Showing Grace

I came across this article via a Pastors blog. It is so touching. It's by Rick Reilly from ESPN.

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They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.

Did you hear that? The other team's fans?

They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, "Go Tornadoes!" Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.

It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by name.
"I never in my life thought I'd hear people cheering for us to hit their kids," recalls Gainesville 's QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. "I wouldn't expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!"

And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he'd just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach.

But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of five—handcuffs ready in their back pockets—and marched them to the team bus. That's because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas . Every game it plays is on the road.

This all started when Faith's head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville , but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery—many of whose families had disowned them—wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.

So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans—for one night only—cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. "Here's the message I want you to send:" Hogan wrote. "You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth."

Some people were naturally confused. One Faith player walked into Hogan's office and asked, "Coach, why are we doing this?"

And Hogan said, "Imagine if you didn't have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you."

Next thing you know, the Gainesville Tornadoes were turning around on their bench to see something they never had before. Hundreds of fans. And actual cheerleaders!

"I thought maybe they were confused," said Alex, a Gainesville lineman (only first names are released by the prison). "They started yelling 'DEE-fense!' when their team had the ball. I said, 'What? Why they cheerin' for us?'"

It was a strange experience for boys who most people cross the street to avoid. "We can tell people are a little afraid of us when we come to the games," says Gerald, a lineman who will wind up doing more than three years. "You can see it in their eyes. They're lookin' at us like we're criminals. But these people, they were yellin' for us! By our names!"

Maybe it figures that Gainesville played better than it had all season, scoring the game's last two touchdowns. Of course, this might be because Hogan put his third-string nose guard at safety and his third-string cornerback at defensive end. Still.

After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that's when Isaiah surprised everybody by asking to lead. "We had no idea what the kid was going to say," remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: "Lord, I don't know how this happened, so I don't know how to say thank You, but I never would've known there was so many people in the world that cared about us."

And it was a good thing everybody's heads were bowed because they might've seen Hogan wiping away tears.

As the Tornadoes walked back to their bus under guard, they each were handed a bag for the ride home—a burger, some fries, a soda, some candy, a Bible and an encouraging letter from a Faith player.

The Gainesville coach saw Hogan, grabbed him hard by the shoulders and said, "You'll never know what your people did for these kids tonight. You'll never, ever know."

And as the bus pulled away, all the Gainesville players crammed to one side and pressed their hands to the window, staring at these people they'd never met before, watching their waves and smiles disappearing into the night.

Anyway, with the economy six feet under and Christmas running on about three and a half reindeer, it's nice to know that one of the best presents you can give is still absolutely free.

Hope.
by Rick Reilly, ESPN Magazine

Just some snapshots

This past week Nathan got to dress up at school for the Carnival. He was going to be a pirate for the last month, then on the morning of, when he was told that he couldn't bring his sword (school note said not to bring weapons), he didn't want to be a pirate. So we went back and forth with things we had in the playroom- cowboy, pirate, superman, spiderman, etc. Then he realized he had all the makings of a "Bob the Builder". The crisis was over. Everyone was happy. Danny & I (with Micah) had errands to run so we both took him to school and as he got out of the car we realized he didn't have his lunch bag. So Nate went to class and the rest of us went back home and grabbed his lunch. When I went upstairs to his classroom to tell him I brought it, I saw that he had already removed all things that would make him look like he dressed up for the day. The hard hat, tool belt, suspenders, etc. was off. I asked him what happened and he said it was getting in the way of playing with the toys in the classroom. Oh well.





We found these "tater-tots" and they are fun for the boys. Danny spelled their names and they got a big kick out of it.



Micah just being his adorable little self:

Word Clouds

I came across this very cool website here. It makes word clouds. Wordle.net Here are some words from one of my favorite passages in the Bible.

Psalm 121

Semester Break

Nathan has this week off from school. It's the semester break.... they start later so December is not the end of the semester. This also means school doesn't get out till the first week of July. Last year his last day was July 4th. It was weird to be picking him up and then going to a friends house to celebrate the 4th of July. haha.

