Camp Michindoh

In the short time that I have been a parent, sending Amerah to 5th grade camp, with her school, was one of the hardest things I've had to do.  She left on Monday, January 23rd and stayed until Friday the 27th.  It was torture.

  

I'm used to letting her spend the night at a friend's house now and then, and with Sandy once a week... close by... where I can talk to her on the phone... and be at her side within minutes...  

This was different.  Very different.  She was near Hillsdale, Michigan (about 2 hours away)... with no telephone (except the camp office phone that I really couldn't call to talk to her on every night)... 

I knew that it would be an amazing experience for my little social butterfly.  I knew that she would have a wonderful time.  I was right.  :-)

 I thought that I might enjoy a little down time.  I thought that it might be nice to not have to get up early for school every day.  I thought that the week would fly by.  I was wrong.  :-(

But on Monday Dave and I said goodbye to our girl... (and took a lot of pictures)

This is Amerah talking to her principal...

Her friend Jessie...

her friend Jennifer...

The back of Darian's head (the boy that ALL of the little girls have huge crushes on (except Amerah who swears that she doesn't like him hahaha)...

Some random group shots...

 

 

 

At least Amerah was assured that no one else would mistake her suitcase for theirs...

I missed her like CRAZY!  I drove myself nuts thinking about her... was she was safe... was she was having fun... was she getting along with her cabin mates... was she homesick... was she sad... was she happy... a million and one questions swarming in my head.

She had a blast!  I am so glad that my girl is a talker!  With very little prodding, Amerah talked for hours about her experiences at camp.  Apparently she had one bout of homesickness about halfway through the week, but her cabin counselor, Nicole, talked her out of calling us to come home.

We took Lily with us to pick her up... Amerah was as happy to see Lily as Lily was to see Amerah...

Lily has finally stopped wandering around the house crying for her "sissy."  Lily is not usually a whiner... she is a talker... and she likes to loudly inform us that strangers (or neighbors) are randomly passing by... but the only time she whines is if she needs to go outside, or if she's been locked out of the living room when someone is in there.  After a couple days without Amerah, Lily began to cry... incessantly... she followed me around the house crying... She cried when I went to bed... she cried and cried and cried...  

 She was very very happy that we took her with us to pick up Amerah.  She hasn't cried since.

The hardest part about divorce is having to share a child.  Friday nights are Amerah's night to spend at her cousin Tiffany's house, with Sandy.  We told Sandy not to pick Amerah up until 5 pm so that we could have a few hours with her before she went away for another night but even then it was hard to let her go.  Neither Dave nor I wanted to see her leave again.  

So I am still missing my girl... even though I know that she'll be home by 5 pm on Saturday.  Our house has been quiet for too long, we miss the childish laughter, the shrieks, the general hubbub that accompanies an active ten year old.