Our Duke Family

My Mom would've been 47 years old this coming week, on the 18th. My best moments with her have nothing to do with sports, but we are definitely a sports family, especially her. Since I can remember, her favorite team was Duke basketball. She sat on the smaller couch in our den wrapped in her Duke blanket and watched every game as a nervous wreck. As the years went on, she would inevitably fall asleep during every 9pm game, but my Dad kept it on TV for those times she would wake up and ask what the score was. A whole shelf in our den was dedicated to Duke stuff, including Coach K's books, National Championship articles, and all the things our family would give her for Christmas with a Blue Devil on it. I remember Scott and I coming home from school one afternoon to a black Cocker Spaniel puppy sniffing our feet under the kitchen table. Mickey was the newest addition to the family, named after Coach K's wife. She was a great dog, and maybe even a good luck charm as I know they had some pretty memorable teams and a couple Final Fours during Mickey's life. The four of us would agree that some of our best trips we took together was to Clemson for the Duke/Clemson game. We could never get tickets to a game at Cameron Indoor, and Clemson was right down the road, so that was our Christmas present for a few years as kids. It was in January every year and sometimes even a school night but we loved going to see them play.

If you know my sports preferences, I'm more of a football girl, and it would seem that I'm a fan of several basketball teams throughout a season. Marrying a Kansas grad and one trip to Allen Fieldhouse has turned me towards the Jayhawks, and of course, the hope that my Winthrop Eagles will make it to the Tournament is there with passion each year. But Duke basketball will always have a special place. It will always be one of the ways I remember my Mom, staying up and watching every game with her and living to watch them in the Tournament each year. I know if she were still alive I would be calling to find out who her "favorite" player is this year. It's usually the young guy with the baby face or the "best hair." I've started picking a favorite each year, as Eric can tell you. Truth is, I don't think we have any idea why we're a Duke family. Sure, they win a lot, and maybe that's why. I just remember growing up loving the Blue Devils and pretending to be WoJo out in the driveway playing basketball with Scott and my neighbors up the street. We burried my Mom with two things: Scott's football jersey that she wore on Friday nights to watch him play, and her Duke blanket. So I'll probably always cheer those boys on. And hopefully build some fun sports memories with my kids someday too, no matter what team we choose to watch with them.

Please Stop Tweeting

Is what everyone that follows @ktothes is saying right now. Sorry (not sorry) guys. As you ALL know, the Kansas City Royals had a baseball season. They won the American League Wild Card game, three American League Division Series Games and then three American League Championship Series games, making them unbeaten in the postseason. About 6 months ago, the Royals opened up their season in Detroit and lost. They would lose several more games after that. And then several more after that. We all hoped, but I don't think any Kansas City fans really thought they would be going to the playoffs this season. That wasn't news to anyone who has been following them for the past 29 years, though. The Royals had the longest postseason drought of ANY American professional sports team until a couple of weeks ago. Think about the one team in America that sucks REALLY bad. We can all think of one. Even THEY have gone to the postseason since the Royals were there last. I wasn't even born the last time the Royals went to the postseason, and that was when they won the World Series in 1985. My husband, who is the reason for all these social media posts, has never watched them in a playoff game, as he was 1 month old and has been a fan ever since. While he grew up going to the K to watch games, living in the City who loves this team even though they've given it no reason to, I have only adopted them through marriage. My second home is Kansas City, part of my family lives there, and this team has rekindled my love for baseball that I had when I was a kid, doing infield practice with my Dad, wearing my Chipper Jones Jersey.

Over the past 4 months, moving to Richmond, VA hasn't been the easiest transition for us. It has taken us some time to find community and we don't have quite the schedule we did before we moved, where we were busy or working or being social most hours of our week. That has been a hard transition, but it's also been good for our marriage because we actually spend time with each other. So with all of our free time in the evenings, we watch the Royals. They played 163 games this year. The Wiebergs probably watched, in some capacity, 140 of them. Everyone loves a good underdog story, and the Royals are certainly that. But it's not just a "Poor Royals, this is cute" story. It's a small market team that was able to win with very little team salary, no Derek Jeter type of star power, no national recognition. I will never argue with the whole "the Yankees just buy all their wins!" comments because, well, wouldn't you if you had the money? It's just good business. Pay the best players, win the most World Series Championships. But it is a breath of fresh air to watch these little guys win, with their small ball strategy, speed, and a bullpen full of Cyborgs. (Seriously, Wade Davis isn't human). Kansas City has stuck by this team (and their questionable Manager) for years waiting on this. This World Series really is for the fans, so I'm going to keep hash tagging. Let's Go Royals!

