Vegas last day

So this blog didn't really go anywhere lol
I really only posted it for my Mom to read and James but I figured I'd do one last post for them.
Yesterday was by far the best day! Went to the spa all day, then layed out by the pool, and then I got a facial and back facial! It was amazingggg! So relaxing too! Then last night we went and saw Terry Fator and that was pretty cool and really funny!
Although, I am getting really home sick and Daniel sick. And Vegas is only fun for so long. There's a lot to do but we've pretty much done it all and I miss the quietness of home. It's pretty instense here. And I'm done with all the billboards and raunchy stuff everywhere. I miss church really bad too! I feel like I haven't been there in forever and I need some church.
I'm having fun with Morgan tho! We had a huge brunch this morning and then went wandering around the different hotels and we took the tram around town a bit too! Tonight we're going to eat Belagio! Fancy fancy! :) Okay, that's all for now I guess. I'll be home soon!

Kara and Morgan go to Vegas!

So Morgan, my Dad, and I are staying in Vegas for a few days. We're staying in the Mandalay Bay hotel and we're on the 30th floor! It's soo awesome! Our room is amazingly big and has the BEST view of the all the pools and theatre on one side and on the other a perfect veiw of the strip. We've toured the place already and we're arranging our next few days here. Tomorrow is going to be the pool ALL day and then at night we're seeing the Lion King tomorrow night too :) We're chilling in the rooms now watching Psych. We feel like we're living the high life, not gonna lie. I'm going to be reading my new book tomorrow and I'm for sure going to be spending sometime reading my bible every night. This might be sin city, but I'm not going to let Satan get to me ;) I'll try to post more blogs but we only have internet till Friday @ 7.

Love, Kara

Last Day of Family Camp

Well, this morning got off to an interesting start because I slept past my alarm and missed breakfast but our last sanctuary time was really good and the slideshow was awesome and everyone went around and share really cool stories and it was really great!
Saying goodbye to my family was so hard though. I really am going to miss them so much! I'm going to be staying in touch with them as much as I can and I'm pretty happy about that. Actually they might even be coming down to Arizona in August. It would be so cool to hang out with them when they do!
This week was truely amazing and such a fun, rewarding experience. God worked in big ways this week and I'm even more certain of my calling now. Thank you, Jesus! :)
I'm home safe and sound now after a longggg ride home. And I'm wiped! Goodnight and thanks again for reading along.

Family Camp Day 4

It's the last full day of camp. I don't know where the time went. I'm feeling pretty sad about having to leave my family tomorrow. But I do have to say that today was by far the best day and we had so much fun!
After breakfast it was program time and all the other days the kids didn't want to go. But today was water day for the little kids so I told the 16 year old he could come help out if he wanted to and he said he'd much rather come help with the kids. Well this whole time he had never went swimming or anything but today he got right into the water slide and helping all the kids down and it was amazing to see him interact with everyone finally! He finally kind of opened up and had a really good time! I was so happy and he's such a cool guy, I knew he'd fit right in and kids LOVE him! So we spent a good part of the morning going down water slides, what a blast!
Billy is also doing a great job connecting with the 23 year old son. I know God is using him to work in his life in so many ways. I'm so glad that they can talk through things. Also, today the camp director, Delinda had the 23 year old come up and talk to the group at lunch about how he went swimming yesterday and how great it was to swim with his little girl. It ended up being a pretty touching story. It turns out that their family has been coming to this camp since he was 7! that's along time! They really are vetrans, everyone knows them, it's really cool to see what God has done in their lives over the years and how many people remember them and keep in touch with them. Now, I can be one of those people and next year I can hang out with them again :)
Well, we're having a talent show in a bit and I'm excited to see what some of the acts are! Troy - this show has Caleb written all over it! ;)I hope everyone back home is doing good! I miss you sooo much, I wish you could have all been here with me. It's been an amazing experience serving others. I can't wait to come next year.

Family Camp Day 3 Continued

I'm not going to write much tonight because it's really late and I have to be up a little earlier tomorrow. Today was by far the best day yet. Billy and I got to have some awesome bonding time with our family. It was so much fun! And tonight we all went into the hot tub/hot springs. What a blast! The 23 year old went into the hot tub for the first time since his accident too, so amazing. He can't get enough of the water I guess. I think Billy is really helping him out to. They can relate alot, which really good. Something pretty funny is that I'm actually picking up a spanish accent and learning some words in spanish. I might come home a mexican ;) And I also got to skype Daniel today with Stacie. I was so happy to see him! I posted a ton of pictures from the day on facebook so please check them out!

