This weekend has been a celebration of our daughter. She had a dinner party, an indoor water park party and a sleepover. Somewhere in the midst of all of this celebrating, she swam an event at an Invitational. It was The 500.
A 500. 20 laps of freestyle swimming. Non-stop. Really, non-stop.
It's crazy.
We decided to wait to tell Samantha about The 500 until the day of the meet. We know her. We knew that if we told her about the race too early it would be weeks of her stammering, crying, worrying, and fretting. She would not sleep well, eat well, nor be able to do any of her daily activities well.
Wonder where she gets that from?
And although she did not find out about The 500 until a couple of days before, she lived up to the before mentioned expectations. It was a rough couple of days. She didn't have to say anything to either of us, we could read it in her actions. A sigh, an extra twirl of her hair, a grimace, a look, then the tears would come.
"Mom, I can't do it."
"Mom, I won't be able to finish."
"Mom, I'm not strong enough."
"Mom, I just can't swim that far."
"Mom, I don't want to swim it."
I have to admit, after all of the tears, my Mommy instincts set in and I held her and wanted so badly to tell her that she didn't have to do it, that I would protect her from the big, bad 500. Yet, I hugged her and constantly reminded her that she could do it. She was strong enough, she could swim that far and that all she needed to do was finish.
I tried to joke (just be like Dori in the movie Nemo, "just keep swimming") and I tried all of the pep talks that I could muster ("We believe in you, You can do it!"). I tried everything but I knew that what she really needed was for the race to start. Then she would be good.
Up until the the start of the race, our little girl worried. That may have hurt her time but I am so incredibly proud of Samantha. She swam with all of her might and finished under 9 minutes.
It was over. She was tired, hungry but smiling all the way to the van. She did it. She conquered the fears of the 500!
2 comments:
Wow, how exciting! I am sure you were so excited for her when she finished. I don't know why we work ourselves up when we know that God doesn't give us anything we can't handle. Thanks for posting this, it is very encouraging!
I remember an awesome service my former pastor gave..it was on worrying. He said that "worrying is a lack of faith." It struck a chord with me, but sometimes it is hard for us to grasp, especially when we're young. I'm so excited for her, to "buck" up and accomplish something she didn't think she could do. Give her a belly-bump for me!
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