Hello Muddah, hello Faddah

It's a right of passage... sending your kids off to camp. I never attended camp when I was growing up, but I was a camp counselor for two summers. It was a lot of fun and it's a great summer job for teenagers too. When I sent my daughter to camp, she didn't have any worries because her best friend went with her. She had a blast. This summer I sent my twin 8 year old boys to their first overnight camp. Joe didn't have any hesitation to go to an overnight camp. Jake, on the other hand, started to worry when he found out he was going to be in a different cabin than Joe. I told him that two other boys that we know were going to be in his cabin, but that didn't seem to make things better. The camp directors told me they usually split up siblings unless the parents request them to be together. I said that was fine. I like for my boys to be separated since they spend so much time together anyway. I told Jake everything would be fine, that he would still see Joe during the day, then I kissed him goodbye and drove back home wondering if I had done the right thing.

You see, I am a recovering Catholic. And I still have major Catholic guilt. You can take the girl out of the Catholic church, but you can't take the Catholic church out of the girl! So the guilt set in. And I worried. And I worried some more. I sent both Jake & Joe email letters each day with a happy, positive attitude. Then the guilt started to fade away. When I went to go pick them up, they were fine. I told Jake it was time to leave and he said hold on, then he went and hugged his counselors goodbye. They both said they had a good time and that they wanted to do it again next summer. When I was cleaning out their suitcases I found a letter Jake had written to us. Now spelling is not Jake's strong suit, so here is his letter in "Jake speak".

"Mom. dad todey was fun I didint waent to go at frst but i sems fun and I maed noowe fends waer whint swiming and tuke a swimng test to swim in the depend and I pasd the test so can you send me a ledr I LYve yYu."