The life of a camp wife.

Earlier today I was talking on the phone with a good friend and fellow camp wife. We were laughing and just catching up and started talking about the life that we have as "camp wives".  For those of you that are wondering what in the world I am talking about, let me explain. My husband works for a baptist camp out in south Texas. In the summer we have churches and different groups that bring their kids out here for summer camp. It's not like the "Parent Trap" camp, that always comes to mind for me. It's different because kids/children are not dropped off here and then picked up a week later. Sponsors and adults from whatever group it is will come with the kids and stay. Summer is a crazy, hectic time for the camp and our busiest time of year. In the off season, September through May, we are a retreat type of camp. People come here for the weekends for different events or activities. I'm sure someone else could of explained this a lot better but you get the idea, hopefully :)

So, they're a few families that live at the the camp year round. Everyone else comes to work for the summer and then they sometimes come back throughout the year to work on weekends. So we live where we work. Now, with this comes many pros and cons. We live in a camp home, we eat MANY meals at camp, we get to see our husbands at every meal if we choose to and so many other wonderful things. It really feels like you're living in a different world sometimes. It's hard to explain or understand unless you're in or have lived it. It's been an incredible experience for my little girls to live here. They will be playing in the backyard and see their dad ride by on a gator. They get to see him ALL the time. Their backyard is the whole camp! They can swim in the lake, the pond, go to the pool. In the summer we can go to worship in the evenings, hang out the snack shack and have snow cones. The camp has an amazing fire works show on the 4th of July every summer and we have front row seats! I hardly have to cook in the summer since we eat almost every meal at the camp. We have the opportunity to have great friendships with so many different people each summer as new and old staff come to work. It really is a good life.

This afternoon though, my friend and I were laughing about the OTHER side to living at a camp. The part that people don't see or realize. Usually when I tell people about the camp and how it works they say how lucky we are and that we have it made! Don't get me wrong, we do in many ways and I'm extremely grateful to live here. There is another side to this life though. During the summer you can pretty much "predict" what will be served that day depending on the day of the week. If you leave your house for the day, everyone knows it because your car is gone. We all share a mailbox so you better not have any dirty mail :) During the summer we "get" to share our husbands AND our home with hundreds of people. The husbands are so busy during those 3 summer months that sometimes it feels like you're a single parent! It can be hard but we get to see him throughout the day around the camp. Today we were on a walk and an irritated woman holding a birthday cake waved me down hoping to get into the cafeteria. I always feel so helpless when people ask me where this or that is or why can't we do this or go in there? I don't work for the camp so I can't help them. I just try to point them in the direction of the office or someone that does. Sometimes I won't leave camp for a few days for whatever reason and I feel like I've missed out on so much! I tend to forget that world keeps going outside the camp. I think for the men it's hard to get away from work. Most men leave their jobs and go home and don't have to look or mess with work related stuff till the next day. Here, you never really leave work behind. It's right out our back door. We live towards the back of camp sort of out of the way so people really don't come up to our front door or bother us. Some of the other homes have had visitors from time to time looking for the office...that's always fun :)

This will be our 4th summer here at camp and I'm not going to lie, those first couple years were difficult for me. I was either pregnant or just had a baby and it was a difficult transition for me. Moving from a busy city to a secluded, country SMALL town was hard at first. It's taken me some time and a lot of growing and patience but I really do love this place. I have had my girls here and this is our home. It may be different and have its good and bad sides but this has been such a special time in our lives and I wouldn't trade it!