I Miss Malachi

Malachi boarding the bus under the watchful hand of Ms. Marta.
Malachi and his best church buddy, Christian. They're in the same cabin, yay!

For years I've been excited for when Malachi would be old enough to go to church camp. I went every year when I was younger, from 4th grade through my early college years. It's such an exciting time! Independence, adventure and an intense time of growing in the Lord . . . what more could a child ask for?

Well, this is the year. Malachi will be a fourth-grader in the fall (umm, what's that, 2 weeks away?) and so he's old enough to be at camp. They left on Sunday. I assumed I would be a teary, emotional mess but instead I was just excited and happy for him. I prayed for his safety as I drove away, I have to admit.

That first night was really strange. He's never been away from home alone and I was so curious how he was doing, WHAT he was doing! I reminded myself that Marta had called out from the bus, "No news is good news!" Easy for her to say! She's WITH our precious children! HA HA!

We have all written him letters. We've wondered aloud what he's doing, what he's eating, how he's sleeping. We've counted down the days until he comes home. But it hasn't, as I feared, consumed our week. We miss him and life is definitely weird without him, but things are plugging along.

It helps to know that he's in the absolute best care. His counselor is an amazing father of four himself who's perfectly suited for this role. He's tender and firm and I know that he's caring for our boy and keeping him in line, too. Ms. Marta has known our boy since he was born and I couldn't ask for a more wonderful children's director.

So yeah, he's in pretty much the perfect first time away from home scenario, and things are going fine at home, but I miss my boy. I really, really miss him all of a sudden. I can't wait for him to come home, and it's still two days away. This morning two days seemed so soon, but this afternoon it feels like a week. It's quiet around here, and three kids feels like SO much less than four kids. I thought I'd go crazy without his physical help around here, especially with the baby, but it's his company I miss the most.

I'm still glad he's at camp, but I want him to come home and tell me all about it.