No Gift Receipt Needed

JOYYYY TO THE WORLD, CAMP COAST HAS COME!!
Deck the halls, Hallelujah and Jingle alllll the way baby!!  I know it's a little early for Christmas, even for Christmas in July, but I feel like a little kid on December 25th grinning ear to ear in delight over my favorite gift. Because anybody who knows us or knows the desperation of trying to entertain an autistic child over summer knows that Camp COAST is by far the best gift we could ever receive, even better then a Red Rider BB Gun. Oh yeah, it's just that good!
Now I say gift, and that's not quite accurate, as gifts are traditionally given to someone, as in, free. And camp is not free. However, if you divide the cost by the hours of childcare, it comes out to just less then five dollars an hour for seven hours a day of specialized care and activities for autistic chilren and that qualifies as a gift in my book all day long!
Last year when I initially heard about Camp COAST I knew nothing about it other than I could send Camryn virtually all summer and that's all I needed to hear before my interest peaked higher than Everest. I was desperate for help during the summer. We didn't have respite care at that time and although we had a fabulous babysitter, that can get expensive, I mean who in their right mind is going to watch my kid for $4.85 an hour? When I met a woman who's daughter attended Camp the year before and loved it, I practically fell to her feet begging for the info. I figured it would be like a school setting with teachers and an assistant or two and there would be art and music, you know, the usual. And that was good enough for me, as I knew if I didn't get Camryn in a day program then surely I was going to end up in one and I really stink at building  log cabins out of popsicle sticks. After talking to this mom more, I realized this camp was far more than I had imagined. Horseback riding, swimming twice a week, bowling, sailing...sailing, Camryn Faith Walker, feared by even the blackest beard, on a boat!! Amazing! And each camper is assigned their own personal teenage assistant, better known as CIT's (couselors in training). How cool is that? I signed her up, dropped her off and well, you all know the rest! So here we are again. Summer time....watermelons, lemonade, suntan lines and Camp COAST. The countdown has been on long before school let out as I am always, shall we say, concerned, about our summer activities. Having Camryn in camp not only gives her incredible experiences she would never be able to have had she stayed home with me, I mean, can you see me with Camryn on a catamaran? No, me either! But it gives her sisters and me the opportunity to spend summer the way it should be. Not banned from the summer mainstays like the beach or movies. And it gives me seven hours a day to do whatever I need to do that I wouldn't be able to do without Camryn attached to my hip, because once she gets home that's what happens, we achieve siamese status. Remember, even though chronologically she's eight, developmentally she is a toddler and going through the terrible two's for the third year in a row! Just being able to use the bathroom without locking her in her room and hearing her scream is such a luxury. Oh I could just let her roam free while I pottied, but only if I wish to clean up big piles of handsoap dumped on the floor, or find her out in the front yard, naked as Lady Godiva, trying to turn the hose on. But not today, for today I will use the little girls room for what it is, a rest room. Can you say simple pleasure? Haha!
So it's 10:30 am and Cam has been at Camp for two and a half hours. Her CIT this week is a boy named Daniel. When I dropped Cam off he took her by the hand and she led him over to the puppets. I watched his face as she spouted off all her catch phrases and wrenched out a few tweaks. She shoved a puppet in his face and told him to smell and I thought to myself "Even though I just met him, I feel very confident in assuming Daniel has never had a summer like this!" Cam was milling around the room like she had never been gone and I could tell this was going to be a great summer! I kissed her goodbye, told the teachers to have a wonderful day and walked, no, more like bounced out the door. My shoulders immediately loosened, my jaw unclenched and my lungs enjoyed a full serving of air. Beautiful!
I should be excercising, doing laundry, washing dishes, paying bills, and all the other things waiting to be crossed off the to-do list. But instead I am sitting on the couch while Natalie paints at the table with no worries of it being sabotaged and Riley lays at my feet, her fur in tact and jowels not manhandled for hours. I will get to work tomorrow, but today I am going to sit back and enjoy this wonderful present and I mean that in every sense of the word!