Tough Times

I have to take a break from remembering this past basketball season to remembering some life lived.

Self-employment in this economy is tough. I remember hearing last year on the news how bad our economy was, and how many jobs were being lost, and how people were losing their homes, etc. and I thought, "God, you are blessing us, and sheltering us from this. Thank you that we aren't experiencing this slow economy."

I also remember God telling me, again, that I'm not dependent on this economy. I am, and always have been, dependent on Him.

As things tend to do, the "tough economic times" finally filtered its way to Small Town USA, and hit our home.

I've gone through each phase: "God will provide, I can do this" to "Ok, this is tighter than I thought it'd be" to "God! What are You doing??" to "God? Why me? What have I done to You?" to "Yes! Enough to pay the light bill!" and right back to "God? Why me? What have I done to You?"

Through it all, God has most certainly provided and hopefully I've matured. (Good grief, I hope I've matured!) I cannot tell you the number of people that decided they wanted to get together and feed us a meal, or just bring us milk and bread, or hand us gift cards to buy what we needed at the time. We have not gone without something to eat, or light, or water, or even chocolate. Thank You, Lord, for that! :)

This past month, though, it seems as if God just wanted to show out a bit. I felt like I was drowning. But He has given new breath to me. He has taken away some burdens that were heavy; they felt like mud weighing my legs down so that the next step was barely obtainable.

I give Him glory.

I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
Psalm 37:25 (New International Version)

North Central State Tournament

On we go to the next tournament.

We had a blast!!

Our first opponent went down without any problem. We won by about 20 points, and I wanted to make a statement to anybody who was following us.

I had been to a meeting where all the districts from the state were represented. Talk about being a woman in a man's world! By the time I left the table, I was SICK of male testosterone!! "My girl's better than your girl." "I've never even seen you play." "I want the best picked."

Well, you know what?!? Since you wouldn't put me on your schedule, I did you one better. I played teams you wouldn't even consider, and not only did we stay in the ballgame, we won!

Reading back over that, it does sound a bit prideful, but I respectfully tell you that the pride comes out of being handed a challenge from haughty coaches, and beating them at their own game so they have no arguement against my school.

I believe our statement was made. Actually, I know it was because you wouldn't believe the number of coaches and referees I met that asked me about our school and how long we had been open, and "Uh...who are you again?". I just chuckled and thanked God everytime someone stood next to me with their jaw dropped.

And, with that first win, school history was made. Again. :)

No other girls' basketball team had ever gone past the first round of North State.

Our second game, however, was not so easy. Since I want to remember the play-by-play and the following discussions, I will devote a totally separate post to it.

District Tournament

We finished the regular season as a 4 seed. Not what we had hoped, but not the worst either.

Our first game was against the 5 seed (CA, for my future reference) and I was nervous. We had beaten them twice before, and as the saying goes, it's hard to beat a good team three times.

We did beat them, and it put us one win closer to going to the North Central State Tournament.

My point guard was suffering from some back injuries, and had decided she was ready for the season to be over. I have to say that the best decision I made was to take her out for tacos. :) She and I talked, very honestly, about where things stood and where we would most likely end up. Long conversation short, I asked her for another week of play and she agreed.

I'm sure, up in heaven, God was shaking his head at my lack of faith.

Our next game was against the #1 seed in the tournament. We had never beaten KA. As a matter of fact, they were used to beating us by an average of 30 points. At the end of the 1st quarter, we were down by 11 points.

I remember taking a deep breath and going into that huddle, and telling them to slowly chip away at the lead. I have to be honest. I didn't really believe we would win.

BUT GOD....(don't you just love that phrase?!?)

He decided that history could be made that night. Our fourth quarter was great. We were down by 2 with about 5 seconds to go in the game, when my only 8th grader on the team made a shot with her toe on the 3-point line. You would have thought we won the state championship. We went into overtime and beat them for a chance at our district championship.

I remember the buzzer going off and all of us standing there for what seemed like a minute, thinking "Did we just win? Did this just happen?" And then we all hollered and screamed and jumped up and down and hugged each other......it was a moment I hope the Lord lets me remember forever.

We went to the District Championship game against another team that we had not beaten in 6 years. Again, at the end of the 1st quarter, we were down by about 11, and I thought "This is just like Tuesday night....God, please let us win"

The similarities were unbelievable.

Again, with 3 seconds to go, we were down by 2. HA gets the rebound off of one of our missed shots and all they have to do is throw it down to their end of the court and keep the ball away from us. AGAIN, my 8th grader steals the ball and dribbles in for a lay-up. We're going in overtime. Unfortunately, we lost by 3.

I have to say, though, not one of us cried. We cheered louder for that 2nd place trophy than they did for their 1st place. I absolutely love the picture I have of that night. For a shining moment, we were...

ONE.