Well, today was a fantastic day!  Alex has been at camp for the past two weeks, and isn't going to be coming home until next Friday.  We have received three letters from him, all of them begging us to come take him to Mass on Sundays.  (The camp provides transportation to Mass for their Catholic Campers, but he wanted us to come get him). 

Well, last night my husband informs me that he wants to go pick Alex up for Mass today, because today was our priest's last Mass before he moves on to another parish.  I thought it was a terrific idea, but we were unable to get an answer at the camp last night.  So, my wonderful dh got up early this morning and drove the hour and a half to our son's camp, and brought him to Mass so he could say goodbye to his favorite priest.

It was a bittersweet Mass.  I promised myself I wouldn't cry, but found myself bawling after the Homily.  Father A has been such an inexpressable blessing to our family.  We will miss him soooo much.  I know I must be more upset than I fully realize, because I keep having freaky dreams about what the new priest will be like!  A few nights ago I dreamed the new priest was a woman  then last night I dreamed he was a young kid with long hair and tattoos! (In the dream I even called him "Fr. Dude"!!)  So I guess this is something that freaks me out way more than I care to admit.  Our new priest will be here I think on Wednesday, so I may go to Mass just to see him.  And I think I will go to morning Mass on Monday and Tuesday, just because those are truly Father A's last days.

Anyway, Alex got to serve at Mass, and got to say goodbye to Father.  And we got to see him!!  And since his letters really hadn't told us much at all, I finally got to find out if he was doing okay or not.  Well, he is doing GREAT!!!  He loves camp, has made lots of friends, and is already talking about going back next year!  I am sooooo relieved and thrilled! 

Alex has always been a bit different.  He doesn't like competetive sports, he dances classical ballet, cooks, knits, and is a total computer geek.  We tried the private school route at the beginning of this school year and ended up pulling him out after the first semester, because the kids there made fun of him, and wouldn't welcome him in.  The pricipal tried to tell me he had Asperger's Syndrome, and that's why the kids didn't like him. (My brother and his wife are both PhD Psychologists, and neither of them agreed with that diagnosis!)  I think it was just that Alex has always been homeschooled, is extremely intelligent, and couldn't care less about girls yet!  (Hallelujah!!!) He's still content to kill imaginary Orcs and Goblins in the woods with a 'sword' made from a tree branch.  That is why I was worried.  But he's doing great, and the counselor told my husband what a neat kid Alex is!!  Of course, I knew that!   But it's always nice to get affirmation.

So this was, all-in-all, a fantastic day!  I felt like I was walking on air after I got to talk to Alex and know for sure that he's okay.  If anybody wants a good recommendation for a camp, I can't say enough wondeful things about Camp Timberlake in Black Mountain, North Carolina!

And at this point, I don't know who the happiest camper is:  Alex, or me!!!