Royal Family Kids Camp

You may remember my post about the RFKC walk-a-thon back in May... Looking back at that post makes me a little sad because we had our whole summer in front of us and now it's gone... almost.  It's gone fast.  We had our garage sale and participated in the walk-a-thon for Royal Family Kids Camp, camp seemed so far in the future.  Well, it came (and went) and we were lucky enough to be a (small) part of it!

On August 1st, Marc and I joined 5 other members of our small group at camp for the day to help with "birthday party day."  Our small group completed a study this past winter called "Rooted."  During the study we were challenged to choose a mission project to do together.  After lots of consideration we choose RFKC.  We held a garage sale that raised enough money to send 2 foster kids to camp for the week and we decided to volunteer our time to help at the camp.

Royal Family Kids Camp (RFKC) is a national organization that puts on a yearly week long summer camp for foster kids.  There is a branch located in Joliet area that puts on a camp each year for 50 kids.  The goal of this camp is to let these kids know they are HIS kids, bless them, and provide memories to last a lifetime.  Some of these kids are shuffled from home to home or live in large group homes... many fall between the cracks.  During camp, they get an abundance of one-on-one attention, and they get to feel special!

The highlight of each week is "birthday party day".  The lady who organized us (the extra day volunteers) has been doing the birthday party for 7 years now.  Her goal is to give these kids perfection.  We spent the morning wrapping presents and then enjoyed lunch with the campers and staff.  After lunch we worked for 2 hours straight to transform their cafeteria into a colorful, balloon-filled birthday bash.

When it was party time, we stayed in the background and watched the smiles light up the room.  Each child got his/her own jumbo cupcake (so cute!) with a candle and a HUGE bag filled with presents.  After the cake and presents were enjoyed they had one big dance party.  After the party the kids had lots more special treats to enjoy.  Marc and I got to help make popcorn and sno-cones to pass out.

The most emotional part of the day for me was when the director told us (before we started decorating) that they knew for certain that some of the kids at camp this week had not had their birthday celebrated in the past year.  I feel so blessed to be a parent to my three kids, but I know that God has called me to care for orphans.  I don't know at this point what that calling will look like over the next many years, but I know that I will obey.  I will teach my kids to obey as well.

As a bonus, Miss Jennifer kept the kids overnight for us.  We got to have a date night Tuesday night and spend all day Wednesday serving at camp with our friends.  We finished our day be stopping at our favorite sub place in Ottawa on the way to pick up the kids.  Great date day!!