THE FAITH OF A CHILD

When Calli and I were in Dallas for NCA, Wes stayed at home with Colson doing their thing. Wes did consider going with us to Dallas but decided against it. And that was a God thing. Because had he come with us to Dallas we would have probably lost Colson's horse, Cash. Saturday afternoon, I got a text from Wes asking us to pray for Cash becuase he was Collicing and we could lose him. After talking to him, he told me the process of how he identified his illness and what he needed to do. The vet told him what shot to give him and Wes went immediately and got the shot. Within 45 minutes if he had not gotten up and started walking then he would need to bring him in....at that point he could die or surgery would be needed which would obviously be very expensive.

From the time that Wes realized there was a problem until the time that Cash got up and began walking...so for those who like to read the last page of a book before starting it, yes Cash is alive and well....Colson was VERY worried and upset. Wes told Colson "son, we just need to pray". Colson replied with "I've been praying daddy. I prayed when we were out there with him earlier. I prayed on the way to get the shot. I prayed when we got back in the car on the way home...."

So Wes gave Cash the shot and took this picture.

So sweet....Colson was praying for him. I would have loved to be in his mind to have heard what he was saying to God.

45 minutes later, almost to the minute Wes said, Cash began to get up and Colson began walking him around

I feel like this might be one of those moments Colson might remember in his life where he knew God was real. And for that I am very thankful that God answered his prayers. I know there are many times in our lives where God doesn't answer our prayer in the way that we want or think they should be answered. For Colson to put his faith in God this time and to see his prayer be answered I think made Him real in this little 9 year olds eyes.

THERE'S ALWAYS LAST YEAR!

So The Woodlands Elite Majors didn't fare so well at NCA this year. After the first day we were ranked 7th...out of 8. We all gasped when those results were posted and it was proof that you never know how NCA will turn out. If there is one thing about this particular competition, it's that the judges definately keep you on your toes. Now on that first day we did have one stunt drop and one girl randomly fell back down after she landed her tumbling (it sounds bad but it was really weird and somehow very discretely done). But other than that, the rest of the routine looked really, really, really good! In 99% of the divisions, you can't win NCA unless you hit a zero deduction routine both days. So we obviously didn't deserve to be in first. And since all but two teams had a stunt fall, we just assumed we'd be in 3rd...maybe even 2nd.

It turns out the judges really didn't like out tumbling. Not sure why...we have great tumblers on the team. The owners protested, the judges promised they would look at it more closely on Sunday. Sunday's routine was perfect...0 deductions...but it still only moved us up to 4th. Oh well...there's always next year  or last year.

I think we'll live vicariously through last years WIN!

The day we were leaving for competition, I made one more stop by the storage units to see if I could find Calli's winning jacket from last year. She was dieing to wear it during the weekend. Every time I go for something, I look through a couple of boxes to see if I can find it. This time, I climbed up to the halfway back part and looked through a couple of boxes with no avail. As I was about to hop down, I saw a box labeled Calli's suffed animals. I hesitated but opened the box, dug to the bottom and pulled out the winning prize! Calli was THRILLED! I definately will ge mom of the year...ok month...for that one.

We got out of town late because Calli was busy trying out for school cheer. About 8:15 her phone started blowing up with calls and texts. She had made the team again....and was now the new CAPTAIN of the 2013-2014 Brabham Middle School Cheerkats! She was so excited! Randomly through the weekend she would say "hey mom...I'm the new captain".

Regardless of the 4th place position, Calli said it was her 2nd favorite NCA's coming behind last years win. We had fun hanging out with her team BFF's and just enjoying the whole experience. I snapped this picture as they were headed back to the room after the awards...they were hand in hand reminiscing about the season. Too cute!