When I think back to where he was just one year ago, and even further back to two years ago, today’s races were made even sweeter. The last years have been a journey for our son. He was so small and faced so many challenges. Two knee surgeries, a broken scapula, hospitalization for the onset of asthma, and undiagnosed ADHD, among so many more. He looked around at friends who grew bigger than him so early, and they ran so much faster than him, and they were getting it done in the classroom, and they weren’t sidelined by constant injury…and, well, he only got a glimpse of the glory as it was being shone on
those boys.
Then today’s track meet. At 5’11 and actually taller now than most of the kids that used to tower over him, he has also grown stronger and faster than he even could have dreamed just two years ago. To see him running the 100m, neck and neck, with one of the fastest kids since the seventh grade…wow. To see him pulling way out in front of every other hurdler in the 110m, to see him being invited to be one of the members of the starting relay team…these are the moments that he has imagined, worked toward, and suffered growing pains for.
The tattoo he recently got sent the biggest message of all though, so beautifully putting the exclamation point on the end of today’s sentence:
I FEAR ONLY GOD
Great job today, Boo! Mama and Daddy are so proud of you.
