Michigan: Week 1

Alas, after two and a half months of living out of my car and staying on the go, I am officially staying put here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My parents very graciously accompanied me on the 700 mile drive from Atlanta with a 16 foot truck, my car in tow, and their car following. Here is the view from my parents' car on the road:

As you can see, it was quite a load. We arrived in Ann Arbor last Tuesday and immediately unloaded the truck, as I was anxious to find my bed and assemble it in time to sleep in it that night. Mission was accomplished, and it was SO NICE to finally be back in my bed, though I must say I was not without comfortable accommodations all summer, thanks to many wonderful friends and family members.

The first few days here were spent unpacking, getting settled, and checking out the town of Ann Arbor. My parents have some good friends who spend their summers here and were nice enough to show us the ropes and a good time as I was getting settled. My dad's birthday was Thursday, and we had a very nice dinnner with the Coopers that night at The Real Seafood Co. in downtown Ann Arbor. They had the best cole slaw I've ever tasted (and I thought that was a Southern thing) and I tried swordfish for the first time, which was delicious.

What I noticed most about downtown Ann Arbor as we walked around after dinner was that it was really BUSY! After living in and visiting other smallish towns with absolutely dead downtown areas, it was uplifting to walk around and see tons of restaurants with oustide seating that was full and bustling. The weather was perfect, warm but with a cool breeze (not too cool, though, as even I didn't need a sweater). I tried to take a picture to capture the bustling downtown atmosphere, but I recommend visiting to get the full effect.

My parents left on Friday, and I spent a lot of time over the weekend with a friend of mine from Georgia Tech, Leigh, who has been here for a year. I am taking over Leigh's position as orthotic resident at the UofM, so she is sadly moving this week. We went with a few other people on Saturday to the Extremity Games at Pontiac Lake State Park, which was about a 45 min drive from here. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we had a great time just hanging out by the lake and watching wakeboarding and kayaking events (this was an amputee extreme sports competition). As you can see, so far I like the weather in Michigan:

My new roommate, Sara, moved in yesterday, so we are still getting settled in the new place. Kelsey, my dog, is totally freaked out by all the moving and new people and has spent a lot of time under the bed.

I decided to go ahead and transfer my drivers' license and car tag to Michigan so I could register to vote and also have legitimate car insurance, etc. So my car looks a little different already than it did on the drive up here. But don't worry y'all, I'm not a Michigander yet :-)

Camp

Last week I had the pleasure for the second time of participating as a volunteer counselor at Adventure Amputee Camp. Knowing that I would return from camp just a week before moving to Michigan, I was a little worried about being worn out from the non-stop, 5-day, literal adventure. I found, however, that as the week drew to a close, I was actually rejuvenated. My body was tired from lack of sleep, and my mind was a bit weary from the stress of keeping up with three 10-year old girls, but my spirit was strangely filled with an excitement for life and a readiness to embrace a long-distance move and tough year of residency ahead of me. So how could I possibly feel this fulness after such a busy, sometimes harrowing, week of camp?

I left Atlanta early on Wednesday morning with the full expectation that I would struggle with the demands of camp. After two months off from school, work, or anything that resembles work, I have grown quite accustomed to keeping my own hours and I have had the luxury of placing my own needs on the forefront of every day. I haven't exactly been selfish, so to speak, but I have also not been required to be selfLESS very much. And that is exactly what camp requires. Even before leaving Atlanta, I found myself with two small girls holding onto me for dear life and begging me to ride in their van. I'm not usually a kid magnet, but they saw a familiar face and so I became a magnet and a haven of safety for them. As it turns out, these were two of my three campers for the week, which I found out when we arrived at the Nantahala Outdoor Center a few hours later. My third camper was a girl who attended camp for the first time and did not find me or anyone else to be a haven of safety for the first few days. She was quiet, had difficulty walking (and so would I if I had two prosthetic limbs), and did not adapt well to being told when to do things and where to go.

After a quick lunch, a chaotic reunion between many campers and counselors, and a change of clothes, we all went whitewater rafting. The little kids were on a relatively benign river with a few large ripples of water every now and then. The bigger kids (and me) went on the Nantahala River, which was not at all benign and a cool 55 degrees which left my toes numb by the time we finished the 8-mile ride. Dinner and dry clothes were wonderful, and then the first attempt at bedtime enforcement began. I was ill-prepared for how to best allow 3 little girls enjoy camp and also keep them quiet after "lights out". Trust me, the concept of whispering does not last long for girls that age, especially on the first night of camp when excitement and fear combine to create an atmosphere of giggles, screams, and whines. One of my campers presented me with two pill boxes for the week, which contained more pills than any elderly person probably takes. As I lay in bed that night trying to quiet the girls down, I was wishing I could give a double dose of the nighttime medications, but I resisted. And after two trips to the bathroom with two different girls, we finally all settled down for the night at around 11:30. I think this is when I took a shower. I didn't get the girls showered until the next morning. Whew, what a day!

