Jacob's Camp

Well, we successfully completed Jacob's two week day camp on Thursday of this last week. When we looked into it in February, we knew we had to try to do anything to get Jacob there. It was a day camp in Seattle for chidlren with Aspergers and ADHD. We had looked into going to other states where they had good camps, but just couldn't justify the cost. We found this one and met with the director, Ben, who is also a UW graduate of the MSW program. He was great and really liked Jacob during the interview. With an enormous amount of financial and commuting help, our entire family pulled together and we made this happen for Jacob.

We haven't seen him happier than when hbe was going there during those two weeks. He was like a different kid in the evening, even after a two hour commute home. he would come home and say, "it was the best day I've ever had." He also made a ton of friends, which is a big deal for chidren with Aspergers. He was beaming from ear to ear telling us each night about all of his friends. The camp did an incredible job. They completed a creek resoration project, went to the zoo, the UW arboretum, the beach, and a whole lot more.

This is a picture of the head director, and jacob's counselor, Ben. Jacob really looked up to Ben and you could see the change in Jacob as the week went along.

It was sometimes the small things that would make an impact on his day like when all of his cousins came to pick him up. He was so excited to see his family there supporting him. Jacob's family means a lot to him and he wanted to share this experience with them.

So, Rebecca and I wanted to say a deep hearted Thank you again, to all of our family who helped out in so many ways from driving Jacob, making sure he got his medications on time, sleepovers, early wake-ups to catch a ferry and helping our other two boys at home during a time when mom and dad weren't around a lot.

Jacob picked out a beverage hat from a fun store they went to in Seattle. Rebecca and I drove up for pick-up on the last day and saw him wearing this hat. Wej ust cracked up. It's perfect.

The was the groups final good-bye cheer on Thursday. Thanks you all again for making this happen for Jacob. You need to know how much this meant to him.

Two of the other counselor's, Karen and Adam. Jacob really liked them as well. All of these counselors either work in the schools with this population or as a counselor in some capactiy, so they had a great amount of knowledge.

On ou way home in the car. Jacob ended up drinking two water bottles worth of water in about 5 minutes, which was way too much. We told him the dangers of that kind of hat.