Allie's First Overnight At Camp

We wrapped up our day at the State Fair to get Allie back to town to go to a weekend retreat with her friend, Katie & her church's middle school youth group. I have great memories from my childhood (or would that be called kidhood?) of going to church camp. They were some of the most fun and carefree days that I had in my junior high & highschool years, so I was excited for Allie to have an opportunity to go have those kinds of experiences when her friend Kaite invited her to join her youth group at a church camp that is a couple of hours away for a Friday - Sunday retreat.
We got the girls all packed up and ready to go... and then the time came to say goodbye. I had not anticipated that that would be emotional for me at all (It was just a weekend retreat, right), but when it was time to walk away and leave my little girl in the (capable, I'm sure) hands of someone that I did not know, I had tears in my eyes and a sick feeling in my stomach. I had never left my kids in someone's care that I did not know. Most every time that they have been away from me, it has been with family or very close friends, so this was new territory. Territory that I realize I will be stepping into more and more as my children grow. As Allie gets older, the stages become more and more complicated and risky and emotional. All of the hard work that we have put in to raising her is becoming something that we just now are starting to step back and watch what she and God do with. It is out of my comfort zone, but I am totally confident that she and He will make some great things come out of her life. The day that she went to camp for the first time, the mommy inside of me wanted to chase that Greyhound Bus down the road with a water bottle - in case she got thirsty, and some Tylenol - incase something got hurt, a bat to hit any boy that got close enough to speak to my princess - incase he just might catch her attention too, and a listening ear to hear anything that could be inappropriate or hurtful - incase someone else didn't have a mother that was as insanely protective as I... but I know that I have done my best to prepare her, and it is now time to begin letting her step out into this great big world, and I think, by the grace of God, that she is prepared.

So, she went.


And she had a really great time. There was lots of food and night-time-games and fun & learning over the weekend, and I think that she enjoyed it all.


And I think that I could let her do something like this again. And some day I might even be able to let her go away for a week... or to college...

One little baby step at a time. Right?

~ Allie & Katie ~