Clay in the Potter's Hand (Part 1)

(The title of the post might seem odd, but bear with me;)

                                  (#33 is my boy!)

Robbie is in the middle with a big smile! Victory!

Robbie's soccer team finished the year winning the State Cup making them State Cup Champions....pretty neat!  A great finish!

Robbie has been playing for this Soccer Team for the last 5years.  This team has pretty much stayed the same with a couple changes here and there when players leave but for the most part they have remained the same core group.  As families we have cheered them on, encouraged them during seasons that have not gone as well and have celebrated many victories.  You really get to know each other, even if it is just on the sidelines, hooting and hollering.  It's all fun.  Memories are established and you become friends.  You share what's going on in your lives, and have even shared prayer requests with some who have become real close.

 We as parents, have weathered the anxieties together that come from travel tryouts each year.  Relieved several years ago when told tryouts were no longer going to be necessary at their ages.  We could take a deep breath.  No longer fearing the "call" from the coach.  You see, there are 2 teams for our age group.  The "A" team and the "B" team.  The A team for the kids who possessed a little more skill and the B team for those who also possessed skill but not on the same level as those on the A.  Robbie was one of those who 5 years ago was put on the A team and has been there since.

At the conclusion of this year, we had a pool party where all the families come together and eat, talk, kids play and we conclude with appreciation for the coaches and the boys were given sweatshirts recognizing them as champions.  We had a delightful day, one in which we even got to share with some of the parents, about our adoption and what God is doing in our lives.

The next day, I got an unexpected call from Robbie's coach.  His voice was trembling as he said, "This is very hard for me to say, but I am going to have to cut Robbie from the team".  To say that I was shocked would be a complete understatement.  He proceeded by telling me what a hard decision this was and quite frankly, the rest is a blur.....bottom line he had too many kids for the team coming this fall and he felt as though Robbie would get more playing time if he went to the B-team.

He was the only boy being cut from his team.....

I felt as though I had been kicked in the stomach.  Thoughts were swirling all around....bizilions of them coming in and out of my head.  What in the world? There were no tryouts, so how could he be cut?  The coach had picked up one boy from the B team, another boy from another team altogether, and a third boy who had played for us a couple of years ago when we were struggling, left our team to go play for a "better" club, but now that we were champions, decided he wanted to come back and play so was welcomed back with arms wide open (yeah, you know exactly what I was struggling with at this moment!.......Big time!)


I wanted to scream It's not fair!!!!! How could you? why my son? He's been loyal even when.... He's the teams biggest encourager....He's by far, not the worst player, not even in the bottom 3.....why?


Those questions weren't answered nor will they ever be.

As I spoke to the coach, I prayed for the Lord to please give me words that would show grace to this man who had made, no doubt, a very hard decision.  That through my reaction He would be glorified.  He did.  He always give us a way out when we so badly want to sin, stomp our feet in defiance and scream It's not fair.  I wish I could say that all my thoughts were pure.....they weren't.  I struggled as a mom whose love for a son was so great and knowing that bringing this news would undoubtedly shake him to his core the way it did mine.

(I'll share more tomorrow, I feel as though this post has gotten so long and I have quite a bit more to share.....the good stuff........)