Fields of Faith, Children's Retreat

Me | 11-22-04 | Me

[TexasCowboy]

As many of you know, I'm in the process of building a retreat for disadvantaged children at Rock Island, Texas.
Don't let the word, "disadvantaged" throw you.
I'm not one that believes that it takes a "village" to raise a child, but I do know that there a lot of single parents out there with children who don't have the time or the money to provide their children with the pleasures which children used to take for granted.

There are many children's retreats across this country, but there are very few to which any child can go without paying a fee. This eliminates a lot of kids.
My motto will be: "A child's pleasure should have no price tag."

My intent is to build a place where the kids can come on the weekends to play with baby animals, ride a horse, plant a garden, fish in a lake, milk a cow, and, in general, do the things so many of us did as children to which so many children today do not have access.
I'd like for as many children as possible to enjoy God's bounty, and realize that the world is not encompassed by the TV or the computer.

If y'all remember Tom Hank's performance in "Big" (regardless of his political affiliation), you will understand why I'm posting this vanity.
I need help.
I need help from the five to ten year olds in your household.
If they had a day or a weekend in the country, what would they like to do?

I won't bore you with details of future ideas for disabled children, but I do need to plan for the immediate needs.
Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
I need to stress, I'm not asking for donations; I just need ideas.

Thank you so very much, and may God bless our children.

Future home of Fields of Faith:

[TexasCowboy]

"The child seems to have her daddy's amazing immune system."

Well, there's probably more to it than that.

I'll bet she has coughed or had a runny nose that a lot of parents would have taken as good reason to rush her to the emergency room.

[Gabz]

I'll bet she has coughed or had a runny nose that a lot of parents would have taken as good reason to rush her to the emergency room.

I can't help but laughing because I actually know people like that. What a sorry state of affairs. I'll never deny medical care to my child (or anyone else for that matter) but there is a time and place for everything. I've called the doctor a couple of times, but not for trivial things like runny noses or even slight fevers (like when she decided to slide down the stairs in her sleeping bag head first and came to a complete stop on the oak floor on a concrete slab and had a golf ball sized lump on her forehead)

I think I've gotten as excited about your project as you are and have been so enjoying the exchange of ideas, I feel like I'm sitting across the table talking with you about it - thus the tangents I seem to keep going off on - and for that I apologize.

[TexasCowboy]

Don't apologize. Let me pour you another cup of coffee, and we'll go off on these tangents together.

I was in the emergency room with my son who had stuck a nail in his foot and had those tale-tale streaks running up his leg, when a lady brought her son in who had cut his finger.

The cut was so small that the bleeding had stopped, but the lady was screaming at the nurse, "YOU'RE A NURSE! NURSE IT!"
The nurse turned around and said calmly, "What in the hell do you want me to do? SUCK ON IT??"

I had to laugh even as worried as I was over the blood poisoning.