Letters from Camp

I know it happens. They grow…they spread wings…they gain independence…yes, yes I know every bit of that, I always have. But experiencing it as a parent is both thrilling and tugging at my heart. The endless push and pull of little ones, growing.
While Emma was away at camp, she said she wrote me a few letters. She kept forgetting to actually mail them, mind you, but she did write them.
I found two of them in her lake water-dampened clothes which were stuffed into her duffel bag. The first letter was the longest, went on about how “awsome!” (misspelled) everything was… the food, the girls, the counselors, the songs. The second one, apparently written later that first night, when she couldn’t sleep, proclaimed “Mom, I miss you more than anything, please take me home now!” (She tells me that was only one night, that it was all much better after that.)
And a surprise third letter actually came in the mail today. I had to pay the postman an extra 78 cents for it and I would have given him a blank check if I’d had to-

 
A heart shaped rock for our collection.
 
Such a gift I have.