My son left for camp over a year ago. The changes in that time have been wonderful, awesome and frightening. In a week, he'll be home for his first anniversary home visit. His first visit from camp LAST February was daunting. Always the negotiator, he often would barter more computer time for doing chores. 

Realizing that the computer is what landed him at camp in the first place, it was a struggle to get him to cooperate on his first few home visits.

This past Christmas, however, was different. Word came around that camp will be graduating their first boy at the end of this session. When my son is coming home for a visit, tis boy will be coming home to stay. Home for good.

I think it lit a fire under my boy. 

We'll see. The average stay for boys at the camp is 18 months. In light of how rocky a start the camp got, we all expected it to be closer to two years. And yet, here's the first graduate, heading out at just under 18 months.

Impressive.

And something to hope for.