VBS and Speech and Fun Camp

This week is even crazier than last week.

Each morning I wake the kids up (not my favorite thing to have to do) and we go to Speech and Fun Camp. It's a fantastic opportunity for us. The camp is in Moreno Valley, and it's a day camp for kids with autism and their siblings. In every classroom, there are teachers and speech therapists there playing with the kids. They do stuff like music and they have a sensory room that is really fun. While they are at camp, the parents are pampered, go to support groups, listen to speakers on all kinds of therapy and treatments and services. These classes and things are completely optional, and many parents just drop off the kids and go relax. Anyway, it's really great. I'm really sad that we have to miss the second week of it, but the kids start school on Monday.

In the afternoon there are various activities available where the parents take the kids places or have classes with the kids on campus. We have to miss a few this week because Micah has his behavior therapy, but the ones we went to have been fun. Yesterday they had a fire truck, ambulance, and a limo come out and the kids got to check them out and ask questions. There was also an art class and a class on laughter therapy that was a barrel of laughs.

After that, we have Vacation Bible School at our church. It's been a blast. This week I am working with middle school kids. I'm having a ball. The kids are having fun too. Something great happened with our VBS this year. A family who was in town for the Speech and Fun Camp looked online for a VBS in the area for the kids to go to in the evenings so that they wouldn't be bored staying in their hotel room. Awesome idea, by the way. Anyhow, they came on Monday and saw that Micah was still wearing his camp shirt and were so excited. The boy who has autism was in Micah's class and they just clicked. The mom told me that night that her son told her that he was praying for a friend who was a boy. He was so excited when he found that God answered his prayer!

Another awesome thing that happened was in my class in middle school. We have a visitor coming who is delayed mentally. She's a great girl to have in our class and is so fun to be around. Her mom came to me when she dropped her off on Monday and started to explain some things about her. I was so happy to tell her about Micah's autism and she was so relieved to find another parent who understands about special needs. God really did something awesome when he was placing kids and workers in our VBS.

I'm super tired every day, but God gives me the strength to keep going. It's not been without incident. Micah decided to run away from Tony yesterday when Tony turned his back for a few seconds. I ended up finding him running down the street and freaking out. Everything was fine, but it always messes me up when Micah does that.

Next week is bound to be crazy too. The kids will be going to school, and there's always a struggle to get back into that routine. Micah's behavior therapist is working with me to establish the homework plan now before it starts. Hopefully it will work when it comes time to actually implement it.

So, maybe crazy is just becoming normal. I'm really okay with that, as long as I can stay organized and one step ahead of the kids.