Special

I was able to go volunteer at the summer camp that the girls have been attending this summer so that Brother could come with me and have a day at summer camp.

I honestly had NO idea what to expect volunteering at a summer camp.

I never worked with special needs kids or adults until I had children of my own with special needs.

There were to sides to this for me.

I'll give you the not to awesome one first. I have to admit that it was a really tough thing for me. It's hard enough having 3 special needs children that I take care of 24/7, but to care for others and my own, wore me out a little bit emotionally.

There were two kids that started summer camp today who have Fragile X Syndrome. I was so glad that I could be of help and to give suggestions, ideas and knowledge because of experience. Plus, Brother thought it was awesome to have 2 other people he knows that have the same diagnosis.

So without going into all the detail, that was basically the tough part.

The touching and amazing part is that I was able to witness, first-hand, how much the staff working at summer school really do care about our children. I loved seeing the excitement on a child's face when their staff helper knew what they needed or wanted and the care that they did it in.

I saw staff putting so much time, care and effort in these children.

I also volunteered to take photographs for the families and it was a little tough not to cry when I would capture rare and treasured moment's between staff and student.

One of the staff encouraging Baby to tell them what month it was... 

Just a shot of all the fun things they have at camp for the kids to play with.

This is Sister going through her "treasure chest."

We got Baby into the water too. She was more excited to explore shooting water.

Brother  just makes me smile. He made a real splash with all the staff!

Day 195 of 365 Days of Up