if you are at camp and you miss home, you can call that homesick. so if your child is at camp and you miss her, can that be called campsick?
i remember dropping naomi off at her first dance class when she was four. it was upstairs in the rec center…a long brick hallway and a door that closed with no window in it. i wanted to stay listening outside the door, but baby micah wouldn’t be quiet enough for that. i chose to walk away and come back in 25 minutes.
we dropped naomi off at camp yesterday. i chose to walk away and come back in 6 days.
if i thought enough about it, i could determine each of the times she has slept away from home…there haven’t been many and i miss her. how grateful i am that she can have pieces of home with her in dear lydia kate, in the familiar prairie landscape, in the faces of family friends, in the carefully packed suitcase, in the dirty pillowcase she wanted because it smelled like home.
in the way it is supposed to hurt, it hurts.
this is not about worry…this is about the grief of letting more of that sweet girl go.
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jen, thank you for these happy camp pictures.
prairie daze 
That’s always been a tough one for me. Not sure why, but maybe there’s some rite-of-passage transition about camp. I think you’re on to something about how many nights they’ve slept away from home though.
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If it helps at all, camp is such an amazing, intense experience for kids. Some of my favorite memories are from camp all those years ago. On the sad side it is likely not something they will be able to express to you, but knowing they are having such amazing experiences is pretty great.
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oh what beautiful memories she will have…now i begin to prepare myself to send Jenna next week…I will come back to this post for comfort next week as I miss my sweet girl..
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it’s like the first day of kindergarten, i felt this sensation that we were stepping onto a train that was already on it’s way. no matter how hard it was, that train was moving, and nothing was going to stop it. it would be traveling on from first day of kindergarten to first day of camp to first day of college. . . .etc. she’ll enjoy the ride!
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I’m with you.
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Last year I sent Josh and Jacob to camp for 5 days and I cried everyday, multiple times, my friends (danelle and carrie) thought I should up my anti anxiety meds for the week. The boys had a great time though and I’m glad they experienced it. Hope she has fun fun fun!
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I get teary-eyed just thinking about my girl going off to camp in the near future! Sometimes I look forward to the time when the kids will be at camp, but I know when the time comes it will be hard to handle. She’s lucky to have a friend with her! You will survive! And the homecoming is always wonderful!!
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Wow – our paths have crossed. Maybe we’ll see you on Sat when we pick up our son. I’m “campsick” too – man I miss that boy….his brother walks about like half his arm is missing……I know he’s have a great time, making forever friends but it is that release of them growing up – oh the pain. Wonderful post, hit my soul spot.
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How sweet! I don’t know if my kids would GO to camp. I think Brenna would be way too homesick to even think about it. Garrett–he might do it, with a buddy.
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It’s even farther away, but she should go to Rocky Mountain Mennonite camp. beatfiful and so much fun!
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Wow! Kinda chokes me up thinking about how she’s venturing out on her own. It’s what we want for them, but part of me wants to slow down time. I’m so glad she could go! When I moved into my dorm room as a Freshman, I found out that one of the girls next door was in my cabin at Friedenswald. Those connections are comforting.
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