Track Practice

Shooting a football into a soccer net:

wow.

 

 (Blurry, but this is how Cate looked the entire time):

The girls loved joining Maddie at her track practices while we were in Iowa!  She runs in her meet today- we're cheering from Mississippi, Maddie!!  :)   

Well, goodbye Dolly...

Dolly is living at an equestrian center on a lake near my parents' new home.  Before the move my dad had her so gentle and calm- she didn't flinch at exercise balls or weed eaters right beside her.  The thought was that she would work as a therapy horse at the center and be available for my dad (and the grand kids).  Unfortunately the stress of the move and the many changes have made her so nervous and crazy that it isn't going to work out.  It's really sad.

Although the kids (and I!) got to ride her, it was painfully obvious that she just isn't herself.  She doesn't pay attention and getting her to calm down enough to walk was a struggle.  The poor girl has lost weight and had to be in a paddock alone for awhile.

I think Dad said they will give her another month, but it looks as though he will be selling her.  

It's too bad-it is a beautiful place. 

A few weeks ago I was telling the kids that Dolly wasn't doing too well in her new home and that Papa may not be able to keep her if she wasn't happy there.  They were all sad, but after a few minutes Cate (with tears on her cheeks) said, "Well, if I moved far away from my home and my brother I would be so sad too!"

Leave it to her to think of how the horse was feeling.  She is a tenderhearted little kid.

I didn't mention that Cole wasn't really Dolly's brother.

 

 If you think about it- or want to- poor Dolly could use a prayer or two.  She is stressed. out.

Funny story:

The equestrian center received a Percheron (big work horse) from someone who couldn't keep her any more.  The vet checked her over and disagreed with the former owner who said she may be pregnant- apparently her ribs were showing.  A few mornings later when they went to feed her there she was with a baby! 

A MULE baby. 

A PERCHERON.  AND A DONKEY!

 (What?!?)

(I laugh every time I think of that story!  Double surprise!)

4th of July

-at Adventureland!

 It was the first time our kids had been to a theme park (well.  Halle went to Disney World when she was 1) They were super brave and had SO much fun!

 This tiny tot ride was one of the first.  No one wanted to ride it twice.  :)

 Isaac spend the day sleeping in the stroller and watching people pass by:

Maddie: 

 Arguing over who gets to raise the dragon:

Another non-thriller:

 Their first "real!" roller coaster!

We ate a picnic lunch and then headed back in the park to hit the water park side!

  The weekend was spent with the Colyer side of the family- it was supposed to be our bi-annual get together but we were missing  a few this year. 

Trying to get a pic of the great-grand kids- I guess Isaac was happy that Cate had him:

By next summer there will be 3 more in this group!

(No. Not us.)

 Saturday morning we checked out the Des Moines Farmer's Market.

 It was a wonderful 4th! 

The backstory.

I remember the first summer my dad went to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp as a coach.  He didn't take us with him, but he came home with a tape (ha!) of the chapel singer (Rusty-Something) and promises that we would all go the next year. 

We did.

That was the summer that they let me play on one of the teams (it was a JH/HS boys' basketball camp) through the tournament.  That team- no joke- went from dead last, winless, to camp champions.  :)  For real.  The little metal we were given was one of my favorite possessions for a long long time. 

I'm the dorky girl in the middle:

So we kept going to camp- the same one at the National Conference Center in Indiana- and FCA came to our school.  Eventually I went to different girls' FCA camps too. 

This is the only girls' camp I attended at the NCC:

(Was is foreshadowing that a girl from JD's high school was in my huddle that year??)

After my freshman year of college I returned to Indiana to work as an intern through the summer.  That camp that already had a special spot in my heart got rooted deeper as I lived and worked and spent time alone all over the grounds with my nose in my Bible.  I'm not lying- I think in some ways  my faith was saved that summer.  Jesus drew me to himself in the midst of the trees and the sports fields and the busy schedule.

(Intern Photo:)

And then I was asked to be a Huddle Leader for a leadership camp that was one counselor short.  Saying yes changed my life.

There happened to be another Huddle Leader at that same camp who was from Arkansas and knew movie lines from Hoosiers.    :)

This is the first picture I have with JD and I both in it- he's on the left, I have the mic:

(Thanks, Leigh Anne!!)

After that summer JD and I spent our summers working for FCA in Arkansas.  We led huddles at mini-camps, national camps and power camps. 

(Power Camp Huddle Leaders:)



Two years later JD asked me to marry him in the chapel where we first met:

The summer we got married JD and I lived and worked in the Delta.  We helped run camps and a community center as a partnership between FCA and Partners in Hope.

That fall FCA published a flattering article about us in their "Sharing the Victory" magazine:

 

 

The other half of the story:

46 years ago JD's grandfather (a minister) gave JD's dad a magazine subscription to "The Christian Athlete."  FCA's first publication.  He knew that David would be interested because of his love for sports.  That was the FCA starting point for JD- 14 years before he was even born!

His dad volunteered with FCA for many years, he started (and continues) an annual mini-camp, and for the past 12 years he has been on staff with Arkansas FCA.

JD grew up attending huddle meetings and summer camps (his first was in Colorado when he was Ty's age!)



I'll wrap up this long flashback post with a text that JD sent after we got back from North Carolina:

"I remember crying in my bed the night after getting home from FCA camps because I never wanted them to end.  FCA is when I observed with my eyes and heard with my ears grown men that loved God and loved to compete.  God used so many men and women through the ministry of FCA to reveal Himself to me year after year.  Now my own 7 year old daughter has experienced the same feeling as I did all those years.  When we got home tonight she rushed to her bed and cried big tears and said it made her so sad to think about FCA camp because she missed it so much and she wished she never had to leave.  She shared how she never missed watching TV at all.  She is getting it... not just how cool FCA is but why FCA exists.

Many years ago my grandfather gave my father an FCA magazine... isn't it neat to see what God has done since that day?  I know that it's not about an organization.  It's about Christ.  How majestic are his ways!"



FCA does not own the NCC any more.

But one day we will go back. 

I need to see it again. 

To smell it.    :)