Ah, aside from the awesome day I do feel like Satan is attacking though. I've been thinking about alot and asking God for help but tonight has been a little tough. I really don't want any distractions so I'm hoping that I can forget about all of it. So please keep me in your prayers. Luckily, I had time to call my Momma tonight, man I don't know what I'd do without her. She really helped me out. Love you Momma!
I'm going to get to bed now. Thanks for reading!

Family Camp Day 3

So far today has been incredible! The 23 year old guy that's in a wheel chair went swimming today for the first time. He got to hold his little girl in the water and he swam around for the first time in years. It was such a miracle! I also had another prayer come true because today I went with the 16 year old to the youth and he had a pretty good time. He stayed through the whole thing and I think he learned a little something. It was better because I was there I think and he had someone to talk to. I've been very blessed today. I watched the little one while everyone swam, so it was really nice to give the 17 year old girl a break because she really needed it. The poor thing has raised her niece and she always gets stuck with her and it's not easy. Please keep my family in your prayers. They all need lots of prayer and I just hope the Lord continues to work in their hearts this week and they can take something new home with them :)
Love & miss you all!

Family Camp Day 2 Continued

What an incredible day! Tonight all my prayers were answered! I had been praying all last night and this morning to be able to connect with the mother from my group better. I knew it was easy to talk to the kids because they were all my peers but it was harder talking with/connecting with an adult. But today during free time after I went swimming with them and came back and got cleaned up, I was roaming around and found the mother all by herself. She needed me to help her find the accessible showers and she wanted me to take her to the Joni & Friends book store. So as we went along our way we had a really nice conversation and we even ended up sitting down to talk too! It was so great, she's really sweet and she likes to ask lots of questions about my life. I was so thankful I finally got a chance to hangout with her.
I also got an amazing opportunity to have a really good talk with the oldest son and his girlfriend. I really feel like I made a difference! I know it's all God of course but it's such a good feeling knowing I can help out. And I'm so glad they finally opened up to me, such a blessing! The whole night was just amazing. Billy & I really got alot of time to hang out with the family tonight. It was a really good time to chill and get to know each other. We've all exchanged our information already and we plan to keep in touch after camp, and I'm very excited!
I'm posting a few pictures from the day today. As you can see, I'm loving every moment with this family! I can't help but think back to when I used to tutor for Mr. Trefz class the last few years. I worked with kids from some pretty bad situations and rough parts of town and ever since that's always been where my passion lies. I can't help thanking God for the great opportunity of working with this family. I wish I could work with families just like this for the rest of my life. I'm determined to find a career through this somehow.
Not to mention, I got an email from Daniel and he's back safely from Dublin and had a wonderful time! It was so nice to hear from him and he posted even more wonderful pictures, be sure to check them out. I can't wait for him to come home!
Well, I've got to get ready for bed and I'm hoping for a good night sleep for once. Keep us in your prayers! Thank you so much!

Family Camp Day 2

It's about 1:30 here right now and we've all just eaten lunch. I finally have a second to myself to have some devotion and prayer. Today has gone pretty well so far. I met alot of the kids in the Children's program and thankfully everything went well with the snacks! I also got to spend some more time with the little girl in my group. She's so sweet and she finally knows my name and lets me hold her. There's a picture of us in the right hand corner that I took today. I'm also getting to know the 18 year old girl better too and she's fun to talk to.
The two older girls and I got to talking today about my life back home and stuff and they really feel for me too, because I gave them the whole story about how my boyfriend is away in Ireland for 2 weeks and I think they feel bad. They couldn't believe I couldn't even text him. I can't either! It's kind of like what we learned earlier in the week - how it's hard for some of these children's routines to be broken or changed. That's a feeling I can relate to really well right now. I'm so used to my life back home or even how other camps work and other summertime activities that this is really taking it's toll on me. It's finally really starting to kick in how much I miss everyone and just being home. And I miss Daniel alot. (If you haven't already, go see his pictures on facebook. They are so amazing!) A part of my daily routine was always talking to/texting him and now I can't.
I really do think God is trying to stretch me in ways that I don't even know yet. It's not easy necessarily but there's a reason and I already feel like I'm growing alot. God really wants my focus on Him and the families this week, and His will is going to be done. I don't even have time for distractions! I barely have time for this.

