Well, all of my chickens are under my roof once again. We picked them up at 8:00 this morning, and it was absolutely wonderful to have their sweet hugs and squeals. William talked the entire way home, giving us every detail of the camp. KeKe interrupted often - to correct him, of course! They both made lots of friends and enjoyed the camp activities. Evidently, William became very upset on Wednesday night and had to go see the “Chief.” He really wanted his momma and wanted to come home. In his trunk, I found a letter that he had written, saying how sad he was and how much he wanted to come home while at the same time admitting that he was having a great time. He was so sweet and cried “tears of joy” (in his words) when we were hugging on each other. KeKe screamed and jumped in her daddy’s arms, immediately asking where the other kids were (outside). She was definitely ready to sign up for next year!

Once home, both girls broke down sobbing in the bathtub. KeKe said that she wished she had stayed at camp, that she missed her Nana and wanted her Nana. Jia said that KeKe was ruining her whole life! Pretty sad commentary from a 5 year old! After getting the girls out of the tub, I sat on the floor and held Kitty as she cried and cried. She missed her family, missed Little Rock, wanted to move back there (and wanted Camber to move there with her!), felt like her brothers and sister didn’t care about her. Imagine that while she was at camp, she saw William, and he ran the other direction! She was missing him and just needed to talk to him. Poor Sissy! Meanwhile, in Jia’s room, there were loud sobs during the entire exchange in Kitty’s room. Once I was holding Jia, she told me that I didn’t love her as much as I loved Kitty. More reassurance that she was my baby and my precious princess calmed her down enough to decide to watch a movie with Kitty. Now, they’re both lying on the couch watching a movie together. They seem to have found the love again! (Estrogen Overload!!)

As for my sweet William, he’s also lying on the couch watching the movie, although he’s been playing on the computer for a while. First, though, he had to have an EXTREME shower. The child did not take a shower THE ENTIRE WEEK! He didn’t brush his teeth THE ENTIRE WEEK! He didn’t wash his hair THE ENTIRE WEEK! (Rowland and I began to wonder if the counselor had taken a shower during the week.) When we laughingly mentioned it to a counselor, the response was, “Well, he swam every day!” Major, major scrubbing occurred as soon as he hit the house! The good news is that I don’t have much laundry to do for him since he also didn’t wear hardly any of the clothes that I sent him. Each set of T-shirt, shorts, underwear, and socks was packed in an individual plastic bag so that the clothes wouldn’t get wet in the shower room. (A wonderful idea from a friend!!) To unpack William, all I had to do was pull his clean clothes out of the plastic bags and put them in his drawers.

I’ve spent the last few hours unpacking, dividing laundry, and organizing our lives once again. Right now, all is back to peaceful at our home. Hopefully, they can “love” each other a little while longer! I’m just glad to have my hugs and kisses back!!!