Rough Week

Emma has had a rough week, but we're so proud of her.

First, she had the Closing - Bridging Ceremony for Brownies. Emma is the only one in her troop of 15 girls that is not continuing on to Jr. Girl Scouts. This started out as my decision, but she understood and came around. She's so involved in soccer, chorus, church choir, and wants to start piano lessons, so we decided that something had to give.
She's done Daisies and Brownies for 4 years and enjoyed it. Two weeks ago, after the last real Brownie meeting, we had major tears. She felt so left out. ALL of her friends were moving up, and all they talked about was how great next year would be. Her troop leader didn't even do anything to make her feel more comfortable about her decision. :( She didn't want to even attend the Bridging Ceremony (which was totally fine with me - one less thing!). But this week she decided that she was still OK with not continuing in GS, and she wanted to finish her year properly with the ceremony. What a great decision! We were really proud of her. Lila and I attended the dreadfully long event. Emma was the only one wearing her brown vest - the others all had their new green ones on. She smiled through it all. Watching her be able to stand alone was awesome. We're raising a strong young lady who knows who she is.

"...crossing the bridge..."

I LOVE this one of her watching her friends move up.
She's living up to her middle name - Grace

We got home from the ceremony and Ryan had just gotten home and was on the phone.... with Emma's soccer coach.... she didn't make the team. Come on! Could the timing be any worse?! I'm happily reinforcing what a great decision she's made because of all of the other things she has going on, and the biggest thing gets taken from her?! We were pretty shocked. We knew it was a possibility, but try-outs were so long ago, we figured we were all safe. How heart-breaking to tell your 9-year-old that she got cut from the team she's played on for 2 years! She was tearful at first, but again, we're so proud of her! She talked all evening about the things she wants to try this year while she has more free time. She asked if we would help her work on her soccer all year so she could try out next year. She even went to school the next day and, with grace, told her teammates on her own, so they wouldn't be wondering about where she was. And she wanted them to know that she was OK with it and not to feel bad for her. What a strong kid! I heard that the other girl that was cut ran to her room, threw all of her Warriors stuff in a box and dumped it in the trashcan. I think we had a much better reaction.

Ryan and I prayed for a long time about our soccer involvement for next year, so we're happy with the outcome. And, we were able to tell Emma that we had prayed about it. We talked about how her identity isn't in Girl Scouts or being part of a team. God made her special on her own, and her identity is in Him and with her family. These are great lessons in the middle of what's been a tumultuous few months of school-girl drama. It's been a hard week to be a mom, but oh so rewarding!