We haven’t gone to great lengths to tell everyone until now, but now the anticipation and planning is done: the week to come is going to be a huge change for all three of us.

Earlier this spring, Jon was accepted to a special-needs residential camp for this coming week. As in a full-blown overnight camp for kids with disabilities. Far away from home.

It will be the first time that Jon will spend a night without at least one of us since he left the hospital he was born in. One of us has always been there, through hospital troubles and similar brief moments.

A nearby neighbour (a child psychologist) got wind of this, and made a simple demand of us: not to return home for 5 days. Don’t just go home and play house that week; go have our own adventure. From there, a number of friends, neighbours and dog-park colleagues helped hone our destinations by making all sorts of suggestions.

To add to the complexity our contractor is going to tear apart our upstairs bathroom and begin the refit to make it accessible for a boy rapidly turning into a man. So we’ve been trying to deal with a number of plotlines, as it were, as they converge. Tomorrow.

I can’t tell you how we’ll react to being without Jon, nor how he’ll react to being without us. I imagine there will be many emotions on both sides. The connection—and for us the sense of responsibility—is so strong, so ingrained. In the last couple of days, Jon has had many moments of quiet thought, his face quite serious. He’s starting to realize that at camp he won’t have his computer, his beloved iPod, his Wii or his DVDs. Or his parents.

As for us, what did we do before we served his needs? 😉

So, off we go. If we find internet access, maybe we’ll report in by Twitter, so watch our Twitter feeds on the sidebar!