Where to begin. 

So we made the trek to Springfield for the state high school championships – the last of Drew’s high school career. As I pointed the car south, I was like any other parent, hoping, dreaming and praying for a wonderful experience for my children. After all, the kids have been playing tennis longer than they’ve been in school. And for one of my kids, this was it. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could go out on a great note? But sometimes things just don’t work out the way we hope. 

The kids, who played doubles together, got a rather unfortunate (arguably unfair) first round opponent and lost a heartbreaker of a match in three sets. It hurt. But they shook it off and made a really nice run in the back draw, making it to the semi-finals. Another three set heartbreaker that ended on a less than honest line call by the opponent. That really hurt. Tears were shed. A lot of them. But the tears eventually dried. And my resilient, amazing boys shook themselves off and celebrated the wonderful time they had with their teammates. Laughter and silliness prevailed, as it does so often with these two.

Their mother, on the other hand, has taken a little longer to recover. Perspective can be elusive sometimes, especially for overprotective mothers. It’s not much fun to watch your kids hurt, especially for reasons that seem unfair. But I had some other setbacks that added insult to injury right from the start. As soon as I got to town…flat tire. On my brand new car. Apparently I’d run over a construction spike. Then, at the end of the day, I discovered that my hotel had been overbooked and they didn’t have a room for me. And it seemed likely that no one else would either. All of the hotels in town were booked because of some big car show. Oh, wait a minute…save one. Finally, in the middle of the night, my overbooked hotel managed to find me a room at the hotel of last resort across town. The above photo sums up the experience. There’s your express checkout, folks. A shoebox held together with duct tape and a cutout drop slot for room keys. Suffice it to say that I slept with the lights on and refused to take off my shoes.

This was not my favorite weekend — and one with results and events that I’ll likely never understand. But there were  still reasons to be grateful. True, I had a flat tire on a new car. But a super nice guy from roadside assistance changed my tire within 30 minutes. And another nice guy at a tire shop was able to fix my tire the next morning — and got me on my way before the boys’ first match of the day was finished. True, my hotel situation was less than ideal. But I had shelter from the elements and was able to safely get some sleep (seemingly without the company of bedbugs). True, my kids didn’t have the tournament we’d hoped for. But they were able to play. And not too long ago, we weren’t certain that one of my kids would survive a surgery, let alone live to play among the best players in our state. And one of my sons got to celebrate his birthday on the tennis court — and the celebration continued late this morning with our tradition of birthday cake for breakfast. Simply put, life goes on, whether or not we’re happy with the results. And this is one of those times that I’ve realized that we don’t have to look too far to find our blessings, if we’re willing to be open, look past the crap, and realize that life is still providing for us. And sometimes if you’re really lucky, you receive something like this from your sister to make you feel better when you get home.