Watching and Waiting from Afar

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After a lot of agonizing weeks, Mayra and I finally made the decision that academically it would be best for our youngest son, David, to finish his High School experience in the U.S. So he is now living with my parents, and they are formally his legal guardians. A verification of the importance of this decision came this past week. We was tested in several different areas regarding his English…listening, speaking, reading and writing. He has significant deficiencies in every area. A shout out to Mrs. O for her huge help with this.

David’s first 7 years (including kindergarten) were in all-Spanish language Mexican schools, then he studied the next several years in English, online via cyber school.  In one sense, his bilingual and bi-cultural abilities give him a huge advantage. But when you’re studying in and all-English environment, for the first week or so, David commented that his brain hurt. He had English overload.

David is also playing soccer this year at Elizabethtown. One of the biggest “sacrifices” of being here in Mexico is not being about to see him play. I’ve seen him play plenty here, and I know that he is good. Everyone knows he is talented. But here he played on a smaller 7 vs 7 field, and on an informal team. What an opportunity to play on in a formal, high school team, with a veteran coach, James Sostack.

We lived in Elizabethtown the first semester of last year, and were able to see David play. Remarkably, he started his second game of his sophomore year, and was selected to the All-Star team. Now, as a junior, he is one of the leaders on a young team, that is, in the words of the coach, in a rebuilding year. After a difficult start, the E-town Bears boys soccer has won three in a row, with two of those games being league games. There defense has been remarkable, allowing only 6 goals (4 of them in one non-league game). Although the offense hasn’t been producing a lot of goals, they’ve been doing enough…enough to win 3 of their games 1-0.

So we’ll see what the rest of the season holds! And we’ll see if David sticks with soccer on the off-season, or decides to play basketball, another one of his favorite sports. But for now, we’ll be happy see news of goals on Messenger or WhatsApp, from friends and family who are watching and reporting for us!

(photo creds–Lancaster Online stats header, Jim M via Shutterfly, below)

 

1 thought on “Watching and Waiting from Afar”

  1. Awesome, David! We walked right by his friend with the gatorade on our walk home from school this week, but we haven’t seen David yet. Blessings, Rod and Mayra. We’ll be praying during this transition.

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