What came home from camp

Last Sunday I sent to camp:

* 1 pair of sheets, two blankets and a pillow
* 1 pair of Keen-knockoff shoes, never worn and purchased the night before
* 6 pairs of socks
* T-shirts and shorts
* Toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, soap and shampoo, though didn't know if there would be anyone at camp to nag...I mean remind...my camper to put them to use.

All with a boy who, despite his tendency to be a little boastful, could be sometimes meek and longing for approval and acceptance and who always wanted to be playing video games.

Yesterday, I picked up from camp:

* 1 pair of sheets and 1 blanket -- maybe a bear ran off with the pillow and the other blanket?
* 1 pair of Keen-knockoff shoes, muddy with the evidence of creek-stomping, crawdad catching and nightly bonfiring
* 3-1/2 pair of socks
* T-shirts and shorts that corroborated the story told by the shoes
* Toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, soap and shampoo that had amazingly been used, apparently with some regularity

And a kid who seemed to not only have grown two inches in the space of 6 days, but who also had a new confidence, not swagger but a self-assuredness, about him. What's more, he didn't even ask to see an iPhone until we'd been in the car for more than 30 minutes. And he's voluntarily taken a shower two nights in a row.

To borrow the words to a song he learned while at camp:

Amen. Amen. H-A-P-P-Y! Yay God!