Finding her Path of Life

Yesterday we did not make it to church yet again. I could lie and tell everyone I did go to church (how would you know the difference) but that would be wrong and it would defeat the purpose of my blog.

It was quite selfish on my part. Had I not gone out on my birthday for alone time then I would have gotten my daughters things ready for camp rather than waiting til Sunday morning. Anyhow, yesterday morning was spent packing and organizing for her week away from home.

My daughter has gone to the same Christian camp for the past 3 yrs. We could probably send her somewhere different but she likes this camp and they know her. She is comfortable there and has never had a bad experience there. After she was registered and we got her set up on her bunk I tried to put her shoes underneath the bed. Apparently, the girl on the bottom bunk thought that she had to bring enough stuff to take up every square inch of underneath the bed. I just pushed enough stuff out from underneath to make room for my daughters 3 pair of shoes then the rest stayed in luggage along side the bed. I worried about a few things:

1. The girl on the bottom bunk had brought approximately 10 pairs of shoes and only the flip flops had less than a 5 inch heel. (What parent lets there daughter who is less than 13 yrs old wear heels like that?) This tells me a lot about the girl.

a) She does what she wants with her parents permission
b) or she does what she wants behind her parents back
c) she knows nothing about the outdoors
d) she knows nothing about how a respectable young girl should dress (she also had on a mini skirt and a tank top that was way too tight along with yet another pair of heels and a thick line of black eyeliner painted all the way around each eye)

2. I'm worried that the girl on the bottom bunk is going to be mean to my daughter because she's younger, passive and naturally beautiful. Maybe I'm over reacting but I remember girls like this girl. I hated how they were mean to me and I will be heartbroken the first time my daughter is hurt by another girl because of jealousy or whatever cattiness it may be that day.

3. My biggest fear and worry though is that I go to pick my daughter up on Saturday and she introduces me to her new best friend (the girl on the bottom bunk).

All I can say is that the girls counselor has her hands full. I asked her to keep an eye out for my daughter and she understood why. That poor girl has her hands full. She told me that another girl had brought 10 suitcases. That's more than one whole suitcase per day.

Last bit of our "Saying goodbye" conversation:


Me: You know that if anything inappropriate happens with an adult or counselor you immediately find another adult

Daughter: Yes Mom (with a teenager attitude)

Me: Don't let anyone push you around. Don't let anyone be mean to you. You have a good time.

Daughter: I know (with teenager attitude again)

Me: I love you.

Daughter: I love you too. (little girl attitude back)

She goes off to the ball field where all of the children are. As we were pulling out she comes running up the hill crying.

Me: Is something wrong?

Daughter: No (crying)

Me: Did you get hurt going down the hill?

Daughter: No (still crying)

Me: Do you want to come home? You don't have to stay.

Daughter: No. I want to stay. (still crying)

When she was done crying her river of tears and ready to part ways, she went down the hill. My husband and I stayed and watched from afar until we were sure that she was not going to come back up the hill. We did not leave until another girl came over to talk with her and they were having a good time. Some times are harder than other times to let them grow up.