I took Sarah on her first camping trip this year. I wanted her to experience living in the wild, getting back to her roots, being like a wolf. And as she lay by the camp fire, on her $50 bed, wrapped up in her Barbie blanket, with her pink painted toe nails sticking out (I know, I know, but not much else to do in a tent when it is raining), I knew that she truly was a Princess.

At Long Beach I threw the ball for her until one arm was longer than the other. I thought about what the neighbour had said about Sarah putting her ball over the fence when she was out gardening, and waiting anxiously, hoping she would throw it for her. On our trip we went whale watching, and Sarah sat at the rail, fascinated. She got to go on a ferry, swim in the ocean, dig a hole on the beach with my children, (and pee in that hole) sleep in a tent, (zipped up with me inside a sleeping bag) and sit by the campfire waiting for dropped marshmallows. I thought about what her days must have been like all alone. She must have been so bored, so lonely, nothing to occupy her time or her mind. She looks at me now with an expression that seems to say “What now Mom?” She has expectations now. She knows that every day will be different, filled with something new and exciting.