Emma on the Normandy Coast

Today is a big day for us all as we send one of our kids off for a week away from home! Emma, her 1st grade class and the other class of 1st graders and teachers are leaving this morning on "Discovery Class" to the sea. They will spend 5 days and 4 nights at a camp for school kids in Normandy, right near the coast of the English Channel.

This trip has been planned since the Fall, and now it is finally here. Emma has been awaiting with great excitement and expectation for this trip and packed almost everything for her suitcase herself -and 4 days before the drop-off day!

She and her class took the métro to the train station, then the train to the local train station, then a bus to the center by the beach, arriving finally at 1:30pm France time. There are classrooms, lunchroom and dormitory all on site at this center. Their activities will include visiting fish markets, the ports, the local town, building sand castles on the beach, collecting shells and sea life, and taking notes and drawings of all this as well. To our great joy, part of their assignment each day will be to write a letter home to the parents!

As many of you with children know, over-night trips, camps and school outings are times that test our abilities to stretch the "umbilical cord" between us and them. These are times we let go a little bit more towards their day of eventually complete independence. And at these times, we are also challenged to trust God even more with the safety and well-being of our kids, not to mention wondering if they ate their vegetables and washed well enough in the shower.

Perhaps it is us, as moms that may have a harder time allowing our child to go on such trips or those of us who already knows what it is like to have a child in your arms and have to say goodbye until heaven reunions. Or maybe it's both, like for me. Last night my sweet hubby held me as I cried tears of worry and apprehension about say a short goodbye to Emma for just 5 days (and let's not forget those 4 nights!). Thankfully this morning, the storm had passed and I was calm and excited for her, as I watched other mothers with tears and worry in their eyes.