Two amazing girls

This week I have met two amazing little girls. Their names are Max (formerly known as Marissa) and Sydney. Both of these girls have special needs, and both are very special. I have been so blessed to be able to get to know both of them in their own ways and I wanted to share their joy with you. I'll share little tidbits about each of them separately. I'll start with Max.

First of all Max, whose name is actually Marissa but refuses to answer to that name, is fantastic. I think she's about 7 years old and brings a smile to my face even when she is screaming like a maniac. She has downs syndrome and is probably one of the funniest and most lovely girls I've ever met. Yesterday I got the opportunity to hang out with her during our evening game at camp and it was some of the most fun I've had all summer. First of all we sat on a log and I soon came to the realization that she most definitely was not going to play the game with the group. So we sat on that log for about 20 minutes and made funny noises with our mouths every time we threw a football up and down. Every once in awhile she'd fine it REALLY funny to throw the ball way too high over my head and watch it come down and either hit me or roll away. Either way it was funny for her because it either ended with me getting hit with a football, or me having to retrieve the football. After that she realised that she was lonely and wanted to play the game. This lasted for 5 minutes, after which time she remembered she hates loud noises. So we ran out into the middle of the empty field and sat there and made grass bracelets. I taught her how to make knots out of grass and she taught me how much fun it could be getting grass shoved down my pants. After we grew tired of the grass fight I buried her in grass... quite seriously, you couldn't see any part of her if you were standing at a distance. It was great. Then we realised we were allergic to grass, which was equally great. That was most of my adventure with Max. It may not seem like much, but you probably need to meet her to understand the joy she brings. Today she was SCREAMING at her counselor Claire so I gave her some coloured paper, paper clips, and markers and she almost immediately stopped crying. She made me a sad house made of paper. She told me it was supposed to be happy but she taped the smile on upside down. What a great little lady.

Next is Sydney. She is such a smart, caring, lovable puff ball of joy. (I don't think I could have put anymore positive adjectives into one sentence). I got to spend the night with her tonight before she fell asleep. She is so funny and so smart. She is in a wheelchair, but aside from her physical disabilities she is better off than most kids her age. She's also around 7, but she talks like she's 40. She always gives me little tidbits of advice and tips of ways I can help her. Tonight she said "Lindsay, can I suggest that you sit me up BEFORE you give me my water bottle?".. Smart choice Sydney. I got to spend time in her cabin and read Alice in Wonderland and then I tucked her in to bed and rubbed her back before she kindly said "Lindsay, I wouldn't mind if you left now. Come back again though." Wouldn't you love to get to spend time with little girls like that?

So now that I have been filled with joy I am going to go spend some time with some friends and go to bed completely happy. I hope my happiness can bring a smile to your face.

Peace and Love,
Lindsay

numero uno

once upon a time I used to have a different blog, but then blogspot deleted it.. and here I am. back to the very beginning.

So currently, I'm at silver lake camp just outside of Kincardine. I have strep throat and an enormous headache. I'm wearing two pairs of track pants, a t-shirt and flip flops..i'm freezing and am still somehow fairly content. There's only two more weeks of camp left, only one of which will be normal. The last week of camp is youth camp.. and that's the furthest from normal camp. I have a lot of work to do to wrap up the summer and I don't quite know where to start. I paid all the bills today.. that's a start I guess. I also have to start entering a lot of money junk into the computer.. that doesn't sound like much fun to me at all, but I suppose I'll do it anyways.

I feel like as a first blog there should be more substance than this, but like I said I have strep throat. I'm gonna go have a nap. (plus side of working at a summer camp, it's in the schedule to have a rest hour). We'll chat again later, but for now...

peace and love,
linds