Blue Skies: A Beachside Retreat for Families Living through Childhood Cancer
What Vacation?!
You know the good ol’ saying, “I need a vacation from my vacation!”? Yeah. I definitely needed one after our trip to Georgia. We’ve been home for a whole month, but I came home with a horrible cold that refused to leave me alone. That combined with typical busy summer activities made settling back in take longer. I’m finally feeling rested and back to normal, though. It’s high time I tell you about our incredible time with Blue Skies on St. Simons Island!
What is Blue Skies?
The tagline for Blue Skies Ministries reads, “Imagine a world without childhood cancer. Until then… Blue Skies ®”. They offer a bright patch between the clouds for families living through the realities of childhood cancer. Just like Lighthouse Family Retreat, they provide beach camps for families.
They offer summer camps in both Florida and Georgia. This year they’re also offering a fall weekend camp in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We went for a weeklong summer camp to St. Simons Island, Georgia from July 10th to the 15th, and it really was one of our best weeks ever.
Trip Planning
We loved our time with Lighthouse Family Retreat last summer so much that I was REEEEAAALLY hoping we’d be able to go again this year. I applied for another retreat early on this year, but we were put on their waitlist. They have limited spots available for returning guest families, as they want every childhood cancer family to have the opportunity to go at least once. I 100% support this policy, but I was still super bummed that we didn’t automatically get in. I told several people that it was probably my own fault they didn’t have space for us since I’d trumpeted to anyone and everyone in my cancer circle how amazing LFR was and encouraged them to apply. 😂
I didn’t want to leave us being able to go on another retreat up to chance, so as soon as I found out we were on LFR’s waitlist, I started researching. I wanted to find out if there were any other similar organizations. To my delight, I found out there are several! After reading about each of the ones I found, I decided to apply to Blue Skies. It seemed to be very close in style to LFR. In fact, I later found out they were both started by the same incredible woman! (Melinda Mayton is a superwoman!!!)
I’m so glad I applied to Blue Skies and we were accepted! While we were notified a few times that there were openings at LFR retreats, it was always last-minute, and we wouldn’t have been able to swing any of the trips. In hindsight, I’m so grateful that we were led to Blue Skies so I have the opportunity of sharing another wonderful organization with you!
The Best Week Ever
With both Blue Skies and Lighthouse Family Retreat, you’re constantly hearing people say things like, “This is the best week ever” or “There’s nothing else like it”. Both statements are true. As I’ve been pouring over pictures from our trip while writing this post, I’ve gotten more and more teary-eyed. There truly are good people in the world, and we’ve met many of them on our childhood cancer family retreats.
While we’d wanted to turn our trip into another epic, cross-country road trip like we did last summer, it just wasn’t possible this year. We were able to tack on a few extra days at the beginning, though. We flew into Atlanta on July 7th.
And might I just say…I can now officially say that I do NOT enjoy flying with kids! 😂 This was Lincoln and Logan’s first time on a plane. While they really liked a lot of it, and that was fun to witness, it was So. Much. Work. First of all, I never pack light, so we had so much luggage. It took a long time to get through security with all of Link’s medical equipment—even WITH the extra help we got from TSA Cares. Plus it felt like we were constantly telling Logan to come back to us as he hurried too far ahead. THEN we still had to keep them entertained on the actual flight! I mean…I knew it would be a lot of work, and we went prepared, but GEEZ! So stressful. Not. Fun.
ANYWAY, we got into Atlanta super late. Thanks to it taking an unimaginably long time to get our rental car (which we’d already booked in advance, btw), we didn’t get into our hotel until around 2 AM. Luckily we were able to sleep in the next morning. We then drove down to Savannah, stopping for a visit with a friend on the way. We spent two days in Savannah, and, as expected, we fell in love with it! (If you’d like more details about our time in Savannah in another post, let me know!)
On July 10th we drove from Savannah, which is only about an hour and a half away from St. Simons, and arrived at the Sea Palms Resort around 4 or 5 PM. They had signs welcoming each cancer family lining the road up to the resort. Little details like that were sprinkled throughout the whole week, making us feel like true VIPs.
Volunteers greeted us with smiles and abundant offers of help. The volunteers who were specifically assigned to our family (our Host Families) were so amazing right from the start!!! We were assigned ELEVEN volunteers to help us throughout the week! In reality, though, we had many more. EVERY volunteer at the retreat was so friendly and willing to chip in at the drop of a hat. We met so many wonderful people.
