Happy Father's Day!

I have been blessed with such a wonderful dad who is not only an incredible role model but my hero. I admire his humor and his heart and I pray I will one day display many of the characteristics he does. I love you, dad!

I can still remember meeting my Gramby when I was young and wondering why on earth she wanted us to call her that. Come to find out later it was out of respect for my grandma who had passed away a few years earlier and since she didn’t want to “replace” her and her name was Bonnie, she came up with Gramby and it stuck. She is truly one of the kindest, caring, and most loving people I have ever had the opportunity to know. She was truly a blessing in my life and I miss her every day. I have so many great memories of visiting her and my Grandpa out in Arizona. She made him so happy and I will be forever thankful for that! She went to the alley every week to support him in bowling even though she did not bowl herself. We would sit out back on the patio, looking out over the mountains and she would ask about my life and was genuinely interested. I can remember waking up and watching the Macy’s parade in the kitchen on Thanksgiving while she was busy as a bee cooking away. I loved playing the Wii together and seeing who was better at golfing. She had such a kind heart and impacted everyone she met. She was a great writer and wrote a memoir looking back on her life and telling of all the great stories she had. I started reading and couldn’t put it down. I think I read the whole book in a day or two! Her health had been declining for a while, but my family was able to go out to Arizona last summer and visit her in the nursing home. I am so thankful for that time together and will cherish it forever. She passed away on April 21st, which was the same day as Muster, a tradition here at Aggieland honoring those Aggies who had fallen. The fact that these two events had fallen on the same day was both extremely difficult and so sweet at the same time. I decided to go to the Muster and as I sat there listening to the choir sing “Amazing Grace” I missed my Gramby dearly but I also celebrated the fact that she had lived a long, happy life loving those around her and being loved back in return. I will always miss her but I thank God for the blessing of her in my life!

"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
Zephaniah 3:17 

As I sit down to write this I almost don’t know where to begin because these past two weeks have been so great! Simply amazing. I have been at Camp Cho-Yeh for the last 14 days doing ropes certification and staff training. I will be working there as a counselor later this summer and I am so excited! I am exhausted and worn out but filled with a love and joy that can only come from the Lord. I feel like I was almost living in a bubble while at Cho-Yeh because I had no communication with the “outside world” and it was so refreshing. The Lord can do amazing things when you give Him the opportunity. I have realized how much we, as a society, rely on technology to fulfill us. The simple act of turning my cell phone off allowed the opportunity to grow in my relationship with the Lord and build relationships with other staff members. The “Cho Bubble” is a safe haven where you feel loved and secure and the presence of the Lord is evident in everything done there. There were a lot of talks and sessions about child safety and other camp rules, etc. but there was also a lot of fun activities. We did everything from banana boating to night zipping (going down the zip line in the pitch black). One night they brought in a country western dance instructor to teach us to square dance! Even with all of these great times one of my favorite nights was when we went out to the owner’s house and shared communion with one another in a way I had never experienced.  Instead of simply taking the bread and wine in line and then going back to our seats, we broke into small groups and drank grape juice and ate a loaf of bread while enjoying the fellowship of one another and discussing what was on our hearts. This was such a new way of thinking for me and ended up being very meaningful. Needless to say, sorry for all of the rambling but I really enjoyed my first few weeks at camp and I can’t wait to go back and actually have campers to pour into and love on! I am so thankful for the relationships that are already forming and am excited to see what all is in store for this summer. I will be praying for all of the counselors who got their first cabin of campers today!