Goooooooooal!!!!!!

We finally have internet! There is so much that I need to blog about now that I have reliable connection, and I'm not really sure where to start. I suppose I might as well start with today.

Eli played soccer this past spring in Wisconsin for the first time, and of course he loved it. He is a born natural. Also, Vito was roped into coaching Eli's team, and of course he loved it as well. Like father, like son. We were a little disappointed that they wouldn't be able to play/coach on the same team this fall.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. We got an e-mail from the Dumas Nazarene pastor saying he had seen signs for Dumas YMCA fall soccer sign-ups. Dumas is about 15 miles south of us, it is the closest city with grocery stores, WalMart, etc. So I did a little research and saw on their website that they have an option for "Cactus" when signing up. I jumped all over that and contacted the YMCA program director right away.

Long story, short . . . a few years ago the Moore County (that's the county Dumas and Cactus are both in) YMCA had a decent program going at the Cactus YMCA. In fact, in the Cactus soccer program there were over 200 children playing! However, the director of the Cactus YMCA moved to the Dumas campus and the programs here died. It's too much for parents to take their kids to Dumas twice a week for soccer practices and games. This year there is only one child from Cactus who is playing soccer--Eli. So, I told the program director who we are and Vito signed up to coach a team. We're in conversations now about how we can partner with the Moore County YMCA!!

Anywho, back to today . . . Vito is coaching Eli's team, which is a team of 8 kindergartners from Green Acres elementary and Eli. The team name is . . . are you ready for this? . . . Green Acres Kindergarten. Whooo! What creativity! This morning was their first game and they beat the opposing team 13-3! Eli scored 4 goals and its quite obvious that he's better at offense than defense! It was a beautiful morning for a soccer game and we had a great time.

After the game, one of the team member's grandma came up to us and told us that she was here at CNMC for the ground breaking in May. She is somehow related (by marriage) to the family who sold us this property and remembered meeting us at that time. Connections, connections, connections.

I shouldn't be surprised, but I am continually floored by the way God puts it all together . . . in fact, God even works through soccer!

Vito warming up with the team before the game

Good job, Green Acres! (Eli is number 10)