So my son is leaving this morning for Nebraska State Wrestling Tournament. Why is it that I feel like I've packed up my heart in his lunch bag? Or feel those emotions creeping up behind my eyes?
I know. I've given my boys my heart!
Michael has had to work so hard to get to where he is today and overcome much adversity. He struggled continually with Reactive Airways and Asthma as a little guy. It got to the point of us having to caring an epi-pin around so just in case he lost consciousness. Whereever we went he ended up in the ER with breathing treatments.
I think he was in 1st or maybe 2nd grade when Master's Commission visited our church and they asked if anyone needed prayer. He asked for God to heal him. And He did. We had just been through a battery of test with a pulmonologist and were scheduled for a week of test at National Jewish. By the time we arrived at National Jewish...they could not make him have an asthma attack.
He did get to wrestle in Kindergarten and when he saw the trophy, he said "I want that one." It was the one for the fastest pin and he got it. Then he broke his finger and lost interest and did not wrestle again until his Freshman year.
He played basketball and we traveled with baseball though and club football. I'll never forget those games that he stood on the sidelines yearning for a chance to play. He struggled with figuring out if he was right or left handed.
I took him to FAST camp because that is what all of his team were doing. We had to be up by 4 to travel every day for a week to attend the camp. At one camp, one of the instructors made fun of his running.
One classmate told him he would never be tough enough because his parents were Pastors.
Then I'll never forget in 6th grade when he walked out with his big orange cowboy boots and wore them to school. It was a statement. A statement that he was who he was and would be who he was. I was so proud of him.
He broke and trained his horse (with Mom's help) and was in 4-H. Then he re-trained his horse without Mom's help and I saw his leadership and intuition.
He struggled with school until he realized he was smart. In fact, no one knows that his reading level was college level at a very young age. But he learned differently and when he learned his strengths and how he learned then he became content.
Through all of this he has never neglected his horse or lost sight of his family. He has worked hard all of his life and paid his way wherever he could.
So today as he takes off to go to state...I wish he could know how much of my heart is going with him...and that it will be on that mat with him as well!!!!!
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