do hear them.  They don't like it when people are treated meanly.  So, what if this week was meant to start preparing them, while still in a safe environment, for the road ahead.  Perspective.

And while the week seemed to be less than stellar, from what we are used too....it still provided an amazing place for Warren's faith journey.  On the way home, in between the "rough week" stories, Warren shared with us that he had found a Bible verse he really liked.  He couldn't remember it, but was excited to share it with us.  Chris and I both smiled, nodded and left it at that.

The next morning, Warren and I were the only two awake.  As we sat on the couch, we snuggled under a blanket and read his Bible......all his idea!  He wanted to find his new verse, Psalm 9:1-4:

"I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;
     I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and rejoice in you;
     I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.

My enemies turn back;
     they stumble and perish before you.
For you have upheld my right and my cause,
     sitting enthroned as the righteous judge."

And after we found it, he asked about my favorite verse, which I shared, 1 John 4:4:  "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."  Then he wanted to look up the verse of his favorite baseball player, Ryan Yarbrough, Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God."  So, we sat, reading his Bible.

After the rest of the house woke up, we all got dressed and in the car to run some errands.  Warren asked if we could listen to "Reckless Love".  I had heard the song many, many times before, but never really cared for it.  As we listened, he shared that they played it at camp a lot and he would cry every time he heard it.  Then, even went so far as to say this was his new favorite Christian song.  (I didn't realize he had an old favorite Christian song.)

So, while Warren didn't feel like he had a great week at camp...I'm convinced that he did...he just doesn't realize it.  Perspective.  After all, flowers don't bloom without a little rain, right?

Awards Time

It's that time of year again.  Awards time.  The time of year when we run back and forth between the boys' school and our work, in hopes of a) securing a good parking spot and b) making it in time to get a good seat.  It's the time of year when we try to act surprised by the awards the boys have been telling us about all year.  But sadly, with all the technology we have now (yes, I realize I sound like my grandmother), it's hard to be surprised by much of it anymore.  

Harper worked very hard to earn his AR medallion for meeting the second grade, 60 point goal.  So, we easily checked his record online to see he had met that goal!  He also worked hard to earn straight A's all year.  And yup, we quickly hopped online to check his grades and saw he met that goal as well!  And sure enough, as we sat through Harper's awards, we watched him proudly wear his new AR medallion around his neck as he walked up to receive his trophy for maintaining straight A's all year.  While we were equally proud of his SMAD, Skip Counting and Attendance Awards....his personal goals were for AR and straight As.  So you can only imagine we celebrated with him!

But nothing could've prepared us for Warren's awards assembly, his last awards program of elementary school.  Like Harper, we checked his AR and were already aware that he would not receive his AR medallion.  We checked his grades and knew he would not receive his trophy for straight A.  As motivation has been a struggle for Warren this year, we were prepared for those things.  And because they were participation awards, we were prepared, but proud to hear his name called for a PE award, as a Hollen Helper and as the only Lincoln representative in All County Orff Choir.  And while we weren't expecting an Attendance Award...or an award for an overall straight A average, we certainly could've hopped online to check those as well.

After all of the participation and "prepared" awards, came the one surprise award we were completely unaware of and totally not expecting.  Warren's name was called, along with only 6-8 other names, as being a "Student Leader".  Consequently, we weren't even "camera ready" since we never expected to hear his name.

Teachers and school staff are in a hard spot with awards, for sure.  Does every kid get an award?  While I don't support that idea, I have seen the repercussions from the other side.  You have hard working parents, who take time off of their jobs to be at their child's awards assembly, only to see him/her not earn one darn thing.  So, while I understand trying to celebrate things with every child, it definitely seems to make those awards "less special."  So, if we were to have picked only one award for Warren to win, it would've been the Student Leader Award, because that speaks to his character...to the kind of young man we are trying to raise and to the kind of person God has called him to be.

I'm pretty sure you are never really ready to send your child to middle school, but this little "boost" reassures us of Philippians 1:6:  "Be confident of this: He who has begun a good work in you, will complete it."