Campgrown.

"She's here!!!  We can see her!!!  She's coming inside now."

They ran back and forth between the 3rd floor window and the chair I was sitting in.

Sugar was home.

Tink and Tiara hadn't planned on joining me to pick up their sister from her weekend at Camp Soaring Eagle with our local JDRF chapter.  They were actually planning to go to a birthday party with their daddy, followed by a church service while he served with the high school ministry's security team.

But then...I had a flat tire...

And, rather than make them sit on the side of the road in the heat, the three of us hopped in Mr. Rose's car...leaving HIM to take care of the flat in the heat.  (Sigh.  <insert googly eyes>  Love that man, and the way he takes such good care of us!)

So...there we were -- rushed after our little delay -- but just in time to meet the campers!

This is her THIRD camp experience in the past 10 months.  But this time something was distinctly different from last year.  This time...she just seemed so...so...grown up...

"Guess what.  I held a tarantula named Sweet Pea, and it was SO CUTE!!!"  (<---- End statement in squealing high pitched voice.)

"My horse's name was Reeba.  Did you know that mother horses can't kiss their babies on the mouth, so they kiss their withers?  The withers are like their shoulders."

"Mom, what station is this?  Can we put on Radio Disney?  Anyway, the horses were SO CUTE!"

"Everyone in my group had either celiac or an allergy.  One of the kids cried every time we sat down to eat.  He just loved his parents SO MUCH, and couldn't stand to be away from them.  I love you too, but I didn't miss you like that.  That's okay, right?  It's okay that I didn't want to come home.  I mean....

"OH MY GOSH!!!!! MOM!!!!!  This is the new Olivia Holt song!!!!  I can't believe it's on RIGHT.  NOW!!!!"

"But, yeah, this one kid -- Cade -- he caught a HUGE FISH!!!!  I didn't catch any fish.  They kept eating my worms, but never got stuck on the hook.  And I shot a yellow balloon at archery."

"I had my face painted kind of silly.  Like my eyes....WAIT!!! TURN THIS UP!!!!!  I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!"

{Random Elaine-like moving and shaking with lip syncing}

"Yeah, my eyes were, like, closed, but they looked open and we had sugar-free cotton candy, and I got low.  Like 50-something.  And the doctor wasn't there so they gave me 4 tablets and then he came back and gave me two more.  I LOVED THEIR TABS, Mom!!!  There were all coconut and strawberry.  The white ones are my FA  VOR  ITE!!!!"

"And I got low at midnight too.  Come to think of it..."

"ONE DIRECTION!!!!!  I love them, Mom!!!  I really want to go see them in Europe."

"Camp is so cool, because everyone is just like you.  Everyone had to take care of their diabetes, so diabetes wasn't a big deal.  But I've been high and low.  It's like this weekend put my numbers on the CRAZY TRAIN!!!  But I did get to have a dark chocolate milkshake, because I was 60 at midnight last night.  It was SOOOO good.  But everyone had to deal with their numbers too, so it wasn't that big of a deal."

"I didn't want to come home.  When we had the closing ceremony, I couldn't help it.  I started crying.  It was just so hard to say good-bye.  Not everyone cried, though.  The boys didn't cry.  But all the girls cried."

....................

And that's how it went.  The. entire. ride. home.  Her sisters and I sat quietly, oscillating between  the thrill of her stories, and turning up the radio to bust a move.

Her thoughts were random, wandering, and out of order...but they were excited, and happy, and full of energy at the same time.

A year ago, she was still so little.  Naive.  Nervous about being away from home.

Now she's a veteran, I guess.

Looks like she's gone from being Homegrown...to being Campgrown :)

Camp Milestone

The time she smiled.
Then rolled over.
Crawled.
Walked.
Put words together to make a sentence.

Milestones.

After her diabetes diagnosis three weeks after her 2nd birthday, we looked forward to new milestones...

Recognizing and verbalizing a blood sugar problem.
Wearing an insulin pump.
Checking her own blood sugar.
Administering her own boluses.

Diabetes Camp.

It seems that, from the moment your child is diagnosed with diabetes, someone is talking about the benefits of diabetes camp.  Before we left the hospital, I can't tell you how many people had told me how great the experience would be for her.  Never mind that we were 7 camp years away from meeting the age requirement.  Or that the idea of letting her out of my sight for 7 minutes was incomprehensible, let alone 7 days.

She starting asking about camp when she was around 3 years old.  I was able to distract her, change the subject, and move on for a few years.  And then, about 2 years ago, she would hear a friend mention their camp memories, and she wanted to know when she would be able to make some of her own.  To be perfectly honest, I knew that "one day" she'd have her turn, but didn't know when *I* would be ready.

As this summer approached, she asked at least once a week.  Then just about every other day. Then every day..."Will I get to go to camp this summer?"  She knew she would be old enough for this summer's session.  After having a taste of the camp experience several months prior, she insisted she was ready.

Seven days away from home.
No calls.  No emails.  No mother dressed in cammo, ducking in the woods wearing a hat of branches and leaves stalking her cabin.

She couldn't wait!

Seven days without my girl?  Now, keep in mind that either her daddy or I have been there for every birthday party, every trip to a movie theater, every sleepover, every field trip...every everything. Even if it meant that Mr. Rose needed to use a vacation day or I needed to find someone to cover one of my shifts.  We've always been there - lurking in the background, meter and strips prepared, juice box in hand.

Ready.

And now, I'm just supposed to put her on a bus and send her away for S E V E N  D A Y S?  


Yes.


And I did it.


I did it without crying.  Without hesitating when the big moment arrived.  Without questioning the decision that this was the right move for all of us.


I have to admit that we had a bit of a lonely week.  Her sisters had a hard time saying good-bye, and I felt a sense of emptiness without having her around.  I knew she was having the time of her life, but it didn't change the fact that I missed her terribly.


She had a blast.  She rode horses, canoed, went swimming, shot a bow and arrow, made new friends, and loved the taste of independence.  Diabetes was there -- just like it was for everyone else.  Managed, but obviously not the center of attention.


Diabetes Camp Milestone.


Check.