Retreating

I am a fairly organized person, or at least I thought I was until the other day when I went to bring my son's medical form to the doctor's office so they could fill it out stating that he has had his appropriate immunizations and is all set for Kindergarten.  The receptionist looked at me and said, "Ma'am, we can't fill this out because your son never had his five year old check-up."  What?  There must be something wrong with their computer.  My son is 5 and 3/4.  He had his shots months ago, I remember. Doesn't the whole office remember? He screamed so loud we had two nurses holding his limbs down. "Please check your files. I am positive he has had his check-up."  I never miss appointments.  She checked again and reiterated what I already heard.  Embarrassingly, she set up an emergency appointment and we are set to take him there on Monday. 

So I guess you could say I am forgetting things.  I am a little bit not like myself.  That's what happens when you travel the whole summer.  I actually feel refreshed and revitalized after last week and I wanted to share with you about how we were ministered to last week.  I can't tell you how important this was for us.  Let me start off by saying that if you have a family with typical children, this vacation will not likely sound exciting to you at all.  But if you are a family with disability, please read on.  You need to go there, to sign up tonight.

A few months ago, we learned about the Joni and Freinds Family Retreat at a FIN conference here in Hampton Roads.  It was a retreat for families who had disability and was relatively inexpensive and included room, food and many other things which I will explain.  We didn't really know what to expect, but we signed up anyway, thinking it sounded pretty neat.

The location of this specific retreat was in Flat Rock, North Carolina at a Retreat Center called Bonclarken I and it was in the beautiful mountains on a lake.  We drove up with our van and they were cheering us up the driveway, calling us by name.  As we got out of our van, three angelic women appeared and said, "We are here to help you."  These women were STM's (short term missionaries) and each one of them was prayerfully assigned to each one of my children.  These women were excited to be there, completely over-qualified and ready to serve us in any way, shape or form.  I literally burst into tears and couldn't stop crying tears of joy as they led me through registration.  I almost felt naked not having to look after babies while signing papers and filling out forms.  We were dear friends by dinner.

The mornings were spent with the children in programs specifically designed for them.  June was in a "quiet" program and she did all sorts of therapeutic things, like run her hands through rice/noodles and swing, listening to music. Rich and I listened to a speaker, worshiped and then met in small groups with other people who had incredble stories to tell. The afternoons were spent together as a family with or without the STM's.  Charlotte always napped and was watched by her STM, but we were able to do zip lining, June did horseback riding and James did archery.  There was also nightly programming, but our kids had a hard time lasting that long and we were usually back to the hotel by then.

I highly recommend this retreat to anyone who has disability in the family (there are several locations across US).  It was so unique being able to eat dinner together in a cafeteria where there were wheelchairs and people spilling things, and strange noises.  The judgment was erased.  Everyone was free to be themselves.  No one stared at my child unless to say she was adorable.