Sacrifice

Yesterday was the last day to sign up for basketball. We were well prepared to sign Tyler up and went in with that purpose. Basketball is just something Tyler does to keep busy in the winter months. He enjoys it but is not passionate about it like he is baseball. When we went in to sign him up someone jokingly said - "I had to take out a loan to sign my son up!" We just thought he was being funny - then we saw the poster with the prices.....7yrs and up $90.00. This is a joke right - I mean seriously $90 - for what? They get a t-shirt. We provide the ball and shorts and shoes. What on earth could cost $90? Charlie and I just looked at each other knowing that we didn't want pay that. So we asked Tyler.
How much do you like playing basketball?
I like it.
We know you like it but do you love to play?
No, I just like it.
That was it - our decision was made and we left - without signing him up.
In the car we offered up more of an explanation for him beyond the $90 fee. We have been talking about adoption with Tyler quite a bit but had not told him yet of our starting process with the 10 weeks of classes that we are now required to take. We explained it to him- with church, baseball, school and us having to take this new class we were not even sure we could get him to practices for basketball.
His expression just lit up and his response was - "That's OK - I don't need to play basketball because if I had practice then you couldn't go to your class. You need to go to your class to get my brother."
He doesn't even realize how selfless that was.....he just knows that somewhere out there is his brother/sister and he needs them to get home to us - fast.