Reunion - etc.

Hi, I owe you an update, much has happened and you have had radio silence. Apologies.

Our church denomination has a long tradition of summer camping - for kids, mostly, but also one camp style for families. The family camp is called "Reunion", and we went as we do most years.

We attend what is called Reunion #2 and took our grand kids, Hannah (12) and Lane (10). Oh, and Cody (6 months). 5 of us in a fairly rustic cabin for a week. How was this going to work?

Right off, the week went pretty well, over all. But there were challenges and I (and we) learned a great deal. Here are some bullet points of the observations.

• It rained for the first two days. Rain in Texas often comes as a lesson - to teach us how rarely it happens, and what it can mean to get rained on. One of my favorite hymns is "Rain Down", but this rain was different. You can hear what I love here Rain Down or at Rain Down but I need to tell you that that the 2 day rain we had was different.
• Starting Tuesday (day 3) a company was installing a cellular antenna on a cell tower and I was amazed that Cody actually observed the antenna activity. He took in the work around the 2 cranes that offloaded and then lifted the 3 antenna elements up to the 150 foot tower.
• When we returned to the site after the offloading, Cody recognized that the action was now 15 stories high and watched the attachment process.
• I would take Cody to the classes and services and sit on the periphery at the back so I could participate and keep him in the 'shadows'. I found that Cody did much better if people ignored him (this was particularly true of children!) 
• Cody ate well, and seemed to adjust to a regular schedule, but he really preferred to eat in 'private' so to speak.
• Cody never woke us up. He was in his crate (his 'den') every night and even if I had an event of addressing a 'hypo' or low glucose event, he kept his cool.
• Honestly, he did fine with the event over all, but it was a stressor and it took about a week to get him 'back to normal'.
• It was great to see that the grand kids bonded so well with Cody. They were a GREAT help in caring for him. Oh, and they are great grand kids in any event!

So, the question is ... in balance, how was his trip to Reunion? I feel that we learned much. It is important, even critical, to keep some measure of a structured schedule. As much as possible, avoiding change is a great thing.

I presided at one service and I spoke at another. Some day, I hope to have Cody with me when doing these actions, but we are clearly not at that point yet. There is a great advantage to understand that this is where we are heading and a relief to know where we fall short on this so we can work on it.

This is looking back on the period, but I will shortly have an installment on the most recent week.

I also will start finding a way to monitor Cody's growth by reporting his weight. He was listed as 35 pounds when we received him and we'll see what is happening.