Gold Medal Moments

JC has been playing softball on a co-ed team this fall. It is so much fun to go and watch and I am proud that the kids get to see him do something that he enjoys.

Tonite, we all loaded in the car to go and watch his last game of the season. We were all very excited. It is fun for the kids and me to cheer on the one we love.

Well, sure enough, we get to the ballfield, and his team is down a woman and cannot play if they don't have someone fill in. So they asked me. I said yes in an akward sort of way and then just kinda thought it must be a joke. The team is warming up and getting ready to start the game and his team manager pulls some tennis shoes out of her bag and kinda says, 'here, see if these fit'. Oh, I guess they are serious. Ok - I CAN DO THIS!!!

They put me at the end of the batting line-up. And somehow my turn actually came up. At this point I am still in disbelief that this is actually happening. I get up to the mound, not really sure how to hold the bat and definately haven't given any thought to how I might react if I actually hit it!

Low and behold, the first pitch was thrown and I hit that ball. HOLY COW!!! I actually hit the ball. UNBELIEVABLE!!! I can hear the people cheering for me. I am running as fast as I can and I make it to first. WHOA!!! Did that just happen??? Needless to say, I got out on third.

Well, my turn to bat came up two more times. Each time I was able to hit the ball. What a wonderful triumphant moment. I did it! I put my mind to it and I did it. I never actually scored, but I tried my hardest and didn't look like a weenie out there!

For me, hitting the ball, hearing the cheering and running as hard as I could was almost like being Marion Jones, Mary Lou Retton or Dorothy Hamill.

The very very best gold medal moment was getting in the car and hearing all four of my kids saying how proud they were of me and telling me that they thought I did a great job. :)