One of my main goals for this week is going to be getting the teenagers more focused on God and getting them to want to listen and be apart of everything. I want them to want to go to the youth program and learn about God. So I'll be working on that. And then another goal is to continue to help them in any way whatsoever that will give them a break and give them time to relax. For instance the 17 year old is always in charge of the little baby girl and it's not really fair to her. She never gets a second to herself or to relax. So I want to help with that as much as I can.

Ok I have to save some time for prayer and then it's time to go swimming with the family! I love you all and hopefully I can write more tonight! :)

Family Camp Day 1

The first 2 days were amazing, let me just say. Our rooms here are wonderful and it's really nice only having to share a bathroom with your roomie! We had a full day of training yesterday but it was good insight for what was to come and I really enjoyed learning about some new things I didn't know before. They also showed us this video at the end that was so inspirational. It was about a family that had 6 kids and two were born with disabilities. It talked about all the struggles they'd been through but also how it helped them grow as a family. The love that they displayed in their family was like nothing I had ever seen. That video alone really pumped me up for what was to come! The families arrived around 3 today and it was really exciting. I had been getting pretty nervous to see who my family was and what kind of disabilities I would be helping them with. At our last training session earlier in the day we got to read through our family application. I couldn't believe it when I got a huge Hispanic family! It was like a dream come true just knowing that alone! Then as I read through the application I found out they had kids right around my age. I was so excited to work with youth I couldn't believe it. God knew exactly what He was doing, I kept thinking. He always does. Tammy and Haley had their family last year and they breifed me on what to expect. Turns out this family comes from a pretty bad part of town in Linwood, CA. The mother has been in a wheel chair and partially paralyzed her entire life and then her eldest son, 23, was recently shot in a gang shooting and in now paralyzed from the waist down. So they both use wheelchairs. The two other children of hers are a girl, 17, and a boy, 16. The girl was really easy to talk to and we actually have alot in common. She even wants to be a social worker like me! See, God set this up! The 16 year old guy is kind of laid back, but he's very nice and polite. He tends to open up more to my partner STM (short term missionary), Billy. Billy is hilarious! He's 36 and he's also Hispanic and oh my gosh, I swear he's a 2nd George Lopez! I couldn't ask for a better partner to help me with this family. The 23 year old son also brought along his baby girl who's 2 1/2 and his girlfriend. The little girl has got to be the most adorable little girl I've ever seen. She's full of energy and I got the oppurtunity to really spend some time with her running around and playing with the ducks by the lake. Soon she got pretty attached to me and I guess she usually takes longer to warm up to people, so thats really good! Then the girlfriend of the oldest son is 18 just like me. We talked about graduation and we could relate a little but I haven't gotten as much of an oppurtunity to talk with her yet. It's really wonderful to see the family interact with each other. Sometimes, you can tell theres tension and they don't get alot of time together as a family and the kids don't really want to be here but at the same time the way they care for each other is amazing. The whole family mothers that little girl and they watch out for her non stop. And the two teenage kids are so helpful with their mother and making sure all her needs are met. I really hope God uses me this week and I can be a big help to them and maybe give them a break and time to relax and spend together as a family. I'm so excited to see what God has instore for us! I know that placing me with this family was perfect, and I couldn't be anymore happy about it! This family is truely "more than I could have ever imagined" (That's our theme thing this week)

I've gotten to spend some really cool time with the group of people from First Southern Baptist Church at Saguaro Ranch and I'm glad to be making friends with them or just better friends with them. Rooming with Morgan is so much fun, we keep joking about how we're going to get so sick of each other because next week is Vegas with her too! And it's been fun spending time with Stacie as well. Since my Momma's not here and her kids aren't here, I'm borrowing her for the week :)

Tomorrow I'll be getting to work in the Children's department for program time. Chelsea and I are in charge of snacks. Be praying for us and that none of the kids have any allergy issues or problems that we don't know about. I'm so excited to meet and get to know some of the other kids that are here!

I'll post more tomorrow night! I miss everyone back home!
Love, Kara