Hello everyone!
Wow... it has already been 2 weeks since I've last written. Things keep flowing and moving here at Harriman Lodge on what we call "camp time". It is where the days run together with activities, events, and daily schedules until you don't know what day it is or what's going on in the outside world. The only thing that keeps me reminded of the normal world is writing the date on all my nursing charting each day. Even then, we are very much in our own little world here at Harriman Lodge.
I have LOVED camp nursing here for MR adults and have been impacted so deeply by so many specific campers. I wish I could share photos of the many faces and stories I've had the privilege of being a part of this summer, but we're not allowed to post photos of campers on the internet. Some of my favorite guests have been CP adults, verbal and non-verbal who, through communication boards and books of pictures, communicated "I love you" and "I will miss you" to me on the last days of camp. I even got the chance to visit some of them in their residential home.
I was in the City (NYC) with Sarah, and walked off the subway into the Bronx to find the residential home. As we made our way into the apartment where 4 residents lived, I knocked on the door and called out... "hello!?" All of a sudden I heard "Aarrrggghhh! Ahhh! Ahh!" and banging coming from the bathroom. "Angelo is in the bathroom" the residential staff member said with a smile, "but I think he heard you." Angelo was one of the residents who weaved his way into my heart with his bright personality, sounds of excitement, and many minutes spent with his communication board, figuring out what he was trying to say. His quirky little smile and laughter will always be nestled in my heart along with hundreds more. :) It was a huge blessing to be able to see his, and his friend Sidney's excitement as we visited with them in their home.
In the meanwhile, we had an "intercession"- a break in between sessions of camp last week. During the intercession, I made one final trip into the City to spend time with friends there and help out with a day camp Metro Ministries put on in one of the more difficult neighborhoods in Brooklyn. I got to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, eat authentic Brooklyn-style pizza and then spend the day with inner-city kids at the day camp themed... "Back 2 Africa!" I got to sit in the health center with one of my Africa friends, Sarah listening to African music and taking care of minor cuts and scrapes of sweet inner-city kids. How much better can it get? :) My friend Rey got to jump in all the way and help out as a counselor for the day while Sarah and I held down the fort in the infirmary. It was an amazing day.
Things are now finishing up for the summer here at Harriman Lodge. We have 1 week left before the end of the camp season, and I am left wondering where the time has gone. I will spend a couple days after camp visiting Laura Coles, another nurse friend from the ship who I will be travel nursing with this fall, before flying back to good old MN on Sept. 4th.
Hopefully between now and then I'll have an official position with American Traveler (my new employer-a nursing travel agency) starting the middle to end of September somewhere (thinking it may end up being Texas). So, yes! God is so good.. I feel the perpetual need to rely on him to meet my needs and plan my course before me. As I was getting anxious about so many of the details ahead of me I still don't know, he spoke to my heart and reminded me of Peter, when he walked out on the sea to meet Jesus in the middle of a storm... all he needed was to put his eyes on Jesus, and he walked.
So much ahead of me is still unknown, yet it is known to Him, and for that I am full of peace.
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