After we checked in (which included getting some awesome swag), our Family Hosts followed us to our room and helped us unload our car and bring everything in. They made sure we were settled nicely before giving us some time to ourselves. We were able to relax and admire our amazing digs before the festivities began that night.
The Activities
Each day was packed with fun activities. You weren’t required to go to any of them, but they all sounded so great that we only missed a few (mainly due to our boys sleeping in). Every morning started with getting together for donuts, bagels, and drinks. As you can imagine, our sweet tooth boy (aka Logan) LOVED having permission to eat donuts every day. 😊
After that, Josh and I got to spend time alone with the other parents whose children were going through cancer treatments and their after-effects. Volunteers took care of all of the kids at the pool so we could just focus on ourselves. Both at LFR and Blue Skies, this time was so incredibly therapeutic and healing. It’s amazing how quickly we bonded with our shared experiences. It was truly humbling for Josh and I to share space with this unbelievable group of parents, some of whom have been fighting for and alongside their kids with cancer for close to and OVER a decade. I was always a little sad when this time together came to an end each day!
Our days were filled with activities around St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island. We had several beach days, and, just like last year, our boys loved it. Josh and I loved it, too. Going with our volunteers may have spoiled us for all future beach days, though. 😂 They hauled all of our stuff down to the beach, set it up, took it down, and hauled it back from the beach every single time. AND everyone took turns playing with our boys and walking with Lincoln. I actually got to sit—in silence and shade —and just RELAX!
Every night had a theme. Our first night there, we had a luau at the resort’s pool. Both of our boys got so much braver swimming on this trip! It was so fun to watch them grow up before our eyes. Swimming lessons are definitely in our plans for next year. The other theme nights included a Western Hoedown, a Parents’ Night Out (when the guest parents all went to dinner together while the volunteers took our kids to see Minions: The Rise of Gru), a Pool Party at the COOLEST waterpark on the coast, and an unforgettable Red, White, and Blue night complete with a parade, red carpet, and fireworks.
That parade, you guys… 😭 It happened on our last night there, and I don’t know if any adult was able to leave completely dry-eyed. Every time I think about it, I tear up. Blue Skies, Sea Palms Resort, and SSI collaborated to make it perfect. Volunteers decorated the resort’s golf carts, which the guest families then rode in to the gorgeous location for our last catered meal together. Policemen led the parade in their patrol cars. All along the route, SSI citizens were out on their lawns with signs and big smiles, waving to us and celebrating our warrior kids. A local high school’s cheerleading team was near the end of the route with an individual sign for each of our cancer warriors. We’ll never, ever forget it.
The Food
We ate so much delicious food while there. Blue Skies outdid themselves with their catered food selections, and we “found” a few gems (via blogs I’d read in advance) on our own. I’ll be posting a separate blog post a bit later detailing all of the scrumptious delights we enjoyed. Stay tuned!
The Worship
Just like LFR, Blue Skies is a non-denominational faith-based non-profit. Its goal is not only to provide respite for families, but also to help them feel God’s love and goodness. They do a phenomenal job of achieving these goals.
Each morning there was a worship service with a lesson taught by that week’s wonderful volunteer camp pastor. We were also unbelievably blessed to have Tasha Layton, a top Christian artist who appeared on American Idol AND was one of Katy Perry’s backup singers, perform and lead us in worship services throughout the week. I can’t even tell you how many times her amazing voice gave me goosebumps. Her personal stories inspired us all, and she was the kindest, most down-to-earth soul. Logan had fun playing with her son, so I spent a fairly good amount of time with her, and it was such a privilege.
“See ya laters”
At both LFR and Blue Skies, they don’t believe in saying goodbye. Instead, as we parted ways, our words were full of “See ya laters”. Our volunteers helped us load our car up and buckle Lincoln and Logan in. We cried tears of gratitude together as we hugged and promised to stay in touch.
It’s hard to put into words just how special this week was, but I’ll give it a try…
This amazing organization gave us a family vacation where we were able to relax and have fun together without having to worry about money or whether or not Lincoln would be able to participate in activities. It gave Josh and I time alone together when we were 100% confident that our boys were being cared for in our absence. It provided us with front-row seats to witness our Heavenly Father’s love for us and for others. It introduced us to kindred spirits we laughed, cried, played, ate, and sang with—people we now consider family.
If you are a family dealing with pediatric cancer, please consider applying to Blue Skies! You won’t regret it. If you know a family who’s living through childhood cancer, please let them know about Blue Skies. If you’re looking for a sensational non-profit organization to support, please consider donating to and/or volunteering with Blue Skies. I know we will be.