The alarm went off early this morning as Beth and I prepared for a swim meet. The high school where the competition is being held is 30 minutes away, and she needed to report for warm-ups at 6:40 AM! Yuck! And we get to repeat it tomorrow. So right now I am typing on my laptop, sitting on a lawn chair not far from the pool deck, and pulling in my foot every time someone walks by and threatens to bump my heavily bandaged big toe…


Beth is pumped. She’s pumped because she competing today; she’s pumped because she received her report card yesterday which was all A’s and B’s and “+’s”; she’s pumped because she landed a lucrative modeling job that will earn her in excess of $500 and pay for her modeling photo shoot; she’s pumped because she gets to have the new dog Ben sleep in her bed; and she’s pumped because she knows I’m crazy about her. She was so proud of her report card and some recent tests and papers… and she should be!


Recently I blogged about Amy’s slowly awakening realization that perhaps her life wasn’t so bad when she lived with us…but Beth has always been well aware of her gains. Perhaps I have mentioned this before, but our foreign exchange student, Julie, has said several times that “Beth would not be Beth” if she were still in China. Julie has also repeatedly expressed how lucky Beth is to be growing up in our family. Julie describes a social environment in China that would frown upon Beth’s unbridled exuberance and would attempt to rein her in. How sad is that?

*****

The meet is over now and we are home. Beth is napping and I am watching the Chiefs threatening to blow the playoff game. Beth didn’t have a terrific meet but she is learning a great deal about effort, persistence, success and failure. And the really cool thing is, she is healthy emotionally and able to learn those normal lessons of life. Parents of (only) healthy kids take that developing emotional maturity for granted… but I don’t!

Photo Credit