By Frances George

Here at Baylor, once before fall semester finals and once again in the spring before finals, North Carolina Baylor parents gather with many multiples of items to share and send to our students who are preparing for final exams. The Care and Prayer Parties are a great Baylor tradition! Included in the boxes are lots of fun and food…silly putty, cracker jacks, gift cards to Target and Starbucks, coffee mugs for late night caffeine, beautiful individual cards lovingly signed by all the parents with a word of encouragement. After enjoying packing our boxes, snacking on a few refreshments (which generally include custom Baylor cupcakes!) and a cup of coffee, we gather and pray for our students.

Last night was our final 2015-2016 Care Package Packing Party and Prayer for our NC Baylor Bears. For four sets of parents in the room, it was our final college care package. You see, for us, we have seniors, graduating in May from Baylor.

Last night was an amazing night of laughter and tears (for senior parents packing their last college care package), a night of prayer and lots of “care packed in a box” for our NC Baylor Bears. The care packages, as you can imagine, will be HUGE. But beyond that, the bond we have formed among these friends (none of whom we would have known except for Baylor) is even BIGGER. Our tie is strong and lasting and real.

For example…

Not only did we pray for our students represented at the party but for Molly Gibbons, NC Baylor Tumbler, defending the National Title this weekend. I spoke with Molly’s mom earlier in the day to get her prayer requests for the tournament. So even in their absence, we are a family. And I would only know Molly and her mom through Baylor. One senior mom drove more than two hours in 5:00 traffic to join us because her daughter, a senior, is graduating and she wanted to be with family one last time. We first met this family, the Johnsons, in our home at the Baylor Summer Send- Off Party when her daughter joined a large group of NC Baylor Bound Bears for the annual Baylor Send- Off in the summer of 2012. We are joined each summer for this event by upper classmen, alumni, and Judy Maggard, the Baylor Parents’ Network Director, who flies in from Texas to join the fun of Send-Off! At Baylor, we take welcoming new family very seriously. We have Baylor friends (another precious senior parent) who has recently remarried and as newlyweds unexpectedly received a cancer diagnosis. Immediately the NC Baylor family prayed. We had prayed through their happy wedding and now we are praying through this, more somber but hopeful part of the journey.

That’s what family looks like at Baylor.

Additionally, one of the parents of a prospective student, with whom I have been talking, through a new opportunity I have been given to “fling my green and gold afar…” texted me last night just before we prayed, to report that he and his son had arrived on Baylor’s campus after a visit to another college earlier in the day. They were now HAPPILY on Baylor’s campus and ready for the Baylor Premiere Weekend.  My senior, Mary Scott, is planning on contacting them to hopefully seal the deal as she says to them “Welcome to Baylor” as only a Baylor Senior can!

Who would have thought that four years ago when I sent my daughter to Baylor, not only would Mary Scott gain close friends for life but that also her Mom and Dad would too. Through joy and sorrow, laughter and tears…. The unintended but very happy result of choosing Baylor is that we – as parents- now have a network of Baylor Nation family friends across the state, friends with whom we pray and laugh and pack care packages and then welcome a whole new crop the following year!

So, from current NC Baylor students to future NC Baylor students to tumbling for another National Title NC Baylor students (UPDATE: They won that title!!) , Baylor Nation is a strong family, full of fun and under- girded in prayer here in the Old North State and across the nation.

Oh, and the great joy for me? Well, Mary Scott’s little sis said it best last night after the party and seeing the care packages, “WOW! I can’t believe it! Next year that care package will be for me!” Yep, Catherine George, Baylor Class of 2020. Sic’em!