Camp HOBE is a summer camp for kids with cancer and their siblings. Tucker has been attending this camp since he was 5 years old. Each year for one week they take your kid (s) off your hands and spoil them rotten, have games, crafts, parties every night… and then send them home. All these kids up there (and there were a lot of kids) ALL of them either have cancer or have a sibling that has or had cancer. There was a lot of kids up there today, and every year, its kind of sad to think about how much childhood cancer there is in this world.
I had a lot of reservations about sending Tucker to camp. He’s not technically “sick” … but he’s still not quite the normal Tucker… he has so much pain and just feels so crappy all of the time that I was having a hard time letting him go. Camp was from Monday to Friday but on Monday Tucker had some major chemo that kept us there ALL DAY LONG… goodness it was a long day! So I made arrangements with the camp director to drop tucker off on Tuesday if he still felt up to it. Well, part of me was thinking.. Tuesday morning would roll around and I bet Tucker changes his mind about going…. And when Tuesday morning came- Tucker was the first one out of bed, dressed, ate, took pills, and ready to GO to camp… I was still trying to get out of bed! So there was no way out of it, CAMP HOBE here we come! I was just SO WORRIED! But he needed to be a kid, and play and have fun. His whole life can’t be about hospitals.
So I took him up there on Tuesday morning and I’m sitting there with the camp director and nurse checking him in & I get tears in my eyes and I’m about to break down and bawl… when somebody distracted me with a question about something (I can’t even remember) and when I looked back Tucker’s camp counselors had snuck him out of the room! LOL I was like.. HEY… UMM.. HEY.. … THERE..TUCKER… UMM… OK… BYE…LOL it was funny. Chris (the camp director) just reassured me that everything would be fine and that I needed to RELAX… ya right like that was going to happen!
It was along 4 days without him, but yes I did get a few phone calls from him. The first phone call he wanted to come home, he was in so much pain…. Part of me wanted to drop the phone and make a mad dash for it out there to grab my baby… but then I thought….I bet Tucker just hasn’t LET his pain pills kick in yet. He always has bad mornings. So I asked him to lay down for 1 more hour and let his pain pills really kick in and then after an hour I would come and get him if he still wanted me to. He agreed, so we hung up and I sat and waited for what seemed the longest hour of my LIFE.. and finally the phone rang it was tucker and the conversation went something like this “HI MOM, I FEEL GREAT! I’M GOING TO GO SWIMMING!! I’M STAYING. LOVE YOU BYE!”
So yes he stayed at camp I’m SOOOOOOOOOOO proud of him for staying at camp. He did so great. He needed to be a boy and be 10 years old. I’m just so happy. Today was the day to grab my boy! I rushed up there…. Ran up to Tucker and hugged and hugged…
while he’s yelling “MOM! THAT’S TO TIGHT OF A HUG! IT HURTS!”… I said … I can’t stop I just missed you so much! LOL
Then this little boy, one of Tucker’s kids in his cabin said to me “Are you Tucker’s Mom?” I said “yes”, He then promptly yelled out “TUCKER DANCED WITH A 16 YEAR OLD GIRL LAST NIGHT!!!” I’m like WWWWHHHHHHHHHAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTT?????????? Tucker perked up and said “ Ya mom! I danced with a girl and she’s 16! It was SO cool!”
It was like getting slapped in the face with the OLD STICK… man, I felt old…… Tucker? Really? You asked a girl to dance? REALLY?
Yes he really did…. All the boys were just jabbering away about this girl they all got to dance with. I remember all the previous years of camp the picking him up conversation from camp centered around how dirty he was, how many pranks they pulled, and who had the stinky fart!
And now, its about GIRLS! Ugh, that old feeling is back. I said to Tucker, you can’t like girls yet your only 10! He said…. Mom, I’m almost 11 and I’ve liked girls since I was 7! (my favorite part) I said to him (we were in the car going home STILL talking about this girl) I said… don’t tell me its time to talk about the birds & the bees with you yet! I’m just not ready! And he said very innocently and with an edge of WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT tone to his voice….“ mom, why would we talk about birds and bees? They don’t have anything to do with girls!” I said- NOPE it’s not time to talk to you about that yet then… LOL
So I plan on laying down all depressed this weekend because my baby is growing up.
Here are some awesome pictures of camp. I’m so glad he went, and I’m SO glad he is home.
Love to all, Amber
Tucker with his cabin's counselor
Tucker with his other cabin's counselor..
Tucker's with his WHOLE cabin who they all swear now they are best friends forever! What a great looking group of boys. They also look like they could cause some serious mischief if they wanted....
the girl on the far right in the blue in this picture is the "girl" Tucker was talking bout- Tucker went down to get her to sign his "camp autograph book" and then was way happy because she did.
Tucker with his cabin doing a little cheer today.
Tucker with the camp director, Chris saying goodbye.
If I had an extra million dollars laying around I'd throw some money at Camp Hobe!
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