family vacation details and video to come. but for tonight i love my sisters. my parents and my nephews. my brother in law's too. it has been a little bit crazy here. life feels very much out of routine. i think that's just what happens in the summer. we got home from williamsburg yesterday and our house was immaculate. thanks to justin. but that lasted all of ten minutes. i just can not seem to get ahead. i can not fit it all in or do everything i want to do. i know that is normal. i just sometimes feels like too much. but it's not like i want it any other way. it is just busy. but good busy. full of all things i love. tomorrow is the young life golf tournament, packing for college girl reunion (so excited) and campaigners. with all the little details of life in between.  

for tonight it is folding laundry. returning some emails. writing something for a friend and going to bed. i never want to sound dramatic. people are much busier than me and i know that. chances are i will wind up going to bed once i hit publish and getting up early instead. yup that sounds about right.

my sisters and i in colonial williamsburg with my family.

young life camp.

it is one of our most favorite weeks of the year. we took a hundred students from grassfield high school to camp. it is such a joy and so exhausting. but in a good way. a good tired. like it's worth it. so worth it to stay up late and talk and get up real early to meet with other leaders and share our hearts.

this was my first time leading in a year and a half. it felt so good to be back. this is our element. this is where justin and i shine. or we hope we do. Christ in us. our good friend john told me...how awesome it was to see me running hard with girls. literally (camp felt a little more physically draining this year. the hill on the obstacle course. enough said.)  but also just living life with high school girls for a week. in a cabin. sleeping on the floor on mattresses because our cabin was so big. living in disarray. just like i always remembered. so messy and so crazy. but so good. it is such a unique opportunity to really get to know girls in such an intentional way. we did everything together. slept. ate meals. went on the slide. the blog. the zipline. road mountain bikes. we were the worst and the girls loved it. it was such a glimpse of these girls hearts. no complaining no questions. they trusted me. took risks. did things they did not think they could do. but they did. even that scary ropes course. we all did it. that was confirmation that i really did not have cancer anymore. i am physically back to myself. what a joy.

before we even got to camp we took all the students on a "little" hike. it was not the easiest thing but the view was incredible.

my sweet cabin of sailors. great idea ally i thought we looked great. i am currently loving all things nautical. and who won the spirit award? grassfield girls!

 

 

 

 

although not everyone loves the rope course you all did it. i love that.

yes my cabin dunked me in the dunk tank and it was freezing. it helped that justin got dunked right before me. so we were cold together. but it was fun. if getting dunked into freezing cold water is fun. 

pebbles branch. you will always be a very special cabin to me. the first group of girls since cancer and having ava. it was a joy. all of it. thanks for allowing me to experience this week with you all.

it felt good to be back. so good. i had fun. laughed more than i had in a while. danced. i like to dance. even though i look like a fool. i love it. the freedom it brings. yes i am 27 and hanging in a cabin with a bunch of high schools. but it is my heart. we did life together. for one week we did real life together. we will keep doing that too even at home. walking alongside each other. one of the best things about young life camp is that you all go there together and go home together. sharing memories and moments that no one can take away from you. the Lord worked in huge ways this week. differently for everyone. The Lord meeting them where they are at. where i am at.  that is what makes the Lord we serve so personal. keep going after what's real girls. i promise it is worth it.

young life camp. best week of your life.

water country.

i did not know until this week but my family loves water parks. we went today for the third time this week. it was great. we went later in the day and therefore did not really have to wait in any lines. it was genius. super fun. i love that. the innocent fun of water slides. for now i am going to hang out with my family. but here is a little ava. man i love her. she is not that nice to her cousins. she hits sometimes. but i love her more than i knew i could love. besides justin of course. today she was sweet and kissed her cousin drake while playing on the playground. precious.

in the background is me. i got a romper from the jcrew outlet. before i got it i asked if it was okay for a 27 year old mom to wear a romper. the consensus was yes.

 

do not miss our july sponsors. some real cute stuff. check it out HERE for special deals just for you.

family vacation number two.

ava and i are in williamsburg with my family. justin will join us later this week. sorry for the lack of blogging. it's been go go go since we got back from camp. but so so so good. i am still recovering from camp...i fell asleep on the couch at 8:30pm tonight. pretty lame. but great to be away with family.

we spent most of the day at a water park. ava pretty much loved it. see...

off to bed. more to come this week. like young life camp and family vacation.

check this sermon out. it's mostly about jesus but a little about our story.

my parents moved to OK last month. they started going to first presbyterian church in tulsa. a few days before this sermon was written my mom was talking with their new pastor. trying to get to know each other better and my cancer was brought up and in turn this blog. by friday of that week he decided to write a little sermon about 2 Peter 3:13. life's adversities and how if we choose. if we really decide we will not waste anything the Lord puts in our life. for us that was cancer. when things happen. crazy. hard. never imagined it would happen type things...you can make a choice on how you will handle it. we chose to trust the Lord. glorify Him with our lives and His story through us. none of it is easy. not one part about cancer was easy. but no one ever said life would be easy. but it was good and it was only good because we knew we could not take my cancer away or do anything to heal myself. i was sick. full of cancer. there was nothing I could do but HE could. He healed me. we just chose to trust Him.

if you want to check it out LISTEN HERE

everyone needs to experience a week at a young life camp. there is nothing like it.

this is always how it goes. ava is asleep and i should be sleeping. i basically got about 4-5 hours a night at camp and ran hard all day. it was incredible. it was joy. it was life. more to come on this past week at camp. needless to say students lives were changed. forever. there high schools will be different forever. we pray it changed everything.

today we rest. no emails or phone calls really. trying to just be. really rest before this month takes off. it is going to be a crazy one.

