First Overnighter

Believe it or not, but last night was the first night Tomas has been away from home on his own for the whole night. No family there at all. We don’t do sleepovers as a rule, so he hasn’t had that sort of experience before. But the young men in our local church congregation have set out for a winter campout. Two nights, one of which is going to be spent in a snow cave of their own construction.

We’ve gone camping before as a family (years ago), but certainly never during the winter. So this trip involved a lot of new purchases: a better sleeping bag, thermal sleeping mat, etc. He left yesterday all geared up for an expedition. Which no doubt it will be. It’s a two mile hike to a cabin in the woods, which is how many a horror movie starts out. They pulled their supplies in on sleds. He was very excited, though I made sure not to tell him just how far two miles is. He’d gone skiing yesterday for the whole morning, so I imagine he was pretty beat at the end of the day.

It was strange not to have him home. You’d think he’s off on his own, gaming or reading or working on homework, that it wouldn’t feel too much different to have him not there at all. You’d be wrong. We definitely felt like one less person was in the house. Strange to think that in about five years, he’ll be leaving the house for good. His main home will be elsewhere, whether on his mission or at college.

I’ll wait to blog about that until we’re closer to it, thank you very much.

I’m really wondering what it’s been like for him. My hope is that he realizes there’s a lot more to life that Denisa and I have been helping him out with, and he comes home with new perspective.

Maybe that’s wishful thinking.

In any case, it’s exciting for him. He was really looking forward to the trip. He’ll be home tomorrow around noon. Here’s hoping he’s not an icicle . . . (The weather here in Maine has been really warm the last bit. It was 56 degrees yesterday. I’m not really worried about the temperature. And even if it gets too cold, there’s the cabin there for them to retreat to, should they need to.)

Good luck, Tomas!