TORN, BUT PROUD

      

About three weeks ago, I booked a hotel room for the State Basketball Tournament in Spokane.  When I did this, I did so because I am convinced that the W-P girls and boys teams will be playing in this year's tournament.  However, something wonderful has happened that has caused me to be torn between my two favorite teams.  The Dayton Bulldogs, a team that sat towards the bottom of the league for much of the season, will be playing the W-P Cardinals for the chance to go onto regionals.  One step closer to State for both teams--W-P & Dayton.       

       All of the Waitsburg boys of the W-P Cardinals are my boys.  I spend most of the morning with them five days a week, 180 school days.  Their head coach is one of my kids from 1999.   Therefore, I am their fan, supporter, and rooter. 
       However, the 2010-2011 Dayton Bulldogs and I share something very special.  They know what it is like to live a life without Andrew.  After the starters are announced, they break the huddle with "Groomer!"    They wear new uniforms purchased with money from Andrew's memorial fund.  On the side of their basketball shoes one can see ADG 40. They have embraced his spirit and during this week, I have felt his spirit with them when they take the floor.  My heart is with these boys.
       So after the game Friday, I will share the joy of victory for one team and I will share the agony of defeat for the other.  I hope the W-P fans will understand why I will sit and cheer with the Dayton fans.  I am confident that the Waitsburg part of the W-P boys know that I love and support them; however, in this instance I will be rooting loudest for the Bulldogs who have an angel named Andrew looking out for them.

~Andrew's Mom

L*O*V*E

       This has been a difficult week--a week I did not love.  However, with Valentine's Day right around the corner, I have decided that I would change my mindset and take stock of the things I do love.  Here's my list.

• I love my husband.  He truly loves me unconditionally.  It doesn't matter that my hair is gray or that I weigh a lot more than I did when we married almost eighteen years ago.  He shows me daily that he loves me no matter what.  How lucky am I?
• I love my immediate family.  I am fortunate to have three step-children who don't see me as the wicked stepmother, at least not at this point in our life.  They see me, not as another mother, but as a part of a familial unit that Bill and I have created.  One of Billy's high school teachers once shared that when he talked about Bill and me, he referred to us as his folks.  That is what we are--their folks.  And as we have added to our familial unit, we continue to feel blessed by our family.
• I love my extended family.  I have a large family, especially when you add together our parents, our siblings, their spouses, their kids, and now their grandkids.  Then add to that our aunts, uncles, and cousins who love and support us.  We are loved.
• I love my job.  Even when I think I can't stand to grade another quiz or paper, I know that I have a profession that I didn't really choose, it chose me. 
• I love my students, past and present.  In my classroom I have pictures of my former students--frozen forever in time as they were as seniors in high school.  They look down on me as I teach the next group of seniors.  Their presence reminds me of the duty I have to prepare this current group for the next phase of their lives.
• I love my colleagues, past and present.  I have been very fortunate to work with dedicated teachers--at Prescott, at Washington State University, and at Waitsburg.  They all have helped me to become a better teacher and a better person.
• I love all the adventures I've been on.  I've traveled near and far--Seattle to Boston--Lincoln City to Cape Cod--London to Rome.  But really, we do live in God's country.  There is no better place than the Touchet Valley in the state of Washington. 
• I love all the people who had a hand in creating the loving young man named Andrew Groom.  From Sunday school teachers to all of his coaches.  From school teachers to counselors at church camp, Wyldlife, to basketball camp. Friends, friends' parents, neighbors, community members.  There were so many who loved him and helped him become the young man he was.  I love you all.

But above all, I love my God.  I have a loving God who loves me and supports me even more that all the people who are in my life today or have been in my life in my past.  I have a God who loves me so much he allowed his one and only son to take the form of a human and live the life of a man.  He allowed his son to find success and to experience defeat.  He allowed his son to be revered and to be reviled by man.  He did all of that for me.

Because I had a son I understand the sacrifice this was for my God.  Because I love my son, I understand just what that type of love is.  And he did it for you and he did it for me.  Some of you who read this may not understand how I can really believe this.  But I do.  That is what faith is about.  How could we have a life with so much in it if that is all there is?

  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Now that's love.  Happy Valentine's Day

~Andrew's Mom

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW

 This week will be very difficult for our family.  On Wednesday, February 9th, Andrew would've turned 17.  For me, I'm re-living my life seventeen years ago, because the days of the week are exactly the same.  Seventeen years ago this week my life changed forever.  Let's go back to 1994.  It was a winter much like this winter.  Cold and gray, but not much snow.  I had had a difficult pregnancy--morning sickness for nine months is not fun--so I was really happy that the end was near.  My final doctor's appointment was on Monday, February 7th.  Bill hadn't gone to any of the appointments with me, so I talked him into going with me.   My blood pressure was at a dangerous level, so Dr. Betz told me I'd be going into the hospital first thing in the morning and we'd be deliverying a baby.  So Bill and I went home to prepare for Andrew's arrival.  It's really a bit weird knowing you're going into the hospital the next morning, because there isn't any of the waiting for labor to begin.  Bill, Billy, and I watched Bill Cosby's Himself that evening.  We all got a big laugh out of the story of Cosby describing the doctor as a baseball catcher, sitting there, waiting for the baby to drop into his glove.  As we went to bed that night, we thought that at this time tomorrow we'd have another member of the family.  Long story short--Andrew didn't come on February 8th.  He came at 3:59 PM on Wednesday, February 9th.  Billy snuck into the room and he was the first family member to hold him.  Our family was now complete.

Over the years we've had different birthday parties for Andrew.  For his first birthday we had a huge family party at Mother and Dad's.  Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, brothers and sister. It was a big fun day. 

On Andrew's second birthday, the Touchet River and the Patit Creek starting to recede from the Big Flood of 1996.  Notice the very high Patit Creek behind Andrew.

One of his birthdays was held at the cabin.  Four school birthday parties were held at the Liberty Theater, beginning in the third grade--the year Andrew began attending Dayton Elementary.  Super Bowl XL was another birthday party.  Last year we celebrated his birthday at Fiesta en Jalisco. 

Birthday party at Judy's Daycare

McDonald's Birthday Party

Already I miss giving Andrew a birthday party.  Today would've been the day for the big family birthday party.  Instead, Bill and I shared Super Bowl Sunday with friends and Andrew shared this day with Jim Helm, cheering on the Packers from Heaven.              

So many things I know I'll miss.  Next year will be hard when the football and basketball teams celebrate Senior Night.  Graduation will be hard.  I can't believe I will never get to go to his wedding.  I will never hold a child of my child's.  Hard to believe the things I dreamed about seventeen years ago this night will never come to be.  

So Happy Birthday Bubby.  Dad and I love you and miss you so much.  Thank you for the gift you were to us, our most precious treasure of all.

~Andrew's Mom