The Winning Goal

Nicholas just finished the most amazing soccer season. We love, love, love his coaches. 2 are wonderful men from our church and the other 1 is a teacher at my children's school. Each coach brings a different strength that, in the end, resulted in an undefeated season! It has been such a joy watching Nicholas play soccer. He played a lot when he was 4 -7 years old. Then quit because where we use to live the spring soccer season and baseball season overlapped too much to do both (baseball is his first love!) He picked up soccer again when we moved to the valley and played like he'd been doing it all along. He mainly excels because of his stamina. Without a doubt, Heavenly Father has blessed him physically with great endurance.

Last Saturday was the last game of the season. Nick's team was up 5-0 at the half. But, things fell apart in the second half. They were tied 5-5 with less than a minute to go. That's when Nick's best friend, Teague, passed the ball to him right in front of the goal and Nick tapped it in. Awesome play and awesome celebration between two best friends afterwards. While I know Nicholas works hard and excels because of his dedication and intensity, I also recognize tender mercies from a loving Heavenly Father who knows that my sweet son has had a tough year and really needed a moment like that to lift his spirits. Man oh man, I'll take tender mercies like that any time!

Here's a picture of Nicholas with his dad after the game. So great that Andrew could come up to Spokane and see the winning goal!