jada

Jada is the Church of God's Director's daughter. Jada is three. Jada is as independent as a 13 year old thinks they should be. It is not uncommon to find her in random areas around camp, parentless. Just the other day she happened upon Dottie and her dog Missy and just took off down the hill after them. Missy was just too thrilling to keep her staying where she was supposed to.

Friday afternoon I was sitting in the office/store when I turned around to find Jada just standing in the doorway staring at me. "well hi jada. What are you up to?" "Candy!" she said. When I asked her mother if this was ok Tina's response was, absolutely not! Jada was undaunted. 5 minutes later she comes wandering in the store holding the hand of one of the campers, pointing to all the candy she would like. Suddenly more campers jumped in trying to buy jada something. Yeah she knew she was working the system and was grinning from ear to ear. Unfortunately for her, I was still there. I told the campers that Tina had said no to which Jada became rather frustrated but oh well. two minutes later she was back again with another victim camper. This happend 3 or 4 times before Jada got smart. She went and found Allie, one of the staff members whom I affectionately call rambo, because if she wants it, she gets it, end of story. It was at this point that I held up my hands in surrender.

But Jada wasn't finished. While Alli bought her candy, Jada became very interested in one of the small stuffed animals. I watched as she picked it up, put it under her arm, and headed for the door. "Hey jada, that stays here honey." I said. "Yes, I'm jada" she replied matter of factly and kept walking. "I know you're jada. You can't take that animal with you." She looked down at it as if in surprise, thought about it for a moment, then reluctantly put it back on the shelf, took her candy in triumph, and left.