Friday is a rough day... nobody is ready to say goodbye. It's amazing how much these children grow on your heart & how you don't want to let them go. We try to keep it lighthearted and fun so that the mood doesn't get depressing. We graduate all the 11 year old campers (we had 25 graduates this year!) and then have our final chapel and dance practice.
This year we had some AMAZING guests- our local chapter of BACA: bikers against child abuse. Oh it was SO awesome!!! The kids brought their helmets that they got at the party and wore them when they went on rides around the camp (of course slowly & safely!) with the bikers. They loved it! And this pregnant momma got to have her first ride on a motorcycle as well! It was a blast. After the rides we had lunch, and then BACA escorted our buses down the mountain and back to church. I ran off ahead of them to try & get some pictures, it was SO neat to watch!
We get to the church where the kids put on a show for all their foster parents of all the dances they learned during the week, and then we show a slideshow. The kids go through out-processing and then we say our goodbyes and they are gone. Just like that, it is SO fast. But we are not done when the kids leave. We split up into debriefing groups of about 6 or so workers. We go through a confidential time of sharing our favorite & least favorite times of the week, what we would change, what we learned, etc. It's so helpful & healthy to talk about all that we experienced. After our groups are over we have a big welcome home dinner where our families meet up with us, and then after dinner we can finally go home!
It was SO good to see the boys after 6 days of not seeing them... the longest we had ever been away from them! I fell asleep at like 9:00 that night and slept til 11:00 the next morning, so apparently I was tired! Ha!!
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