The Link!

So, after some fruitless searching, I finally found the show Extreme Makeover Home Edition of Camp Barnabas! It's on utube, look under
Extreme Makeover Home Edition - Teas 1 of 10
And watch all 10, they're each about 8 minutes long, and it's incredible. You'd have to be a cold, miserable person not to be touched by this show, camp, family, and experience! For our Utah Special Needs Friends, you have to get your kids out here for this!!
We're grateful for the experience, and so thrilled that Monte was able to benefit from some generous sponsors to make it a reality. We know he's having a blast, the pool, zipline, horses, and singing will make him never want to come home. His counseler is amazing, I was quite impressed with him, great attitude, enthusiasm, and sweet spirit. By the time we had visited with the 2 staff doctors and Monte's nurse, he had Monte settled in, unpacked, walking around the cabin, and clothes laid out for the first party. I was worried to mention Monte's early morning wake-ups...but shocked at his immediate response. I said, "Hey, so sorry to let you know this, but Monte likes to wake between 4 and 6am." Without a single hesitation he said, "I can do that!" He also mentioned he was worried about Monte being too hot, and said that they would give him water sips every 15 minutes, and have cold washcloths for his neck to keep him cool. Wow.
We had heard a lot of raving from other parents, but I was still not too thrilled about letting Monte go until I met a teenager, a lot like Monte. He was able to talk, slowly, and with short words, and was really cute. I saw him at Dream Night at the Zoo in a Camp Barnabas T-shirt with his parents, and asked him about the camp. He said he loved it, and couldn't wait to go back. He said his favorite part was (gulp!) shooting the guns. His parents told me that the first year they were all pretty hesitant, but when they went back to pick him up he told them to go away until the summer was over! If they could've, they would've re-enrolled him for the next week. He was really upset about having to leave. Ok, that made me feel a lot better about things. However, as we drove to the camp, we were greeted about every 100 feet by more excited volunteers, including the owner and founder of the camp, Paul Teas (the man I was so, um, not polite to!). They quickly took in the somber mood of the car...I'm crying, Doug's being overly enthusiastic to not upset Monte, Monte senses something's up, and Piper's running a fever of 103 and NOT excited about anything; and asked if it was our first year. Yup. Apparently they only see that in first years. Everyone else was so excited. Still, we could hear the roar of the volunteers a mile away. They are an incredible group of people, else I never would've been able to leave him there.
This is a smaller week, it's called "Champions." It's for kids with Multiple Disabilities and or developmental delays. It's still 140 kids (!!) and each has a personal volunteer who is always with them. They sleep on the top bunk, the kids are on the bottom. There's also two house Moms in the cabin. We saw license places from Colorado, New York, Kansas, Arkansas, Illinois...We felt pretty lucky that we are so close to the camp. (It's about 80 minutes away).
Any, more updates and pictures when I get them.