Summer has arrived

Summer has finally arrived (I think). It was overcast and rainy all week but the sun finally came out yesterday; just in time for the family and I to make our first trip to the lake. The temperature hit the high 80's but the water was a few degrees behind. It was downright frigid actually, but you know how resilient the kids are. They would not miss an opportunity for a lake swim so they jumped right in (and then quickly right back out). Last Saturday, Kaiden graduated in full style from pre-school. It seems like just yesterday he was only two years old. He will be starting Kindergarten summer school tomorrow.

Life has been equally eventful at Shelterwood. Our pre-summer break began on Friday with about half of the boys on home visits with their parents. Break will continue through this week before starting our summer schedule. Four new big brothers will be arriving in June. That will be a huge blessing to the Guys House as well as launch the training process again.

Last week we had a tornado warning pass through Independence. It impacted everyone in the area. My kids were at home and had to go down to the basement once the sirens went off. Jena was at work in the hospital. The entire hospital shut down and all of the patients were moved to the hospital basement. The doors were locked with no entry or exit. It sounded crazy. At Shelterwood, the kids and I headed to the gymnasium locker room located on the bottom floor of the Field House. It was

interesting spending an hour in the bathroom with 23 boys. I took a few photos to give you an idea of what the weather looked like. Both pictures were taken at 12:00pm exactly one day apart. Thank God for protection and never a dull moment.

Graduations

It's that time of year to celebrate graduations. I'm guessing you know of at least one person who is graduating at some level. In our family, Kaiden is graduating this Saturday from Pre-school. He has a cap and gown and everything. I imagine a zillion cam corders will line the front row of the church with family of all sort. Corey is moving along from 8th grade to high school (although no ceremony is involved). Last of all, Sumer graduated from Legacy High School this past Monday. Class of 2011. Sumer will be attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins this coming Fall. Hard to believe one of my girls is all grown up. I am proud of her and blessed to have such a wonderful daughter.

Grad fever is not just in my family. Next week, several residents will be graduating from Shelterwood. 8 kids are graduating from the program and 5 are graduating from high school. I think that is some sort of record. 3 boys and 5 girls will complete the program. The graduations will take place next Wednesday and Thursday. Pre-Summer Break begins the next day on Friday and runs through June 5th. On June 6th, the Shelterwood summer session begins.

Speaking of Shelterwood, I was in Denver recently and I drove by the old property to check things out. As you can see from the photo to the right, there is nothing there. The only evidence that we occupied the land is the old log cabin out in the field. Amazing. Good times with lots of healing and growth took place on this old land.

Wrap Up

"Thank you Lord and Shelterwood for the wonderful parent weekend! We had an incredible time with our son, heard so many encouraging stories from the staff about him, watched miracles occur in families and truly saw the love of Christ in action from the entire Shelterwood staff. I just can't stop smiling :)
Thank you, thank you, thank you all! We love you!"

I normally don't post Blog updates so close together, but the occasion of Parent Weekend warrant's such a post. The above quote is from one the parents who attended over the weekend. The picture features two of our amazing Big brothers. Zeb (left) and Daniel (right). Daniel shared his personal testimony during the Sunday morning Worship time. It's hard to add to the words of a Shelterwood parent so I won't. Thank You, again, for the role you play in restoring families, training disciples and building community through Doulos Ministries.