Bragging on my Kiddos

It's my blog, and I can brag if I want to.

A was named Middle School Student Athlete of the Semester for our county. Yea!! She really is an excellent student. She's in the gifted program and gets very, very high grades. If a report card grade is below 95% it's cause for concern! I'm thrilled that she enjoys school and is doing well. Her Daddy obviously gets all of the credit for her athletic ability. I don't have an athletic bone in my body! She played softball for the first time this year and was her school team's pitcher. She's very competitive and eager to learn and improve. We're very proud of her.

In other news, she is also a member of her school's Academic Bowl Team, and her team won first place in their regional (?) competition on Saturday. They now move on to the state semifinals. For the first time in a match, she buzzed in first on a toss-up question. She has been to scared of having the wrong answer in the past. This time, she new the answer and buzzed in first, and she got the answer right (it was a biology question -- good thing she got it right since Daddy is a biology teacher!). It was in a critical match against her school's biggest opponent in the academic bowl...and it was the last question of the match and her team really needed to get the toss-up and bonus points to win. And they did. Yea!!

And our sweet B. This week we were talking about her upcoming baptism (she turns 8 in May) and she said she wants her uncle C (my brother) to baptize her. We were a bit surprised as we just assumed she would want Daddy to baptize her. We told her that would be fine, if C wanted to do it and would be able to. He has been inactive in church for several years. She called him on Sunday and asked him. I think he was surprised! I spoke to him and told him that it was entirely her idea and it would mean the world to him. He said he would think about it and I really do think he will. Maybe this will be the impetus he needs to find his faith? I don't know. Last night, B said that she wanted C to do it because it would be good for both of them. When I asked her what she meant, she said that it would be good for her because she would get baptized, and it would be good for C because it might help him want to start going to church again. She is so sweet. She has always had an amazing affinity for all things spiritual and a special ability to feel and understand the Spirit. We are hoping and praying that C will decide he wants to baptize her and do whatever he needs to do to make it happen.

On a worrisome note, however, B's stomach aches have not let up despite following the doctor's recommended high fiber diet and nightly dose of Zantac. The stomach aches definitely seem to be stress-related, or at least exacerbated by stress and anxiety. We're not sure if there is something going on at school that is bothering her or what else might be triggering the stress or anxiety, but there is definitely something going on. It's time to get more aggressive in getting to the bottom of this and finding a solution. She has always been our happy-go-lucky, carefree little girl and to see her struggling with this nearly every day for the last few months is so frustrating and heartbreaking. Please keep her in your prayers.