life gave me lemonade and i can't imagine why

Well. As of ~6:00 pm today, my Camp Friends tour for 2012 is over. I'm currently sitting in my lovely little blue room in my comfy little white bed enjoying the sound of my excessively loud clock and fan. It's great to be home. :)

However. It's been such an amazing summer. Sorry I haven't been good at keeping in touch aside from pictures and this (somewhat).

The week in between Chicagoland and MO camps was rough. Quite rough. We did some cool sightseeing but I felt pretty awful all week. Wednesday Alli and I got food poisoning to top off the 3-week-long sore throat, which pretty much knocked us/me out until Saturday. So I pretty much mark that week off as useless. ha. Sorry for everyone I didn't talk to or whined to. I tried so hard to be nice but hey. Puking ain't fun. Thankful for my patient and considerate group and the Liggins and Mrs. Higdon and the Behles and Smiths and everyone who helped us :)

A taste of the misery of car rides when you're sick.

Saturday we headed to MO camp for a staff meeting. It was already blisteringly hot. Staff meeting was great and then our group went to see Batman. Let me just say. Phenomenal. Blew my mind. Not literally. Got to talk to William for a few minutes which was good. Those chances have been quite rare and very precious this summer. Camp started Sunday after services. Here are a few pictures for your enDoyment:

I like to call him Russell. Coolest kid ever. #Up

Kelly. Thanks for being such a darling friend. From DOV to MO. Love you.

Brayden. KO!!! He ran up to me on the last day and whispered "iloveyou" and ran away. Love him.

 I love you Al. What would I do without you?

Mo. Matchy. Love you.

My KO girls!

ASHTYN. Best friend.

These two encouraged me so much. Miss you already.

Yes I love them. Yes Bethany and I send each other ugly selfies daily and we all stalk each other. It's great.

Bed buddies. Love y'all. FC.

Our last camp, Missouri, was PHENOMENAL. To be honest, I was scared of the intense heat and no A/C and all the hype about 4-square. They weren't exaggerating. But it was such an encouraging and challenging week. I'm thankful for the devoted and friendly staff, the beautiful and Godly campers, my fun cabin, and the things I learned about God and about His love last week. The theme was "Something from Nothing" and we talked about God's incredible power and imagination to start with nothing and create something from it. Creation, bad situations, salvation, etc. Of course, we have to make ourselves nothing and allow Him to work through us. That's a tough application. "He must increase, and I must decrease."

Had to say bye to all my dear new best friends this past week. Andrew was first at the airport on Saturday. Think AlmaMater/FriendsSong/JustinBieber singing in the airport complete with tears and 20 minutes of hugging and goodbyes. Now he's engaged and we'll never see him again. Just kidding. But all these goodbyes were hard even though I'll see them all in a couple weeks. Mostly because it was saying goodbye to the experience; the van, the talks, the kids. I'll miss the special bond we've had this summer but it's not going away really, we'll have these amazing memories forever. So thankful for them. I love you guys and I'm so grateful for the examples you have been to me constantly this summer.

This summer has just been so good for me to see the beauty of innocent faith in God and youthful zeal, and I want to bring that back in my life. I get discouraged, depressed, tired, stressed, and yet God is always good. And I want to always be showing people that He is good. Because He is. SO. good.

I'm so pumped for school. 2 weeks. So many awesome new kids coming, so many chances to sieze opportunities I've missed before. #CarpeDiem

Remind me not to panic and to let God control my year, He will anyway, so I can decide to be stressed or not to be. Easy, right?

I don't want to end on a sad note. But while I've learned a lot from good examples this summer, I've also heard of several sobering stories of people who I know and love or who people I know love who have fallen into sin and lost faith. Always pray for the lost sheep, and never lose hope. I'm trying not to. I know my Father is waiting with open arms to welcome His prodigal children while they are still a long way off.

Love.

ELB