Jael's Soccer Game

Well I hope you enjoy the pictures of Jael playing her very first team sport in America. I wish that I could say this past Saturday was her first game, but unfortunately it was her second. The first game was 2 weeks ago and I took tons of pictures. I really was the proud mom making such a big deal of her first game ever. That was until I got home and realized that I remembered everything but the memory card. This normally would not be a big deal except for the fact that Brian can't find the camera cord that would allow us to download the pics from the camera. Oh well....so here we are looking at pictures from her 2nd game of the season.

She is playing for the Broomfield Recreation U-12 league. They play 10 games for their season. The team name is the Strikers and they are 1-1 so far. Jael started playing mid-field but has been playing right or left forward recently. The girls on her team have been so accepting of her. She has made a few friends on the team. We have been fortunate that one of her teammates goes to our church which has been great for Jael. Building friendships and positive relationships has been a struggle for her this past year. It is encouraging to see that playing sports seems to be bridging the gap a bit.

So now I share the funny story...We went to dinner with Uncle Lew and Aunt Tenzing the night before her game and Uncle Lew made a deal with her. If Jael scored in her soccer game he will give her $20. Of course Jael says ,"$20 for every goal right?" I am amazed at how smart she is. Well lets just say that $20 incentive was all she thought and talked about until her game on Saturday. She even made a point to say, "Don't worry Mommy, I don't want the money for me. I want the money so I can buy puzzle pieces so we can adopt Ting li." She is so sweet! Well during her game she was on a mission. The whole game she was OFFSIDES, but the funny part was she had no idea what offsides was. Brian being the former soccer coach tried to correct her but was unsuccessful. Thank God her teammates knew enough not to pass her the ball when she was offsides. You can't fault the child though she was on a mission-$20 for Ting li. I finally had to say, "Jael you should never be closer to the goal than the green team and the goalie doesn't count." Lets just say that she understands offsides now. Because of Uncle Lew's deal and Jael playing offsides, we were able to meet many of the other parents on the sideline. Everyone got a few laughs at our expense, but we were also able to share Jael's and Ting li's Adoption Story which was a real blessing. I received emails after the game from parents saying that it was great meeting us and that they were really touched by our story.