Tonight dozens of families from around the country have either started, or are preparing for their pilgrimage into the still snow capped Rocky Mountains for another grace-filled week of Adams Camp.  Adams Camp is a summer program where children living with Autism (or other developmental disabilities) and their families gather to be fed both of mind and body.  Although I am often prone to exaggeration I can promise you that this camp is a place where miracles happen on a daily basis.  These miracles come in the moments where children with special needs make a breakthrough and say there first word, or take their first step, or connect with another person for the first time in their lives.  The miracles come in the moments where the parents and care-givers of children with special needs learn that they are not alone as they build relationships with other parents who are walking on the same scary  path that they are are.  The miracles come in the form of the specialized volunteers who suspend their busy lives to join these families on the mountainside to help work with, struggle with, cry with, laugh with, and celebrate with their children who are living with a disability.  The miracle comes in the soft winds that blow through the Snow Mountain Ranch at night that whisper to all the people who have come to Adams Camp that it is okay to let the stress and grief melt away for a week...and to replace those feelings with absolute hope.

For me, the miracle of Adams Camp is that it has come to feel like I am returning home.  Not a physical home...rather an emotional one.  A homecoming of the heart, so to speak.  While up in the heart of the woods and the towering mountains at camp I feel a deep sense of respite.  I allow the weights of Autism that I have let build up over the past year slip away into the soil below.  It always renews my vision of parenting and gives me the chance to choose to become a better father. Adams Camp is indeed a place where I better equipped to choose peace over needless heartache.  It is a camp where I can choose to see the world through the wonder of my autistic sons eyes instead of my narrow worry wrinkled peepers.   It is a place where my family gets to rest in the arms of one another and choose to focus on belief in tomorrow rather than in past losses. 

It makes me feel like any home should...joyful.







There will be families (like mine) that will returning home to Adams Camp.

There will be families that will be coming home for the first time at Adams Camp.

Pray for all of us.

This is the Roedel clans eighth year of Adams Camp.  I am just as nervous as if it were our first. 

I am not sure if I will be blogging from camp this year.  Instead of documenting my experiences I may just spend my time in gratitude.  Maybe I can do both at the same time?  There is no telling what I will do....but for now I am leaving.

So long.

The Roedel's are going home.