letting go...

Last year the company my mom worked for gave a Flexpot allowance to every employee that could be used to spend on health or education. She immediately thought of us & told us she would like to use some of the money to send Landon to diabetes camp. Ever since his diagnosis in 2015 Landon's Endocrinologist has encouraged us to send him to diabetes camp but the cost always held us back. We just weren't sure if the experience would be worth the high price tag.

Chris started looking into different diabetic camps & came across the Chris Dudley Basketball Camp, a basketball camp just for kids with Type 1 Diabetes. It is a week long overnight camp founded by former Portland Trailblazer, Chris Dudley, who also has T1D.  We knew that combining Landon's love of basketball with diabetic camp would be an awesome experience for him.

As camp grew closer & closer Landon grew more & more excited. I, on the other hand, grew increasingly more nervous. Ashlyn summed it up perfectly when she described it as dropping off your kid at 5th grade camp, except he is 13, has diabetes & has never been to sleep away camp alone. Sounds about right.

So yeah, Landon has never been to an overnight camp alone. His diagnosis came during 5th grade so naturally Chris accompanied him to 5th grade camp. Any other overnight was either with Hal & Jenny, who have been trained to handle the ups & downs of diabetes, with Chris along for the ride, with a trusted friend for just one night or abandoned completely due to the possible risk to his safety. Now here we were driving hundreds of miles to drop off our kid with complete strangers, for an entire week!

The camp went above & beyond to ease our fears. Their registration process was thorough & with every station we checked into I felt a little more confident in their ability to take care of Landon. We even met with an endocrinologist who stayed at the camp the entire week to help adjust the kids' numbers. And the added bonus: he was once a camper himself! In fact, while we were registering we heard of so many campers who had been coming to the camp year after year & who were even determined to come back as counselors after they had aged out of camp. I figured the camp couldn't be too bad if the kids were so eager to come back every year.

So, after helping Landon settle in & set up his bunk we said goodbye. Before he walked away he said, "Hang on, I have to give mom a hug."

He knows me so well. I love his heart.

As for me, I held back the tears until he was out of sight. Sometimes letting go hurts. It may sound ridiculous but the mama bear in me didn't want to leave him. The heartache is real. In my heart I knew he would be fine. Landon makes friends easily, he had a team of doctors & nurses to care for him all week long & he loves basketball. These kinds of experiences help us to stretch & grow & become the people that God made us to be. He would be more than fine. He would have an amazing time.