Last summer I sent Zach to his first sleep-away camp, Word of life, up in Saranac Lake, NY. He was excited but nervous about being without Mommy for the very first time. I tried to pump him up and calm him down by reminding him over and over that he was going to "have tons and tons of fun!" I kept talking up the swimming, canoeing, hayrides, water slides, zip line, etc... etc... etc... I told him that he was going to make friends with all the boys he would be sharing a cabin with. We assured him that they had running water and showers. My mother came with us as I drove the 2 hours up into the Adirondack Park to drop Zachariah off to camp. He was such a trooper, not even a tear as we left him with his capable counselor and a gaggle of other boys his same age at his cabin. I made sure to draft a letter and leave it in his bag so that he had something to read from me at night before he went to bed. Reminded him to wash his hair and brush his teeth every night. My parents and I wrote him letters and mailed them 2 days before he went to camp so that on Day 2 or 3 he would get some nice mail. Half way through his week I made sure to put together a special little care package for him filled with Graham crackers, marshmallows and Hershey bars - all the makings for the perfect Smores.
The following weekend my mother and I drove back up to Saranac Lake to pick Zach up. The whole trip I wondered about all the exciting things he got to do, the kids he had made friends with. I had prayed he'd remembered to douse himself with Off! every day. We pulled into the parking lot and it was a may-lay of kids being reunited with loved ones. I walked up to the main building to claim my child and up walked the most dirty little boy I'd every seen. His hair was tousled, he had red blotches all over his body from where the mosquitoes thought he was an all you can eat buffet. He had band-aids on both knees. He looked anything BUT happy.
On the way home I managed to coax some kind words from him about his stay. He really liked the zip-line, he loved the air trampoline on the lake (although got hurt on it), he got to swim everyday, they went hiking, and had a Smores party and a huge bonfire out front of their cabin during the week. Overall though I was reprimanded for leaving him there all week and was told he cried every night before he went to bed because he missed me so. :(
After getting home I unpacked Zach's things from the car including his duffle bag. I loaded all his dirty laundry into the wash, and upon one last inspection of the bag found a letter addressed to me with a folded up piece of paper in it. It was a letter that Zach had written to me in response to a letter I had written to him....
In case you aren't fluent in "upset 8 year old" the letter reads as such:
No I haven't gone canoeing but I will today. You have to pass your swim test to go canoeing. And I passed my swim test. You have to do 4 laps and tread 4 minutes. I miss you Mommy and Nana and Papa. I want to go home. My leg, arm, head and finger hurt. I have bruises, rashes and sunburn. Please, please, please, please, please bring me home please.
I just found the letter in a pile of papers in my desk a few days ago. I had forgotten the letter that had me in tears....laughing. I had shared the letter with my parents after I found it, mainly because they had wanted to know what I was laughing so hard at that was bringing tears to my eyes. I know I may sound like the worst mother in the world, but if you knew Zachariah, they you would truly see the humor in his pleading.
I asked him tonight if he wanted to go back to the sleep away camp that he went to last summer.... I got a resounding NO!
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