Dennis found out he did not make the football team at his middle school today. He came home devastated, beyond that if there is such a thing. They picked 7 kids out of 60. He made the first cut, which brought the pool down to 20. He was not one of the 7 out of 20. There were some weird deals in all of this and I’m not going down that path with this post, but just know for a boy who struggles with rejection, this decision was all kinds of hard. I’ll just say how proud I was for him to see the list, talk with the coach, and ride the bus home before the pain oozed out of every fiber of his being.
We sat with him in the raw, brokenness for a very long time. It didn’t comfort him at all that we had already lined up another local league that was starting Monday night – tackle no less, what he really wanted. No, that didn’t help. He wanted on that school team. The one where they picked 7 kids out of 60. That was the team he just knew he was supposed to play on this year.
This is where being a parent is sooo hard. There are just some things you can’t fix in life’s journey…… like finding your child’s biological mother or getting him on the school football team.
But there are some things you can fix. We’ve promised Dennis a phone for his 13thbirthday for a very long time. That day is 1 month and 2 days away. Tonight I said to Dennis, “Son, let’s go get your new phone” and the drooping eyes suddenly popped up. He couldn’t believe what he just heard. I watched as hope came out of hiding from inside my little man, “Mom, are you for real?” I told him that there are two things he’s waited a long time for playing football and getting a phone. Tonight, I couldn’t get him on that team, but I could get him a phone.
We grabbed our things and walked outside only to discover all 3 of our cars were gone. Without hesitating, I said, “Well, shoot, I guess we are taking the moped.” Again, he looked at me and said, “Are you serious?”
