What the H3!! Have We Done!?!?

So what's with the title of the post!?

I'll tell ya!!

Today was the first Sunday after the boys' VBS (Vacation Bible School) had ended and it just so happened to coincide with the the ice cream social at Oakwood United Methodist Church in Pleasant Hill, IA.  So we worshiped there this morning in the stead of our own place of worship, Lutheran Church of the Cross (LCC).

Here is lad number 1 and 2 in the masks that they had created earlier in the night at VBS, in which the theme was "Weird Animals".

No worries there, right.  I would agree.

However, today also marks the day that our oldest boy, Robby (a.k.a. Larger American Boy) was to leave for Riverside Bible Camp.  Again not such a big deal, right?

He's been gone for a night or two in the past correct?

Well, this time, we drop him off... with complete strangers, on Sunday afternoon and do not have any contact with him until Friday afternoon when we pick him up!

Obviously, I am simply NOT equipped for this kind of parenting!  It was even my suggestion to sign him up for the full bore 6 day (5 nights) excursion, instead of one of the 3 day versions under the guise that, "I know my boy", and he's going to first be getting fully into it by the third day and be HOT when we arrive to pick him up.

I still believe that but not quite with the same conviction as I did a few months ago when we signed him up.

He will be fine, indeed, but will I?

Nobody had a checklist for daddies and what they can deal with!!!!

So to recount the story of this past week, I'll do my worst.

Robby was starting to sort of get nervous as the week progressed.  Rightfully so as he's never been away from his immediate family for more that a day or two at a time and for that matter, has always been watched by extended family!

This is a little different...

So last night (saturday), as we returned home from Crystal Lake,  he was N.E.R.V.O.U.S.

Both Momma and I had some talks with him and he seemed okay.  So did we, for that matter.

This morning was fine as they woke up on their own, had breakfast, we went to worship/ice cream social, and Robby met up with his lifelong friend, Noah (seriously, they've been friends since 5 months of age!!) and then we went to the grocery store. Cooked and ate lunch and got the boy ready to go.

We delivered him to North of Story City Iowa at the Riverside Camp and started the process.

Let's have a look...

That's Robby's cabin towards the left.  They are the conquerors and I don't know any of the people in the picture... neither does the boy.  These cabins are called the tree houses , because they are suspended over a steep drop and there's the lagoon directly behind the huts.

The beautiful boy who is the focus of ALL of my current anxiety!!

This is on the back of his cabin and this little walk-way connects this cabin to the one on the right in the photo above.

You can sort of see the lagoon down thru the trees, to the left of Robby in this photo.

And a shot of the horses, one of which, the boy will ride at some point during the next five days.

So what's wrong with all of that?

Absolutely nothing!

Except that this is yet another thing that people, the people in charge, do not prepare you for as a parent.  

I was a big mushy mess driving away from there tonight as Robby went from nervous, to confident (hoping that we would be alright without him), back to nervous and very clingy when it was actually time for us to leave.

I was a mess all the way back to Pleasant Hill wondering why we do the things we do and also why it felt like somebody had cut off my right arm!!! 

We dropped off our boy, with no way to contact us (oh sure, emergency numbers are provided and so on) other than a self addressed stamped envelope, with total strangers, in a cabin with two camp consoulers and probably 12 - 14 other boys and drove off.

What a dreadful feeling!

Oh sure, he'll have a good time.  He'll become more of a young man thru the experience.  He'll learn problem solving skills as he only has $15 of credit at the store and will probably blow that on a stuffed animal in the first couple of days and NOT be able to buy something he NEEDS later on.  He'll meet a few friends for life and probably experience a hundred other things that I am not even considering at this point.

So when I, Momma, and little Calebber got back to Pleasant Hill tonight, we decided to go for a walk around Copper Creek.  We ran into Robby's favorite teacher from his pre-school years and just as we piled back into the van to go home, a couple of girls walked by with a gorgeous Boston Terrier that made the heart ache even more!!  

UGH!!!

So here we are,  three of us aching for the one of us who is very likely having great fun by this point.

God bless you all and GOD BLESS MY LARGER AMERICAN BOY!!!

Love You Robby!!!