my little girl's first competition

What a rush of adrenaline!! For 2 years now my little girl has been working so hard gaining strength and flexibility and skills and this was the first meet to show off all her hard work. However, also accompanying a first competition, are a whole lot of unwanted nerves that are cause for wobbly knees and shaky feet. The coaches warned us going into it that this was expected to be a hard meet and that better ones were to come.

Of course, we would be proud of our girl no matter what! The week prior she read through her Bible searching for verses to memorize that might bring her comfort and encouragement on her big day. It was so sweet. She knows that God is the one who gave her the skills and abilities that she has, and she was determined to "work at it will all her heart as working for the Lord and not for man." (Colossians 2:23).

In the end, she did pretty well. She placed 10th, qualified for state, and scored all 8's or 9's on each of her events. Not bad for meet #1. However, one of my most proud moments of all was actually when she fell off the beam. It was a hard fall and I just wanted to jump out there and scoop up my darling and comfort her, telling her she was still so amazing. However, I wasn't allowed and neither was I needed. My little girl jumped up, climbed right back on the beam and after some wobbles and another fall (oh goodness, my heart might have stopped for a few moments) she pulled herself together and finished so very strong. So very often in this life we, as parents, want to protect our little ones from hard times and challenges. There wasn't anything that I wouldn't have done in that moment to keep her from falling, knowing full well that she's landed the very skill 1000 times in practice. However, watching her recover herself and finish strongly brought her such confidence and has given an even greater resolve to do better next time.

Not that it matters to us. We're already so very proud of our little shining star.

(if somebody knows why the right half of the video is cut off and how to fix it, I would much appreciate it!)