The deerlings are great fun. And hilarious, albeit sometimes unintentionally. And hilarious sometimes because we make it so.

For example, last week the theme was greek goddesses. We ate in the shade of an Olive Tree (aka plopped a tree from the registration office on our table) all week, chanted "Socrates" instead of "deer" and other shenanigans all week. The big factor contributing to that choice, however, was so that we could do a toga party for cabin night. The girls did a trust walk, decorated their togas, and participated in a water chugging solo cup relay (we're HUGE on hydration here, especially for sickle kids) and ran around the tree, at which point they joined the Greek Goddess Sisterhood and got to go to the "spa" to get pampered, have snacks, and watch a movie. It's hard to know who enjoyed it more.

This week we were the ducklings. The kids are all always awesome, but one girl was one of those stand out, change your life type kids. She is undoubtedly the sweetest girl to ever touch the planet, somewhat shy but willing to laugh. She's retained that despite going through 2.5 years of chemo for leukemia, then relapsing and having a really tough bone marrow transplant, the after-effects of which are still easily apparent. She takes over twenty-five pills a day. This is her childhood. Although I think it would be easy to feel down on her luck (most adults would), withdraw, and get defiant, she seizes every opportunity, makes her own happiness and happiness for the people around her in the small ways, and just wants to play and be a kid. Every kid stays in your mind and inspires you, but I think that this one in particular really changes you. I want her to retain that sweetness, and because of that, I'll try to retain it in myself. It's clear, because of K- and others, that you don't have to let the events in your life steal you joy or your innocence or your personality.

Okay! Time's up! Time for bed rest to recover for another long week. On a cool note, Liz is visiting tomorrow and (clearly) the internet is finally fixed here!

Lots of love!