Tuesday Shoesday!

We have been crazy busy over here in the French household. We spent this past weekend at Camp Soaring Eagle with a group of 20 children who either have had cancer or are the siblings of a child that has had cancer. The children are generally all in remission and in relatively good health. The goal of Camp is for the kids to just have a great time and for just a weekend escape the stress and worry of their daily life and just be kids. For that reason we don’t talk about their illness unless they bring it up. Since we have siblings we generally don’t know which of them is the one with cancer and which is the sibling. What is amazing though is to see the bond the brothers and sisters have with each other. At that age my sister and I were definitely not that sweet to each other but we never faced the situation of dealing with a serious illness that could result in death. The kids are happy and like I said, relatively healthy so it is often easy to forget what their day to day life must be like. I only get to see laughing, playing, screaming, and joking. However every once in awhile a child will open up and give you a little insight on what they are really going through. That happened to me when I casually was trying to get to know one little boy and I started asking him about his siblings. He had one brother at Camp so I assumed one of them was sick at one point. He told me that there were 5 kids in their family- all boys, but that he only had four brothers. Then as casually as can be, he told me his older brother had cancer and died in January. I assured him that he would always be his brother and he could always talk to him or think about him even if he wasn’t actually here anymore. He looked up at me and smiled. My heart broke and I instantly was reminded that at home, there is sadness, turmoil, and a lot of stress for this little 7 year old. His brother was 14 he told me, but 15 now because he just had a birthday in March. They had a little party for him. I am so glad that Camp Soaring Eagle not only gives this opportunity to the sick child but also to those siblings who are struggling with the situation too. We never talked about his brother again but I was grateful that he was willing to share the story with me. As always, we had a blast and consider ourselves lucky to have been able to be a part of these kids lives and bring them a little joy if only for a weekend.

On a brighter note- we closed on our house yesterday!!! After a long and often frustrating process, we have a home, and now we get to move… However we are even more excited because we haven’t been using any of our wedding gifts. They are still in their boxes as we knew we would be moving in the near future. So we are pretty excited to open every thing up again! I think it will be a little like Christmas! We have also had a large amount of our stuff in storage for over a year which means I have forgotten completely what all is in there! Most times in the past when I have moved, I knew what I had, but this is a slightly excited move because it will feel like we are getting all new stuff! If you don’t see me around too much this week, we are likely packing, moving, unpacking and organizing!

On to Tuesday Shoesday! I thought I’d share a super special Tuesday Shoesday pick- my very own wedding shoes! I haven’t shared any photos yet so consider this your sneak peek! Thank you to Melissa Dunstan for capturing the shoes so beautifully!

We all (including female guests) wore red shoes to bring awareness to Heart Disease! Plus who doesn’t love red shoes?