Saturday, April 5, 2008

The world glowed today


My children are smiling tonight…they’ve been smiling all day.

My daughter made it to the semi-finals of a “24” tournament this morning—one of three from her school to do so. She was terrified during her first round, my husband and I encouraged her with smiles…inside we choked with worry. We didn’t care about her score, we cared about her happiness. During the middle of the first round she found her rhythm, taking second place. She won the next two rounds. It was beautiful watching her mind in action...there were tears in my eyes the entire time. She placed third in her group at semi-finals, and is determined to make it to finals next year. I’ll be right there with her, holding my box of Kleenex.

My middle son played soccer in the rain, cold and mud. His team has struggled this season—they're short players due to injuries and usually play without subs. They haven’t lost yet, but are often ahead at half time, only to tie at game’s end due to sheer exhaustion. Today, they had two subs and won by two goals. Their white uniforms were brown with mud, they were soaked through and they were ecstatic. It’s the first game my husband’s been home to watch…he was pretty ecstatic too :).

My oldest son left the house in coat, tails, a top hat and a beautiful girl on his arm. Of course they were huddled under an umbrella—prom night in Oregon wouldn’t be complete without rain. I watched them leave, so sweet in their happiness and excitement, knowing they’ll never forget tonight’s magic. They chose to have dinner here, by the fire, laughing as my husband and I played restaurateurs. I filled the room with candles, bought roses to match their colors and the food was amazing (really, it was…I’m not just bragging about our fantastic cooking skills). I still don’t know how we got to this moment…how the little boy I loved suddenly became the handsome man shielding his date from the rain.

Yes, the world glowed today—I think two parents did also…

2 comments:

One-time runner said...

Thank you fo this. I feel like I was there. I'm not sure what 24 is, but I felt anxious about it. Thinking of J brought a tear to my eye, and I know A had a blast.

Echo said...

"24" is a math game. Players are shown a card with 4 numbers on it. The first person to reach 24 via addition, subtraction, multiplication and/or division, slaps the table with their hand. If their methodology is correct, they keep the card and earn points. If not, they receive a strike--3 of those and you're out of the game. Here's an example 2,2,3,5...2 times 5 is 10 minus 2 is 8 times 3 is 24.