by: Crystal James
Published: Lifelines for Health Fall 2018
Inhibitor Family Camp to my family and I means love and acceptance. We live in a world that’s harsh and sometimes rather distant to the reality of what hemophilia is. Camp is a place where we as parents can watch our children be carefree and the children themselves can build relationships amongst their peers and build confidence within themselves.
Families are able to see within what can be missing as a whole when we step out of our normal environments. We get a chance to escape the everyday routine of life and let the enjoyment of being a structured family unit flourish as one.
I feel as though IFC gives my boys a sense of self confidence. They get a chance to meet peers
older than them such as camp assistants and counselors that also have the same disorder that they battle every day. Meeting these older peers with the same challenges, gives them a sense
of self-fulfillment. It provides the boys’ positive reinforcement that growing up with hemophilia is okay and they can do anything in this world that they want.
I also think Inhibitor Family Camp is a place where you can feel relieved within the hemophilia community. All of us as families were brought to this amazing place for the same reason. As crazy as life can be dealing with the horrors of this disorder every day, day in and day out, camp seems to be a place where these horrors don’t exist. All of the attending families are comfortable with one another. These children from all different walks of life join together as one and we become one big happy family for a whole entire weekend.
Camp is also a place where we learn how to deal with the mental aspects of living with a child that has hemophilia with an inhibitor. I find it amazing that we get the chance to challenge our intellect and obtain knowledge on how to deal with the harsh reality of what hemophilia can do to your family members and the siblings living with it as well. We need that aspect of teaching for us as parents because it can be tough having to deal with this disorder and having other children.
For me, altogether Inhibitor Family Camp means - we grow substantially as a family. We gain confidence as well as independence. We gain memories and friends for a lifetime. We look forward to the year passing so that we can make these memories grow with many more. If I truly had to sum up camp to one word, I would say camp is like home because (in my eyes) home is where the heart is, and Inhibitor Family Camp is full of just that. Love for a lifetime. I will always love for my family to be a part of this experience. Thank you.