Vacation (ha!?!) Bible School

This week I have been helping out at my church's Vacation Bible School. I have been leading a crew of eleven kids, which are rising kindergartners and rising second graders. That means they range in age from four to seven. It has been fun, challenging, exhausting, inspiring, exhausting, interesting, exhausting, and well...exhausting! :) Campbell has been in the church nursery each day from 8:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. That is a big deal for both Campbell and I. That's a long time for her to be in someone else's care when she's so used to me!

The biggest challenge for me at Bible School with my crew of kids was logistics. Our church is pretty big and has a very young congregation. They had to close registration for VBS when they had 500 kids - there was even a waiting list. WOW! I think it's so terrific that there are so many kids involved at our church. But at the same time, the sheer number of kids is what made my job so difficult this week. Logistically, it is TOUGH to move eleven kids of that age through the church from one activity to the next. They get distracted so easily in a crowd and I felt like I needed a leash! Well...my prayers were answered and yesterday I got a rope. Ha! Not to tie the kids up with either. They each hang onto the rope and it makes it a lot easier to move from one station to the next. I cracked up on the first day. I was pretty frazzled and stressed out trying to figure out how to keep my kids in line, and a little nervous about leaving Campbell. Then, I walk down the hallway and look up. Stretched across the ceiling is a huge fishinhg net filled with rubber snakes. MORE SNAKES! hahaha The theme for VBS is all about the swamp, so it's just part of the decor. The church is adorable (minus the snakes) with crocodiles, swamp plants, bait shops, etc. all over the place.

I want to share a few sweet things that happened this week. Yesterday they made a bracelet in Crawfish Crafts and we were told to tie the bracelet onto the kids' wrists, and while we did so, to say a prayer for them. My kids are so young that I think they often miss the point and are solely concerned with things like "can we take this home today" or "I'm thirsty". But I was wrong. One sweet little boy told me he was finished with his bracelet and asked me to tie it on him. Then he said, "Can you say a prayer for me?" How sweet was that? He hadn't missed it at all, and I found it very endearing that he asked me to pray for him. I gladly did. One of the other activities was to make an alligator paper clip and then you could write a message to someone who needs encouragement and put it in your clip. One of my older little girls who is able to write wrote, "Dear Sara, you are so cool. I love you" and clipped it on my bag. Those two things made it well worth my stress and exhaustion all week.

Today, VBS ended with drama. The nursery workers came to get me about 30 minutes early because Campbell had a rash on her face. I left my crew of kids with my assistant and found Campbell in the lobby with the camp nurse. She was smiling and laughing, but looked like Will Smith in Hitch when he ate the shrimp. OK, not that bad, she wasn't swollen. But the rash was pretty alarming. I raced her to the pediatrician's office in a panic. Because we thought it was an allergic reaction, they asked me questions on the phone like, is she breathing ok, how quickly can you be here? When I told her I was closer to the hospital and asked if I should go to the ER, she put me on hold to find out. That scared me. Bad. And Campbell was snoozing in her carseat while I drove, so of course I'm wondering if she's napping or passed out. Turns out it's not allergies which is a blessing. They said it's Fifth's Disease which is a very common childhood virus. The rash comes at the very end and so luckily the virus has almost run its course. She probably had a fever earlier this week that we never detected, which may explain some restless nights and a little uncharacteristic fussiness. Travis raced home from work when I called him en route to the pediatrician's office. I'm so thankful to have such a supportive husband. He didn't tell me to call him when I found out what was wrong...he said he'd meet me at the doctor's office. We actually took her back a second time this afternoon because the rash got ten times worse while she had her afternoon bottle. A bottle with formula is new of as last week, so I feared that she was allergic to her new formula since this morning's rash also came right after her bottle. But the nurse practitioner assured us that she wasn't displaying any symptoms of an allergic reaction so I'll have to trust her medical knowledge and quit second-guessing her (and googling it!). Campbell is somewhat high on Benadryl now to help with the redness. I think we've calmed down and everybody is going to be OK. Travis is going to stay home with her tomorrow so I can go finish my fun and exhausting week of VBS with my sweet kids. I look forward to a quiet week at home next week with my baby! I think I need a vacation after Vacation Bible School!!!