Thoughts About Our Weekend

Bright and early on Saturday, we headed to This is the Place Heritage Park for the 5k and Adventure walk for our support group, HopeKids. It was encouraging to see the turn out this year compared to last. Caleb was asked to organize a flag ceremony in honor of 9/11 and with the help of our friend, Matthew and a soldier, they did a good job. We are so grateful for those who donated to Team Caitlin and helped HopeKids reach the goal of $40,000.

We didn't get to hang around too long after finishing the 5k because Caitlin was playing in her first double header softball game of the season. We missed her first game, but made it just in time for the second. This is the first sport Caitlin has ever played. It's pretty evident that she's not comfortable in her own skin and even more evident that she's not comfortable with the fundamentals of softball. She's playing with girls who have a lot more experience and confidence and who look so much bigger and older. It doesn't help that she got stuck with a huge shirt. Why do they have you choose a shirt size if you end up with something totally different anyway? Anyway, I hope she will stick with softball and will be patient with herself as she learns and becomes more comfortable. There's something about seeing her on a team that makes me really want her to succeed and find her place.

In the late afternoon, we all headed over to our church for the Jamboree Reunion. We had a BBQ and watched a slide show that was put together out of over 3,000 photos (the cute mom who put together the slide show said she left out the pictures one boy had taken of every animal in the Natural History Museum in D.C. and every plane on the Intrepid in NYC). It was amazing to hear the stories and get a real feel for the spirit of Jamboree. Even though the boys spent time together at planning meetings and camp outs in the almost three years of planning for Jamboree, it was amazing to see how they have all bonded and become close friends after being together for three weeks. One of the Scout Masters commented that this is the only group he's taken that the mom's cried when dropping off the big bags, cried when dropping off their boy, and cried again when picking them up at the airport (I would also admit to crying when picking up the big bag!). The whole night was filled with friendship, laughing, appreciation, and more crying. The last thing Scout Master Hall requested was for the boys to count off for the last time and then he announced with a big lump in his throat, "Troop 610 dismissed!" While we are incredibly grateful for this experience, it feels really sad that it has come to an end. The next Jamboree is in 2013 and right now Caleb wants to go. He will be 18 and just months away from leaving on a mission. For now we are holding onto the registration paper. ;-)