Retreat 2, April 5 - 9, 2006

Retreat 2 piggy backed onto Retreat 1.  On Wednesday, we sent the first group of volunteers and families home and on Thursday, April 6 our second retreat of the season began.  The weather continued to be warm with blue skies everyday!  It was the first April retreat in Lighthouse history that was warm and sunny all week!  Ten families from Georgia attended the retreat.  While most of our volunteers came from the Atlanta area, we were so thrilled to have a mother and daughter duo drop down from Maine to serve with us!  All of the volunteers felt blessed to have the opportunity to serve a family with some unique needs.  They not only have a daughter that because of her cancer has an amputation, seizures and is fully dependent upon her parents for her care but also they have a daughter who was born with special needs who like her sister is in a wheelchair and totally dependent on her parents.  It was such an honor seeing their love for each other.  After they got home, her mother wrote us these words which so beautifully describes our week…“I have always loved Lighthouses. I loved going on vacations when I was little. Our family would load up in our car early early in the morning and my daddy would drive us all the way to the beach. The Lighthouse stood tall and strong. Never bothered by the crashing waves. Last week we had the privilege to be housed in a Lighthouse. No it wasn't a physical lighthouse. It was much more than that. It was a lighthouse created my hearts and souls. It was created by people. These were not any people. These were volunteers. Volunteers that gave of their time, their family, their money, their hearts and their souls. These people were our Lighthouse.”