Can I take a minute? (Here is your chance to click and move onto another blog!.....)
Life is good....you know...it knocks you down, you have your support group, you cry, you pray, you get angry and you scream (Or stomp and throw a fit...hum, did that just come out? Is that where Lil' Bit gets that from? Me? Oh no!!! Sorry mom. All those years of walking up and down those stairs nicely and I still don't get it right all of the time! You get the last laugh now! I am raising one of my own!) but then you have one of those moments that reminds you that life is just the way it is suppose to be. That everything happens for a reason. That hanging in there is all that matters sometimes.
Football has been different this year. We have a new coach. A coach that likes to win. You know the ones that we all have had and while we all like to win, he has made it perfectly clear that our son just might not be quite the NFL starting line up material, if you know what I mean. He is small, he isn't as fast, he starts out quiet and timid and that is not the kind of kid that a "winning football coach" wants to have or will eagerly put out on the field.
However, we know Jon. We know he does everything with heart and we know that he is a perfectionist. So, I have sat. I have sat and watched my little man play a position that he hated. Yet in spite of it all, he did so every night with a smile and a shrug. Never wanting to quit, never saying a bad word. But as a mommy, I could see in his eyes his disappointment at each practice and after each game. I have hated being here all alone while Ron is gone. I have hated trying to explain it over the phone. I have hated watching Jonathan stand there to do nothing more than represent a position while others did play after play after play.
But not tonight. Tonight my 67 pound little man turned into a pit bull. He has wanted to play defense so bad. After last nights "Dad" cell phone coaching, he went out tonight like he was the biggest player on that field. He tucked his head, held that ball and ran into kids. Then got right back in the other line,squared up, got down low and showed no fear as he tackled the next one.
As I heard each tackle, saw each coach give him "knuckles", bang on his helmet, express genuine enthusiasm and praise for what he had just done, I couldn't help but shed a few tears. (Of course to myself! This is football for crying out loud! No pun intended!) I could see him stand a little taller each time he got up! I couldn't help but beam as well!
But the story doesn't end here...nope...at the end of practice chat. The "win coach" announces that not only will our boy play starting offense, he had just won a ticket as starting linebacker!
Now that is a moment! A moment worth writing down to remember forever! So, maybe we will never see him charge out on the blue turf, or maybe we won't see him on Sunday afternoons but for now...he is bigger than that! He is our own starter on offense and DEFENSE....and we couldn't be prouder!
