Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Coaching Soccer
After coaching Weeball in the spring and enjoying that experience so much I volunteered to coach Soccer. I've served on the board as Treasurer for the past 5 years and only this year even considered coaching. I'm coaching the under 5 kids and loving it as much I loved coaching Weeball. The only difference is I know more about baseball than I do soccer, but I have a great 12 year old assistant coach!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Dear Angela,
Seventeen years ago you came into my life and changed it so totally that I cannot image it without you. You fill my days with every emotion from pleasure and pride to anger and impatience. But most of all you fill each day with your presence, and even when you are away you are in my brain and heart.
It is so hard to watch you grow up, but I feel you are doing a very good job of it. Each year I have seen you change and you are showing all the characteristics and character of a fine young woman. People always tell me how charming and funny you are, how wonderful you look and how interesting you are to talk to -- I am glad to hear these compliments -- but I can see them for myself. There are many minutes, hours, days, when you are a very difficult teenager to live with -- but that is to be expected. Your emotions are always "up front", both the good and the bad. They always will be. That is who you are.
You have a wonderful quality of independence that I value and respect. You are an astounding and confusing mix of willingness to try new things and fear of failing at the every day parts of life. That will change with maturity as you see yourself succeeding and learn to trust yourself. You will make mistakes, fail at things, hurt yourself in a multitude of ways, everyone does, but the power to achieve is in every fiber of you and the will to get what you want will push you past the fear of rejection and failure. I have never been a risk taker and it has limited me in ways you probably cannot see. You must be willing to take risks - the pain of failing passes quicker then the regret of not trying.
Every year you get stronger emotionally as well as physically and I hope you see a little bit more of the wonderful qualities that those of us who love you have seen since you were a baby. You have such a heart for others. I think back to our time in Nicaragua and how you wanted to bring one little boy home with you because you thought he would have more opportunity in the States. You were his friend while we were there; you stopped to play with him every day and always had a smile for him. I also think back to the time when we held a special prayer meeting for our dear friend David Bond and how you prayed straight from you heart without fear and with tears streaming down your face. Everyone was amazed that a child your age could pray the way you did that day. have always been a person with a good heart, and that is a qualityyou have that I value above all. Eventually we all learn to read and write and drive and cook and hold a job, but we cannot "learn" a good heart.
Perhaps now a good time to stop and assess -- look back to where you have come from, to see who you were and who you are -- before plunging forward into adulthood, with all of its challenges and responsibilities. It is a time when parents can still try to protect the child in you since you are still permitted to act like a child, but you can safely assert your independence - parents still love their most obnoxious teenagers.
So today is special, and you are special. Not just because you are my daughter, but because you are a unique individual and one that I respect and enjoy being with. It gives me great pleasure to know that God chose me to be your mother. You have many talents and gifts (sports, drawing, writing, etc.) I love seeing you use those talents. And you have taste, lots of it. And you are tenacious when you want something and you use words so well. As a young person you have figured out how to talk to people -- almost instinctive in your "people skills". All these qualities are sometimes covered over by anger and shouting and frustration and impulse, but as you mature you will get more control and channel those intense emotions more productively. This is a natural process too, just like thinking your parents are godlike, then morons, then boring, then wise.
So take this day and reflect and then go forward. Make this a better place for yourself and those who love you. Happy Birthday!
It is so hard to watch you grow up, but I feel you are doing a very good job of it. Each year I have seen you change and you are showing all the characteristics and character of a fine young woman. People always tell me how charming and funny you are, how wonderful you look and how interesting you are to talk to -- I am glad to hear these compliments -- but I can see them for myself. There are many minutes, hours, days, when you are a very difficult teenager to live with -- but that is to be expected. Your emotions are always "up front", both the good and the bad. They always will be. That is who you are.
You have a wonderful quality of independence that I value and respect. You are an astounding and confusing mix of willingness to try new things and fear of failing at the every day parts of life. That will change with maturity as you see yourself succeeding and learn to trust yourself. You will make mistakes, fail at things, hurt yourself in a multitude of ways, everyone does, but the power to achieve is in every fiber of you and the will to get what you want will push you past the fear of rejection and failure. I have never been a risk taker and it has limited me in ways you probably cannot see. You must be willing to take risks - the pain of failing passes quicker then the regret of not trying.
Every year you get stronger emotionally as well as physically and I hope you see a little bit more of the wonderful qualities that those of us who love you have seen since you were a baby. You have such a heart for others. I think back to our time in Nicaragua and how you wanted to bring one little boy home with you because you thought he would have more opportunity in the States. You were his friend while we were there; you stopped to play with him every day and always had a smile for him. I also think back to the time when we held a special prayer meeting for our dear friend David Bond and how you prayed straight from you heart without fear and with tears streaming down your face. Everyone was amazed that a child your age could pray the way you did that day. have always been a person with a good heart, and that is a qualityyou have that I value above all. Eventually we all learn to read and write and drive and cook and hold a job, but we cannot "learn" a good heart.
Perhaps now a good time to stop and assess -- look back to where you have come from, to see who you were and who you are -- before plunging forward into adulthood, with all of its challenges and responsibilities. It is a time when parents can still try to protect the child in you since you are still permitted to act like a child, but you can safely assert your independence - parents still love their most obnoxious teenagers.
So today is special, and you are special. Not just because you are my daughter, but because you are a unique individual and one that I respect and enjoy being with. It gives me great pleasure to know that God chose me to be your mother. You have many talents and gifts (sports, drawing, writing, etc.) I love seeing you use those talents. And you have taste, lots of it. And you are tenacious when you want something and you use words so well. As a young person you have figured out how to talk to people -- almost instinctive in your "people skills". All these qualities are sometimes covered over by anger and shouting and frustration and impulse, but as you mature you will get more control and channel those intense emotions more productively. This is a natural process too, just like thinking your parents are godlike, then morons, then boring, then wise.
So take this day and reflect and then go forward. Make this a better place for yourself and those who love you. Happy Birthday!
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