ava did great. more than great. she loved being with her roma and aunt marlene. more to come on that too. baby girl was not sure what to do when she say me this morning. took her a second to wrap her around the fact that it was me. but then she smiled. so big and ran to me. she did not leave my side until her nap. she is sleeping now i need to sleep too.

thanks for your prayers. it was truly a life changing week. in so many ways. there is nothing else i would rather do. this was week was big for me. i am seeing more and more how cancer has changed me. this week reflected that in so many ways. more to come. i like to keep you hanging. off to nap.

big blog post tomorrow.

from a sweet friend. camp is going incredible by the way.

this is an email i got a while back from a dear friend. she did a phenomenal job of emailing me when i was sick and responded to various blog posts she liked or thoughts she had on them. always good. it was such an encouragement to me. i received thousands of emails when i was sick and most if not all brought me to tears and impacted me in a different way. however, i am unable to put them all on the blog and secretly i do not want to put them all up because they are special and intimate. many of you shared so much with me and it was such a gift. they keep coming. not in the masses like when i had cancer, but still. every once and a while when i check libbyryderblog gmail account a little email from a reader shows up in my inbox. no joke i get so pumped that i usually wait to read it until i can sit down and really read it. not read it while watching ava, cooking dinner, and doing laundry. i did that yesterday. i got a pretty incredible email from a women i do not know. i got settled on the couch upstairs. put a movie on for ava to help her learn her colors. the dvd is so annoying but she is learning her colors. pre school prep is the name of the series. anyways, i sat down and started reading and the tears began to fall. because that is what i do. she shared a video with me at the end of her email and i wept. it was about a young woman. like me. who had breast cancer and nine years later it came back and now it is not curable but manageable. i sobbed. that is my biggest fear. that after years and years of routine visits where everything looks great...we will hear the dreaded words...your cancer is back. the woman in the video's name is dawn. her and i could be friends i think. she seems to have the same outlook i do. i will try and get in touch with her and ask if i can post the video she made. i love it. i think i want to do something like that someday too. we like videos in this house.

i appreciate the emails i receive so much. it really is an honor to get the unique chance to get a glimpse of people's hearts and lives through an email. so raw and real and honest. i love all those things. thank you for writing. my goal is to return every email i received when i was sick before feb 19 2012 arrives. the day i became cancer free. i can do it. easy. i know how busy i feel at certain points in the day that it means even more that so many people take the time to sit down and write. no vague one or two sentences. but their heart. long and honest. it will never get old. it will always be special to hear from people and hear their stories and the ways the blog has played a small role in their life. thank you to those of you that have written and will write in the future.

a letter from casey to me.

Dear Libby,
I was thinking a lot about Ava today. I thought, what if Libby got cancer so that Ava could meet Jesus. That thought never crossed my mind until today. I just kept praying for Ava and Roxie today that they would know Jesus. That they would grow up in the salvation of the Lord. That they would understand the depths of the cross and resurrection and be transformed. Then I just thought, wow, I bet Libby got cancer because her cancer will change Ava's life. (I realize that that may not be true, but what if it was?) I just had this feeling today that Ava was going to know Jesus, like know know Jesus. I can't WAIT for you to share all of this with Ava, in a way where she understands what cancer really is. I know she understands a little bit now. But I am looking forward to the day where she can understand the words that you wrote on your blog and all of the medical things that you went through. You have a daughter, she will love her hair. I can't wait for her to understand how hard it was for you to lose those long locks. One day, your cancer will hit her hard. She will read your blog and you will verbally share with her your experience and it will change her. Her mother suffered from cancer. It will change her. Her love for you will grow. Your cancer has changed other people's lives. People have met Jesus because of your vulnerable heart. Ava will see that. She will understand that one day. She will read about herself and how much she helped you through this experience. She will see that her mother is loved, loved by so many. She will see how much you love Jesus. She will read about how much you love Jesus. I pray for Ava and that your testimony will impact and change her life. You are cancer free. God is faithful. I pray that Ava recognizes that and appreciates the Lords faithfulness.

Well done Libby. Well done, good and faithful servant. Though you did not physically run the marathon this past weekend. You ran your own race. You freaking ran for 6 months. That's longer than any half marathon, marathon, or ironman. Your race was long and you ran the extra mile. I am thankful for all of the people that ran. It is such a beautiful picture of the Kingdom. I love it. I absolutely love it. Isn't it amazing Libby, amazing that you are healed. I am being hit hard with God's goodness right now. It is amazing. I mean I am having trouble expressing how beautiful Christ is right now. Your cancer has glorified him. The cancer did what it was suppose to - bring people to Him. He used you and your body as a vessel to advance your kingdom. Jesus loves you Libby Ryder. He loves Ava too. 

Do not stop blogging. Please do not. I check too many times a day for an update. I love the pictures at the marathon. I just love them. I love when you post pictures.  Thank you for blogging.  It has impacted and changed me.

I love you a whole lot. Praying for you Libby. 

I met a few girls last night who did summer staff with some of our chesapeake leaders. they happen to read the blog so we talked about that. which was so cool. but Ashley said she was hesitant to send me an email and did not to seem like a creeper. not a creeper. not at all. i get it. i get what it means to read people's blogs and feel like you know them. maybe not all of them. obviously. but we wrote so people could enter into our story and see how the Lord was moving in my cancer. i think we should always be willing to share with people when something impacts us, or means something to us, or we learned something, or were inspired. everyone wants to be encouraged. let's encourage people. i like that idea.
It was great meeting Elizabeth, Ashley (we love lexington, ky) and Carlie. you are welcome to chesapeake anytime. they were able to be a part of a special night on the river. our entire porch was filled with college students as we sang, read scripture, laughed, prayed, and talked. it's what i have always wanted our home to be. thanks for making it a reality. i loved it.