So I was hoping to get some things done around here because it's been almost 'spring' like weather. It's been sunny with a little chill in the wind, but not bad and since the snow is all gone you can see the flower beds, grass, and they're needing help :) However, last night I looked up the weather forecast and it's going to be cold and we're supposed to also get snow the next few days... that could mean it'll snow just in the mountains, but will still make it cold here. We've also got some play dates planned for Nate and friends from school this week. Today we're going over to one of my closest friends house. We've not seen much of each other in awhile. Our schedules have just been too full and so our kids are missing each other (the mommies are too).

Danny & I thought our church services were going to include just our family yesterday, but at 10am on the dot, 2 families showed up and we had a good time studying and singing. Nate & Micah enjoy that these families have kids and every week Nate wants to know who we're bringing home! haha.

Yesterday afternoon Danny also had football practice. He only gets to go to the ones that are in the afternoons on Sunday. Their season is getting ready to start up. We're all very excited about watching the Styrian Bears and cheering them on after all their hard work as a new team in their division. What opportunities for Danny as well!! His nickname is 'Rev' ;)

-Krista-

Valentine's Day

We're not overly big Valentine Day celebrators. I'm not being "ba-hum-bug-ish" about it... it's just that Danny brings me flowers for no reason some days or a little surprise here and there that it makes Valentine's Day somewhat of a normal day for us. Also, Danny's birthday is the the 7th and exactly a week later is Valentine's Day. So since I surprised him by taking him out for dinner we decided to not spend money on dinner again and a sitter. But our weekend was fun! Friday night has become our Family night unless we have plans with another family or something like that. Nathan & Micah enjoy it. We usually make personal pizza's, tacos, or order something (which is tricky in a country that doesn't really have a large restaurant variety). Then we watch a movie together and have some sort of fun dessert. The boys are big fans of the fruit platter!

We also received a package from my mom on Friday and the boys had Valentine treats in there. They were so excited!! (thanks so much mom & dad!) Danny & I also got them matching Spiderman jammies ( Micah is soooo much like me in that he would live in his "comfy" clothes all day if I'd let him!). He actually cried his little heart out the other day when I was getting him dressed and threw his jammies into the dirty clothes basket. I had to tell him that after 2-3 nights they were in need of washing!! haha. He was devastated... so I made sure they made it into the next load and all was well the next day. Both of the boys are VERY into superheroes right now. It's so fun being a mom of boys! Thankfully, I have a couple of nieces so I'll get my girly fixes when I see them-haha.

So, hope you felt loved on the day the world sets apart as a day to remind those we love just how special they really are to us! Remember, there is no greater love than that of a God who came to us as a Man, became like us while remaining perfect and then died for all of us. Better yet... didn't stay dead, but rose again and is preparing Heaven for those that have put their trust in Him.

-Krista-

Nate-isms

Nate-"Good Morning, Mom"

Me-"Good Morning, Buddy!"

Nate-"I said 'Good Morning' to God too."

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Last night as I'm helping the boys get their jammies on Nate asks if there are "Ben 10" jammies. I said I hadn't seen any yet, but I'd keep a look out. He said that maybe we'd find them in time for his birthday. haha.

So, this morning...

Nate-"Mom, I talked to God last night and asked him to tell someone to make "Ben 10" jammies.

**Ben 10 is a cartoon that he has recently discovered**

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Random quotes:

"Are we all little people first?"

"When I grow up I want to be like Daddy."

and one of my favorites lately...

" Mommy, you're almost like Dad, when will you be tall like him?"

YES! My son believes that I'm not done growing. LOL! Danny didn't want me to get too big of a head so he reminded me that I'm done. What a guy.

Danny

Today is Danny's birthday. We've had fun doing little celebrations all week (special meals, early birthday gifts, etc). The boys enjoyed going to the store and picking out movies for Daddy. When the boys and I got home Nate had Danny come close so he could whisper, "You wanna know a secret?" Danny immediately said that he probably shouldn't do that just yet. So Nate gave his little smile and giggled then said, " We got you a Dr. Pepper for Family Movie Night... I didn't tell you about the movies!!" hahaha! Too cute! The importance of the Dr. P is that we can only get the small personal bottles here and they aren't that expensive, but just enough that we only get them for special occasions. They liked having cake in honor of Daddy :) Tonight I found a babysitter (thanks to "big" Emily! Nate has a friend his age and he calls her "little" Emily.) so I could take Danny out and not have to cut up anyone's food but our own. What fun we had. It was authentic 'Austrian' cuisine. Such a relaxing evening.

Have a wonderful weekend!