The kickoff to the 2013 summer at Forest Springs is RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!
We will be welcoming families to the annual Memorial Day Family Weekend in just a few days and I wanted to give you a peek at what our theme is for the summer, and what my involvement has been in the process.
Earlier in the year Diane Windle suggested that we do something along the lines of the Amazing Race. I’m somewhat familiar with the television show, and so it seemed like it would make a good theme for the summer. There are three main areas at camp that all need to come to some kind of agreement on a theme, because they each carry out varying aspects of it. For example, the Bible teaching needs to have a theme that has a good teaching component; the Program team needs a theme that will work programmatically; and the Visual team needs to be able to produce shirts, decorations, and artistic materials to support the idea. My specific role is in the Visual team, as I’m the person to create the artwork as well as help produce a video that will illustrate the whole concept. It’s no small feat to make this come together!
Anyhow, I wanted to give you just a peek into some of the art concepts that we went through before finally landing on the finished product.
Early on we needed to decide whether we were going to model the theme on the popular television program with the name “The Amazing Race” or if we were going to go a different direction. After speaking more with Diane, we learned that our theme was actually going to be “AMAZING grace for the human RACE”. With that in mind we agreed that it would probably work better to stay away from the television program and create our own “Adventure Race” feel instead. So here are some initial concepts that I put together. These were intended to be proof-of-concepts, and not necessarily finished products.
Adding in some Color
Once I started getting some feedback from the different departments, I started playing with colors:
A Concept is Chosen
At this point we really had to make the decision as to whether we wanted to look like the television program, or if we wanted to go a completely different direction and make our own look/feel. After a few emails and discussion, it was decided that we would go with the concept of our own adventure race. With that being decided, the following mark was selected as the direction to go!
The Final Mark
The following is the image that we sent off to the T-Shirt company! Sometime in the next few days we’ll get a shipment of shirts and this mark will be right on the center of the chest. I’m proud of it!
Now you have a little more insight into what my specific responsibilities are at Camp. We get to serve in a wide variety of capacities, but we each have our specialty, and this is where I’ve been called to serve!
It’s been nearly two and a half weeks since we welcomed Anderson Joseph into our family. I suppose it is about time that I updated our blog! ... but first, some photos.
Anderson was born on April 1st, without any complications. He was the largest of all of our kids at 8lbs 14oz and was 20 inches long. April elected to be induced on the first since we had family with us to help with all the details. My dad was brave enough to take Lauren, Jack, and Avie back to Minnesota for the entire week after the delivery! Way to go Dad!
The siblings have welcomed Andy into the family with sloppy kisses and many requests to hold him! I’m pretty sure Avie is in denial though, as she still calls him “It” or “Her”... she wanted a sister
Adoption Update
As some of you may know, Anderson was a bit of a surprise to April and me, since we had been moving down the road of adoption. In fact, we were already a “waiting family”, albeit only for a week or two, when we found out we were pregnant. Honestly, it was a shocking discovery and took both of us some time to adjust to.
Once we told the adoption agency that we were expecting, they put our file into a holding pattern. They said we could reopen our case once the baby was born, if we wanted to.
We had also done a bit of fundraising with the Micah Fund. Fortunately they were willing to just hold our account as well.
Our home study needs to be renewed every year, so on Monday the social worker came to our house and we went through the renewal process. So as of right now we are waiting to hear back from our adoption agency. It is possible they would put us back into the “waiting family” status as soon as we give the OK.
All along we’ve held adoption with an open hand. The promptings we’ve felt are simply “be available”. So, since we’ve taken all the steps so far, we are going to do just that… be available. If the Lord chooses to place a child in our family via adoption, we will choose to trust Him!
Thank you to the many, many of you who have given to us in such a multitude of ways. We love you!
At this time last year we were already mowing the lawn… I think. This year? We could still be skiing! But according to the Camp schedule, we are done with winter!
Here are some stats for you: From January through March we served 29 groups with over 1,699 students! Praise the Lord! Though we don’t know all the stories from these individuals, we know that important things happened in the lives of our guests while at camp this year.
While many of the groups that come consist of church youth groups, or school groups, several of the events are ones that we sponsor. Wintertainment & MELTDOWN are two that come to mind right away. At these two events we provide all the programming, as well as the counselors and speakers. Jake, the visual media specialist, and I worked hard to create highlight videos so the campers had something to take home with them and share with their friends. Here are the two from Wintertainment and Meltdown:
Family Happenings
While we are extremely busy with camp during the winter, we also managed to find some moments to enjoy time with our family.
Lauren and I have enjoyed doing some woodworking together. She built this picture frame so she could have a place to display her family portrait!
Jack has practiced dressing himself!
We ate a number of meals with the campers… before mealtime I’d hear little footsteps come running up to my office! We took a picture one of the days.
Jack and I got to practice downhill skiing on the bunny hill at camp.
Our neighbors came over and watched the kids so April and I could serve in the Snack Shop at camp! Since we have such little kids, we don’t get to actually work together very often. So this was a date for us!
Avie got some sparklies in her ears.
As you can see, lots has happened recently! Thank you for your part in our lives
