Family Spirit

So tonight was the boys end of season Track party. It was also a pool party hosted at a members house. Fred and I get kind of shy about showing up places with ten kids generally speaking. 'Cause lets face it, we are pretty much an exception to the rule now-a-days. Most families show up with 2 kids and a dog and we look more like the clown car at the circus as the children seem to endlessly pour out of our vehicle.

That is not always a comfortable feeling. People make far too many comments that are unsupportive. We have grown closer to each other and God in that process. Tonight as it got near to departure time, we seemed more hesitant than usual. Maybe it was just because it was too hot outside for too many days, but neither of us really wanted anyone to make comments about our 'family size' and we were walking directly into a scenario likely to make that happen.But then we looked at the kids and we think of how important sports are for them, and team play, and social skills and we buckled up.

Matt and Joe with their team Dog Tag Medals

When we got there, we were politely welcomed and joined in the small talk despite having the three little girls hanging from us both as we chatted. After some food and fun it was time for awards. The boys Coach is just a fantastic man who really knows how to pull a team together. He has so much energy! So on he went naming each child and gathering applause for them one by one. Then he went on to the special awards for the kids who have improved the most, or persevered, or was outstanding in a particular way (JP got the wackiest kid award!). At the end he told everyone he had designed a new award this year that didn't fit the other categories. He spoke of Team Spirit and cooperation, respect, and encouragement. Then he held up a plaque for The LeGare Family and said he was so impressed with our hard work, and watching our kids support for each other and work for the team. Matthew happily received the award in our name!

I'd like to say it was one of the most touching moments of my life but that would be a lie. In fact I didn't even hear about it until about 5 minutes after it had been given out. You see Sarah went missing while she was chasing the family's cat. Fred and I, along with Coach John's wife Jen, who happens to be the  youngest of a family of 8, were busy searching the house while everyone was gathered in the living room for the ceremony. She turned up in the bathroom-  having put on her clothes, and her underwear over her bathing suit and had to strip down layer after layer to use the facilities. (If only Coach John and the other had seen me wrestling with Sarah and the toilet seat for five minutes as I disentangled her clothes from the mechanisms-  maybe we wouldn't have gotten the award if they had seen that- so alls well that ends well!)

We eventually heard it from Matthew and all the other parents who came up to us afterwards one by one and said they too had noticed how nice our kids were, and polite, and kind, that they all felt we were an amazing family and BTW how did we do it???I swear I thought they had mixed us up with someone else.

But it did touch me very much tonight as we drove off, to know others had noticed, and noticed enough to say so out loud. It doesn't make all the difficult days of having a large family magically disappear, but it does make it a little easier to know we're doing a few things right. At least from a birds eye view.


Go Team LeGare!