The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I love this photo of Bridger. I didn’t take it and he is unaware that it is being taken or he would have made a face that looks like this…

As much as I love to have his personality shining through, I love the 1st picture because to me it is a glimpse of the man he is going to be. He’s growing up and I am enjoying the ride.

Yes I know this is another baseball post but this weekend was our last tournament for the season and well it was bittersweet. 1st of all I am still wearing a drain from my most recent surgery. My sweet friend Taryn drove me and my mom all the way to Eugene, took me to three Dr. appointments and the grand finale was to have been the removal of my second drain. Unfortunately I am a touch on the fluid side so they gave me another week. To say that I was disappointed is putting it rather mild. I was also told that if I would quit moving around then I would stop creating so much fluid. Well this is great if  you don’t already have plans to go camping… in the rain… using outhouses and have the potential of hanging out for six baseball games between the two days and on a side note I don’t watch baseball quietly or without significant animation. Positive animation mind you, but the truth is that my son gets his silly, loud and at times overbearing personality from me…. So after Taryn helped me dry my tears and gave me her best mama lecture on getting rest and slowing down to let my body heal, I took a deep breath and vowed to myself to only use the outhouses if it was absolutely necessary. So the ugly was the drain and the rain. And boy did it rain!

The good was that Bridger saved all of his best baseball moments for the final tournament of the season. Hitting has been a struggle this year and Mr. Wonderful and Bridger have worked on it a lot. So game two, bottom of the 3rd inning, (we play 4/5 innings depending on the time) we are down 3/0 and Bridger is first at bat. Guess what? 1st pitch he swings and hits it right over the 1st baseman! Not only does he hit the ball but it goes into the outfield and we are off to the races! We score 4 runs total that inning. The other team gets up to bat and things get sketchy. No outs, tying run on third base, Bridger is in right field. Pop fly, he runs, he stretches and catches the ball on the run, relays it quickly to the second baseman who throws to third to get the runner out before he tagged up! Double play!! It was awesome. The pitcher struck the next guy out and we won the game. The next day he and his buddy Joe both caught line drives hit between 1st and 2nd base. (B plays both 1st base and right field.)

The bad was that even with all the excitement of winning all three games on Saturday we lost our first game on Sunday in the elimination round. It was a tough pill to swallow but it didn’t take away from all that Bridger had done to help out his team. I was so proud that he had every reason to hold his head high as he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had left it all on the field. He has been a great example to me this season of someone that no matter how many times he got it wrong, he never gave up. He persevered, he took direction, he hit wiffle balls off the tee in the garage late at night and early in the morning, he played catch with Mr. Wonderful at every spare moment and in the end he made some spectacular plays on a rainy weekend in Lincoln City. Were there other spectacular plays made by other boys? Of course there were, they are a team and they all contribute to the wins and to the losses. My point here is that I am proud of Bridger because all his hard work paid off. He showed up when it counted and even though the tournament ended early for us, he got to go home a winner.

I am learning that small wins can make as big an impact on your life as the big ones. My small win for this week is going to be sitting my buns on the couch all week so that I stop leaking and I can finally get this drain out. I don’t sit well so it is going to be quite a challenge but the reality is that if I don’t do what I need to do now then we will all suffer the consequences of my decision. In November, when I have my last surgery it will have been almost two years since I began this cancer journey. I want to finish well and with my head held high, just like Bridger.

Have a great day my friends!

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