Off To The Wild Woods

I don't remember if I mentioned Little Man's wish this summer. A few weeks ago, he was telling me how much he wanted to go camping. Little did he know how very much his sweet little wish hurt me. My other children, have spent their whole lives camping. I have pics of many a small babe, not even crawling yet, in my arms as we hoist the tent and enjoy the great outdoors. Campfire smoke, sticky, marshmallow-y fingers, brisk, cold mornings by the fire, laughter, dirty faces. So many memories slide into view when I turn my inner eye to the fun we have had camping. Not so much for us now. I think when Little Man was younger, we tried once or twice and then just never had the gumption to try it again. Our tent was lent out for a church activity and the high winds bent the tent poles into oblivion. I kept meaning to get it fixed, but it was never high on the priority list. Then, when we moved, we looked at it and said, never mind, and chucked it.
It hurt me deeply that our boy had to ask to go camping. Camping just was, when the other children were young. We are no longer a camping family I realized with sorrow. This new life, this one with our Little Man, struggles to just make it through day to day, much less adding the work of camping to it.
Add to it, our fear of Little Man falling to pieces and us being where a lot of other people are, and the possible repercussions from said falling apart, and well, you have us, this summer. A boy who wants to sleep in tent, and roast marshmallows and hotdogs over the fire and two tired and fearful parents.
But you know me, and I am not easily daunted in the face of something my child wants. So I began to call around and found, what I hope is the perfect solution. A camp run for people with disabilities and a family camping opportunity. No tent, but a cabin instead, but all the other things. Fishing, canoeing, swimming in a lake and best of all, marshmallow smores, roasted by the fire. The man I spoke with said if Little Man really, really wants to sleep in a tent, they have a tent we can borrow. Every single day this week, Little Man has asked if today, is today when we going camping? How many more days? This morning, as we do our ritual snuggle, I get to tell him, yes it is today, right after school, we are going camping.
It doesn't mean we aren't entering this experience with trepidation, we are. But, we are setting this up for the best success possible, and hopefully when we come home late on Saturday, it will be with pictures of grinning people, including one Little Man, who just wanted to go camping this summer.