Our last day in Chicago started as all of the others, just a little bit earlier. We had to get our luggage to the bus by 7:00 am in order to load and still get to our VBS sites on time. The kids have been great about being on time, most of the time we are waiting on an adult. We were very excited to get to VBS and see our new friends again, the kids have really developed strong friendships with all of the children. VBS went off without a hitch. We ended the morning with each host team feeding us authentic spanish food, which was awesome by the way. We had a good time eating and laughing and fellowshipping with our new friends. We both had surprises in store as well: the Brainard group finished with a water balloon fight which I’m sure the kids thoroughly enjoyed, the Hebron group surprised the kids by taking them for a ride on the big Bus. Ken, the best bus driver we have every had on any trip (and we genuinely mean that), loved those kids as much as we did and really made their day by giving them something they never had and might never get to do again. The time came to say goodbye, which was hard but the kids loved on those kids and they loved back. They made us feel like rock stars by asking for our autographs and phone numbers and chasing the bus down the street as we drove away. We will not easily forget those faces and we will pray for their future.
With our stomachs and hearts full and our adrenaline wearing off, we got in the bus and crashed. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ken was the only one awake in the entire bus, they were laying on the floors and stretched out across the seats. We had all worked so hard all week and saying goodbye to our friends finally wore us out. We were on our way home with a stop off in St Louis.
After quickly checking into the same hotel that we were in a week ago (I even got the same room, what are the chances), we headed off to the City Museum. The City Museum is like nothing I have ever seen before. Someone took an old abandoned 11 story shoe factory and tons of old recycled materials and made a work of art. It had slides and caves and crawl spaces and jump zones and skate parks and turtles and fish and an aquarium and the worlds largest pencil and rope swings and slushies and huge cookies. The kids had a great time sliding and spelunking.
We ended our day with our traditional ‘Senior Send Off’ time. This is where each senior sat in the middle of our circle and everyone got to share how much they meant to us and any stories that they remember from past trips. We also included our senior sponsors who are graduating: Mike and Kathy Davis and Paul and Christie Cox. They have meant so much to so many kids, we will miss their leadership and friendship greatly.
Saturday is all about Six Flags and getting home to our families. We finally get to sleep in with leaving at 9:00 am.
One last day, thanks for all of the prayers.
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