Realized Dreams

Last night was beautiful. The sun was shining. The air was clear. The kids were excited. T-Ball was ready to begin. The tears from last week's cancellation had dried up and only excitement was found on the faces of the 4 and 5 year old future MLB players of America.

I wandered around trying to find our coach and our team and keep track of the 5 kids in my care. Iain watched with great delight as several other boys and their dads tossed balls back and forth and one dad had even brought along his own T so they could practice before practice! With great kindness and courage that Dad asked his son if they could include Iain in their game. The little boy happily passed over his bat and stepped back to see what kind of game this "Iain kid" had. Well, we showed him. Iain turned around swung that bat, missed the ball and HIT this kid right in the HEAD!!! Oh my, Oh dear, Oh Iain, Oh NO!!! Now what to do?

Well, we survived the accident, found our team, got our shirt and waited. Did I mention that the coach said over and over that he didn't have Iain's name on his list? Of course when the coach passed out the pre-written name tags Iain's name was clearly written on a tag. The coach looked completely confused and suddenly realized that we were on his list, he just didn't know that IAIN sounded the same as IAN. OOPS!!

These little kids were so cute wearing hats too big for their heads, holding bats that looked like toys, and playing on a field the size of my living room. All the parents watched and cheered as their talented son or daughter hit or almost hit the ball. It was truly a wonderful experience. Just when I was ready for a 7th inning stretch the hour practice was up and it was time to go home. Before exiting the field there was a great cat fight between 2 4 year old girls who were both trying to get 1 ball. The result was one happy girl holding a ball high above her head and the other girl screaming at the top of her lungs. Immediatly a blog title came to my mind, "Girls do T-Ball!" :-)

We said goodbye to my mother-in-law who had surprised us with a visit, gathered our belongings including all the treasures from the earth that the kids had found during practice. With my bag ladened down with water bottles, rocks, stones, trash, and plenty of dirt we approached the car. As we began the tedious task of getting all 5 kids into seats and strapped the coach came over to me and looked in my car. He began counting and looked at me with great bewilderment. With fear in his voice he said, "Are these all yours?". I laughed and said, "Oh my no, I'm not that crazy, this little blondie is my niece!" His response was one of initial relief and then confusion and then disbelief. I chuckled to myself and added another checkmark to my mental list of people who think I am crazy for having 4 kids. I have several friends with 4 or more kids, I KNOW it is not that unusual!!

With an exhausted look in his eyes and peace on his face my little baseball star went to sleep undoubtedly dreaming of his future on the big screen. I think he has a chance too! Just as soon as we clear up the difference between a ball and our friends' heads we'll be on our way. :-)

Blessed to be Momofkrit, WoJ, and Camp Director to Aubrie this week,
KT