Baseball and Love

Bug played baseball this year and did an amazing job.  Even though he was playing with boys who have been playing for years, he stood out and at the end of the season got a trophy inscribed with his name and "The Natural" for the natural talent he showed.  While he has played many sports (wrestling, flag-football, basketball, soccer, and baseball), this seems to be his favorite so far.  He has inspired me with his willingness to try new things!

Interestingly, at two occasions during his games I felt like I learned and grew as I watched each of my daughters struggle with social situations and overcome.  My youngest has very limited speech, so her speech therapist has been teaching her sign language as a means of communication.  Once when she turned around and signed to me, some nearby girls thought it funny and laughed at her.  She is such a sweet child and fought so hard to make it this far that I was, at first, shocked.  Then I realized these girls must be laughing because they didn't understand what she was doing.  I gently explained sign language to them and before long, most of them were trying to learn it along side my girls.  My youngest beamed at seeing the others talk some like her.  We continue to work hard to try to improve her vocal speech, but still rely on sign language often.

The second situation was one where another girl was spiteful and mean to Princess.  She is so unaccustomed to this behavior that it greatly upset her.  She came to me in tears and expressed that she didn't understand why anyone would be so mean.  I hugged and snuggled her while she calmed down, then we prayed together.  I braided some clover flowers together and showed them to her to try to get her mind off the pain.  Then we recalled (I don't remember who brought it up) a verse she had recently memorized: "Love your enemies."  Princess decided that she wanted to show love to the girl who had been mean to her.  My heart about burst as I watched her take the flower braid I had just made, gingerly walk over to the girl, and offer it to her.  The girl rejected it, but Princess came skipping back, knowing in her heart that she had done all she could do to rectify the relationship.  Before I knew it she was playing with the other girls, and I was busy making clover braids for all of them!