From God, For Good

Last weekend I got to be a part of one small day, a few short hours in Avonlea Powell's life.  She was dedicated at Remedy Church last Sunday and it was a great time of rejoicing over her life.  The doctor's told Brian and Melissa that she wouldn't make it to birth, or if she did, she wouldn't make it but only a few hours after birth.  Being born with Trisomy 13, she still isn't completely out of the dark, but she is alive. She's healthy and beautiful and we got to go to her baby shower last Sunday, something that was never planned because of her diagnosis before now.  All day I would look at little 3 week old Avonlea and just say "What?" in wonder at God. Our church is praying like crazy that she makes it to her first birthday, and I'm liking her chances.

Back in the fall, my best friend Erin had a diagnosis very similar for their girl, Hope, but she didn't make it out alive after giving birth at 22 weeks.  This sounds kind of weird to say, but I've never grieved for a friend like I did for Erin the day I found out she had died in the womb. I had never felt weight like that for someone else before.  I wake up every single morning to proof of God's faithfulness, but in the moments when Erin was sending text after text of bad news, I said "What?" in wonder at God. How could He let that happen? My best friend, who is one of the most gospel-loving people I've ever known was going through the worst moments in her life for what seemed like no good reason.

So I've felt two very contrasting sets of emotions over two friends in the past eight months. One little girl got to live, and the other one didn't. That afternoon at the baby shower, Phud read Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." God has chosen Avonlea to live for a purpose, while He chose to take Hope for a purpose. And it's all good. Not because He is a God who just gives good parking spaces and helps us pass our tests, but because He's sovereign and sees the whole picture (a better one). And what He chooses to do has nothing to do with us. We'll never work hard enough or fail bad enough to make God decide to work in the ways He does. We don't earn anything that happens to us, good or bad. Melissa's Dad told us that day that someone who has been following Avonlea's story through Melissa's blog and on Facebook said in a comment: "I think Avonlea is leading me to Jesus." The lives of these two little girls sure has gotten me closer to Jesus, it has strengthened my faith in Him and in his really good work. A reminder that we are ALL put here on loan to God. Jesus uses life for his good purposes no matter the length of time we get here on Earth and that's awesome. When I still think about my friends who lost their Hope, it just sucks that they didn't get to keep her. But the Lord has just as many plans through Hope's life as he does for any life: for good.

Check out the awesome life of Brian, Melissa, and Avonlea : www.lovingavonlea.com

When I Lose My Husband (and it's ok)

It starts around the second week of March. I lose my Husband. March Madness is his favorite thing ever. He's a HUGE basketball fan and it doesn't help that he used to work on the basketball staff at the NCAA. This is my third tournament with him, and every day from here until the first weekend in April, we will have a game on the TV, a game on the computer, and he'll be on Twitter, tweeting things that don't even sound like English to me. I do love March Madness, too. The upsets, the Duke wins, the Kansas wins, the bracket challenges. I will be right there with him on the couch most days. He could literally sit and watch every game, back to back, for an entire 2 weeks and be happy. I'm not quite that way, as I have to have other human interaction, go outside, eat. You would think I would say he needs to stop watching what he loves, pay more attention to me, and who cares about a stupid game? But I love that he gets so passionate about it. It's something that he really nerds out about and I think it's cool. He pays non-stop attention to me every day (unless our dog is doing something really cute), serves me, cleans our house, cooks dinner, takes out the trash, feeds the dog, and a ton of other stuff that he doesn't have to do. So when March Madness comes around, I want him to watch every second of it. It's ok that I lose my husband to TV for a couple of weeks. He has enjoyed watching games since he was a kid, and just because he has a wife now, doesn't mean he should care less about it. Kind of like how I will always need to go camping with my girl friends. He's not invited and never will be and it's ok! Just thought I would share this small word about marriage, since of course I am an expert. It's ok that your husband/significant other watches sports or movies or goes hunting or whatever. Mine watches (and actually likes) stupid girl shows with me and my friends while we scream at the TV and then talk about it for hours. That's some love.

The only thing I will make him do is watch Winthrop play in the Women's NCAA tournament against Duke on Saturday at 11. This might be torture to watch women's basketball, but it's history for all Eagle Alumni out there. Bring on the Madness!