My oldest son Bryson plays for the Elkhart County Cardinals softball team, a part of Special Olympics. This is his first year playing softball with them, he has played in the Challenger league the past 5 or so years. Bryson loves sports and his desire is to play for all of the professional teams some day. I love his enthusiasm and his belief in his abilities. As a mom it is difficult to have to tell him that he can’t because of his disabilities. Special Olympics is a great place for him to live out his dream and not be hindered by his disabilities. This weekend was the Special Olympics Softball tourney in Indianapolis. The Cardinals played a great game, Bryson played short stop and was 2-2 batting. The Cardinals were 
awarded the gold medal and oh what excitement!! I love the passion from each of the players, the encouragement to each other, the energy. I want to give a big thank you to Coach Wendie, Coach Marla and Coach Jeri who put so much time into the team. They have a great way of teaching these kids the game of softball and it is done with such love and encourgement. I realized how we have a lot to learn from these kids. They don’t let their disabilites stop them 
from life, they live it with a zealous spirit. I overheard Coach Wendie tell someone else this weekend “these kids teach me 10 times more than I can teach them.” I believe there is such truth in that statement. They teach us because they live from the heart not from abilities and appearances. As it says in the scriptures:
1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT) But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
The Lord cares about our heart! So often we feel sorry for those who are hindered by their disabilities but maybe we need to stop and ponder on what disabilities might be blocking us from living our lives with “ALL HEART!”
Our family stayed in Indy Saturday night and we attended the Colts vs Vikings game on Sunday. We are big time Colts fans, it has been a bit rocky the past year and we were all sad to see Peyton Manning leave but we decided we are going to dive into this new era and make the best of it! It was a great atmosphere at the stadium and awesome that we pulled out a win! 
It was also great to party with good friends, Gordon, Lynette, Ali & Kara!
A last little note, Bryson did have another seizure on Friday. The doctor increased one of his nightly seizure meds so I pray that this is all that is needed to stop the seizure activity. Thanks for your prayers.
