It's SUMMER!!!

Okay, so maybe not officially on the calendar.  But if school is out, it's summertime for me.  I am already soaking in the beautiful mornings.  Yesterday I sat on my porch in the rain (yes, can you believe it? RAIN in Texas!).  Today the temps were absolutely perfect.  What a great way to start my summer.

David's been at camp for three days now, and I miss him. :(  I've been following all the pics and videos on the church's twitter feed, though, so I know he's having a blast.  We are doing some repainting and repairing within the house this summer, so we started with David's room while he was gone.  We began immediately after he left, and now I am anxious for him to get home to see how incredible it turned out.  New colors (that he picked out).  New floor.  New furniture arrangement.  It looks amazing. So amazing that we're itching for Juan David to go to camp so we can tackle his room and other parts of the house. (Sorry, no pics until after he gets to see it first).

With David being gone, though, I've enjoyed spending some much needed time with Juan David.  It's been good bonding time and has given us a lot of time to just talk about life.  His heart is sad right now because he had to say goodbye to most of his friends from school, knowing that he won't see many of them again, and knowing that the daily routines and friendship he developed with the others won't ever be the same. The realities of traditional high school and the expectations to speak English are starting to hit him.  He's excited about going to church camp in Colorado in two weeks, but he's scared at the same time because it will be FULL English immersion.  I reminded him that he makes friends very easily, and I know he's going to be just fine.  He's a happy kid who is always looking on the bright side (an attitude that he developed while in Colombia, determined to not let his circumstances define him or direct his life.)  I could stand to learn a thing or two from him.

David will be back tomorrow evening, will have a day to chill out and do laundry (and enjoy his new room), and then we're headed out on a family camping trip for a few days.  Mike and I had already decided that we wanted to go camping a lot this summer, and God just began dumping opportunities on our lap.  I take that as His blessing to devote time together as a family. No big travels or international trips looming overhead. We're staying in Texas and enjoying each other's company.

We also made the comment that we needed to go to Austin, where we met Juan David, to visit some key people on our journey to him. So, we found a campsite in Austin, and all of those details fell into place. Looks like we'll be able to visit with the family that hosted him and his sister back in 2008, our friend who helped connect us with our lawyer (his lawyer) in Colombia to reopen JD's case, and now we also get to meet one of JD's friends that he grew up with in Colombia who was adopted in 2011.  They're all coming (at separate times) to visit with us right at our campsite, so we're really looking forward to it.