Hey friends!
It’s the end of the first day of service, and wow my heart is SO full. You know its going to be a good day when the precious people at the church (who are so kind to house us for this week) brew some fresh coffee and greet us with smiles. We quickly ate clementines, bananas, and granola and loaded up the vans to head to Children’s Hospital Colorado. We were greeted with some lovely Denver traffic as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot, but yes, we managed to still be on time! We ventured to the volunteer office and quickly began short orientation to learn about the hospital, ethics, and ended with a tour. The hospital itself is gorgeous, lined with intricate artwork and painted with bright colors from the floor to the ceiling. One of the coolest things about Children’s Colorado is that they have their very own Seacrest Studios, a radio/broadcast station for the hospital. They broadcast live to each of the patients room, take requests directly from patients, and even feature them in video segments of the show – so cool!
Once our tour was complete, we split into two groups. One group hosted a craft party in the atrium of the hospital, while the other group went to the children’s playroom to play with siblings of patients. I was placed in the craft party, and although it was a slow day, it was incredible to observe the environment of the hospital as well as interact with patients and their siblings while they did crafts. Honestly, we faced a lot of rejection from the kids/parents, but mostly because they were off to appointments or just wanting to leave. But the kids that did join us were such a JOY. They were so engaged and intrigued by the simplest of things, visibly thankful for the opportunity to grab a marker and draw or glue some paper cut-out shamrocks on a wreath. I met with one family in particular that really stirred my heart. A young boy, his older sister, and parents sat down to do some crafts with us, and with what started as a simple question from his dad about what we were doing and where we were from, turned into a reminder of how precious life, family, and hope really is. This young boy had suffered from brain cancer and was there for his check-up screening. His family shared about how they are from a small town out of state and how during the season of his treatment, him, his mom, and his sister moved out to Denver to stay close to the hospital, while his dad stayed back home to work. His dad commuted often to see his son, putting a lot of weight and pressure on the family financially, emotionally, and physically. I was really impacted by the reminder of the depth of the sacrifices that every single family that entered that hospital was making. By the grace of God the boys scan went great and the family gets to travel back home with a peace of mind for now.
After our impactful time at the hospital we drove back to the church to change, eat lunch, and prepare to head off to the Denver Nature and Science Museum. Let me tell you, those turkey sandwiches had never tasted so good. We got to the museum and battled for a parking spot, shoutout to Cara for her bomb ability to park an oversized minivan. Lucky for us, it was free day at the museum (yes we are the MVP’s of bargaining) and we walked right in. Of course we had to make a pit stop for some coffee before we headed off into the museum. The exhibit I personally enjoyed the most was a rocks and minerals room (sounds super nerdy, I know). But holy cow, it was gorgeous. They had every kind of gem, stone, crystal, mineral, and rock on display that you could ever dream up. The thing that really got to me was just the intricacy of each crystal. Like some of these rocks looked like masterpieces and others had really sketchy hair growing out of them. But for real, the delicacy and detail of each of these rocks was a solid reminder of how intentional and intricate Gods creation can be. It was simply breathtaking looking at a rock and reflecting on how much care he put into a rock and considering how much care he put into each of us, and each of those precious children at the hospital. It’s mind blowing to me. After exploring the museum, losing Ross for the majority of the time (sorry fam) and transforming our faces to see what were all going to look like in 5o years on a fancy machine, we headed to Lookout Mountain to complete our group reflection (and take an excessive amount of pictures). AND WOW the mountains were so gorgeous. The pristine fir trees, massive hills, and steep drop offs were incredible. We traveled about fifteen minutes up the mountain and pulled off into a parking lot that led to a gorgeous outlook to the rockies. We all struggled against the brisk wind that thrashed at our hair as we attempted to get artsy fartsy pictures, don’t worry we managed to get one (aside from Kellies unibrow, but its fine, she’s rocking it). We froze to the core as we discussed our day, but it was so good hearing about what the other group experienced in the hospital that morning. We each had different experiences, different perspectives, and different lessons learned.
We drove down the mountain to head back to the church to cook dinner (breakfast for dinner, #YAS) but stopped halfway down to pull out the MSU flag to snap a pic (lowkey almost lost that flag in the brash wind, shoutout to MaKayla and her hulk strength for not letting go). Overall, it was an incredible day, with lots of small lessons and shifts in perspective sprinkled throughout different activities. I love this group, our leaders, and I’m SO SO SO excited to see what the rest of the week has in store for us.
Bless up. Bear up.
Sincerely Yours,
Kaitlyn Boal