October 20 Soccer practice

Thursday:  When I picked Kaity up this afternoon from Jesse, it looked like Kaity's entire world had come to an end. Her face was SO sad, almost sadder than I had ever seen it. Jesse explained that Kaity lost her phone over the weekend (Sunday) at a "park" over in Newaygo, and that there was no hope to recover it. But this was FOUR days later ... could Kaity still be so upset about this? She also emphatically stated that she did not want to go to soccer practice tonight. Diana is the one funding her soccer "lessons", so I told Kaity we would call her mom once we were at my house. 

Kaity got into my car and hunched down in her seat. I asked her if something else was bothering her as well, and did she want to talk about it? She said she had already talked about it to her dad and that she would be alright. When we got to my house, I phoned her mom and put her on speaker. The three of us talked soccer practice over--well, Diana and I talked--Kaity was pretty silent, just making head motions for any answers to her mom's questions. Diana reminded Kaity of the commitment she had made to Kaity--she would pay for the lessons, but Kaity would DO the lessons--and Diana reminded her how important it was to keep commitments, etc. Kaity still shook her head "No." I told Diana that I couldn't make the decision for Kaity--and Diana already knew this and was OK with me NOT taking Kaity--but after I hung up the phone, Kaity and I had another talk. Nothing different than what her mom had already discussed with her. But I did tell Kaity that every single day of her life she needs to make herself do ONE thing that she doesn't want to do! "Why, grandma?" Kaity asked. I told her that doing stuff we don't want to do builds strength in us, and as we grow older, there will be lots and lots of stuff that we HAVE TO DO every day that we don't want to do. I told her I wanted her to grow up strong and that I would be really proud of her if she made herself do this practice tonight. Kaity went to practice! Go, Kaity!!!

Soccer practice is 90 minutes--so I decided to walk around. I thought this little path might take me into deep woods, but I only walked two minutes and I was in someone's yard ... so I walked back to the fields.

The soccer girls were getting ready to have a team picture! So I figured I would take a picture or two myself!

Kaity later told me that it made her nervous that I was out there taking a picture--she didn't think I was supposed to do that ... but I made no fuss, nor did I bring any attention to myself in the process ... so no harm, no foul.

I looked around for a way to get into the woods that surrounded the fields and snapped a few pictures as I did that:

Behind the playground at Pine Island Elementary is a nice woods ... you would think there would be pathway INTO it ... but no. I walked around and around a FENCE with no way to cross over! Frustrating.

I finally gave up on the woods thing ... and I walked back to the field.

I did snap a few pictures of Kaity practicing ... but she was so far away!

Anyway--Kaity went to practice, and it looked like she did a good job playing too. Thank you, Lord, for helping Kaity to do this one hard thing today.