Finding God's Grace: Blaise "Teechay" Running

When we headed off to see Blaise's track meet in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, we looked like a homeless family, ready to live right out of our van. We put the stow-and-go seats down in the back and loaded Grace's toddler bed and the potty chair into the back of the van. When Grace saw it she started laughing and said, "No Leka Noshte (good night) in the car!" It was a great choice. She went right to sleep in her bed and Vince took the pull-out sofa right next to Mommy and Daddy. When I woke up in the morning on this college trip, I had actually slept and didn't have any little feet thrown over my face.

We took extra time during the drive, stopping at several gas stations and rest areas on the way so that Grace didn't have to sit for more than an hour and a half. It ended up being a great weekend because Vince and Grandma and Grandpa Swaar even joined us (through a snow storm). Blaise loved showing off his little sister at the hotel and invited a bunch of his teammates to play hide and seek and "running" through the halls of the hotel with her. Grace loves people and enjoyed all of the attention from the girls on the team. She didn't even cry when she ran into the corner of the table over and over.

We dressed her in red and blue so she looked like Samford's mascot and headed to the meet the next morning after breakfast. The indoor track meet was filled with new sites for her: pole vaulters jump "gulyam" (big), people were long jumping into the sand and you could tell she wanted to join them, and there were loud gun noises and people shouting. When Blaise was running, we taught Grace to say, "Run faster!" and she played with her brothers who she has missed desperately. Grandpa let her take pictures with his camera, and we weren't sure whether she would give it up without a fight when it was time to go home. You can really tell from the pictures how much she loved seeing all of her family.

The trip home was more difficult, though. We left around 6:00 pm and Grace does not like to sleep in the car seat. We thought it would be a good idea to put her into her feety pajamas, but then we didn't really want her to run around at the rest stops without shoes, either. She whined and fidgeted for the last several hours of the trip, and we just knew that she was exhausted and frustrated that she couldn't get to sleep. We tried propping her up with the neck pillows, but she just wanted to lay down. It made me remember how I used to sleep on the floor board before seat belts and car seats. It is a wonder we ever survived... :-)

By the way, Blaise ran his best 3000m time by 17 seconds! You can tell that he was happy with his performance. I really miss being able to cheer him on at all of his meets.