The next three days were pretty similar if not busier, but each day I felt a little more prepared and had a little more rapport with my campers. They were more tired each night, so thankfully bedtime was easier each night. Before camp was over, they had been horseback riding, gem mining, played tennis, went to a swimming pool, and spent a day on a lake swimming, tubing, and skiing.

So you may still be wondering how I became filled as my energy became sapped. First of all, I prayed before the camp for God to give me the selflessness to continually place campers above myself and even other volunteers' needs above my own. I don't know if I succeeded in this or not, but I did feel God's mercy on me as I woke up at 4:30am when one of my campers fell out of the top bunk (she was basically ok, considering the height from which she fell), I felt a patience that was not my own when I was awakened at 5:30am another day by a girl who had just wet the bed and was covered in urine (and it smelled), and I felt God's provision when I happened to be watching and close enough to jump in the pool as one of my campers sunk to the bottom and nearly drowned. How could I not be filled when I have been so blessed beyond my own patience and power?

Also, I was impacted this year even more than last year by the sheer reality of this camp and the fact that it exists. In a perfect world, there would be no need for an amputee camp. There would be no children born with under-developed or missing limbs. There would be no young lives that have been interrupted unapologetically by cancer. In a perfect world these precious kids would not need to gather together in order to feel accepted and loved for who they are. In a perfect world this camp would not exist. Last year, I absolutely LOVED this camp and had a great time. This year, I absolutely fell IN LOVE with the kids for whom the camp exists. Each of the kids is unique and special, and it is a joy to look them in the eyes and try to learn who they are. I am so thankful to have been invited into their lives for even a few days, and I look forward to watching many of them grow into young men and women in the years to come. I still have no idea what any of these kids (or any adults) with amputations experience on a daily basis, though I have seen the logistics of putting on and taking off prosethetic limbs, writing and eating with one or no hands, and navigating stairs or hills with crutches or prosthetic legs. I still don't know what it is like to look in the mirror and not see a symmetrical reflection, but I am learning to look at each of my new friends and see a complete and wonderful person. So I guess my spirit was filled last week by a dose of harsh reality that was followed and overwhelmed by a dose of sweet comeraderie.

With two of my campers on a pontoon boat at Lake Fontana

How can you not love that face?

Leg fell off... who cares!?! Having too much fun!

Two of my girls - they happened to have the same shirt.

This kid climbed the 40-foot ropes course on his first try!

Map: Summer 2008

I'm not sure where to start, but let's just say I started in Atlanta and now I am here again, thousands of miles later. As I took a deep breath today and recounted where all I have driven, flown, slept, eaten, and run in the last 2 months, I thought of those maps in the Bible that show you where Paul traveled. So I made my own map, which you can see below. The solid colored lines represent trips when I was driving and the spray paint looking lines are flights. Unlike the treks of Paul, I did not walk or ride an animal to get from place to place, though I did ride a horse while I was in California. I stayed in some of the cities (listed on the legend) one night and in some for up to 5 nights, and overall I have slept in 21 different places in the past 2 months. Zero of these places have been in my own bed, and I am looking forward with much longing to the day that I will see it again. I don't have the time or the energy right now to explain all these travels in further detail, so I will try to hit the highlights over the next few weeks with some pictures and memories. In short, I feel truly blessed to even know of 21 different places to stay and people to stay with in various cities from Charlotte to Austin to Ann Arbor. I stayed in 3 hotels and 2 beach condos, so I guess that leaves 16 houses or apartments where people invited me in (ok, sometimes I invited myself) and welcomed me for some amount of time into their homes. I regret that I don't have a home right now so that I can return the favors and extend the same hospitality to these friends, but someday I look forward to having you all over to visit... somewhere.

Colored Water

I was at the beach a few weeks ago and saw this crazy reflection on the water right around sunset. The crazy thing was that (a) the sun had already set when I took this picture, and (b) the sun was more in the direction of the dark water and behind me than where the orange water was. I've never seen anything quite like it before.