My girl...

Was looking thru our Jamaica team pics from Ric and came across these two pics that brought tears to my eyes as I saw it for the first time. This is my girl... Makeda. She and I spent the better half of last week Tuesday together. I fell in love with her the first day we went to the orphanage and found her when we went back to the orphanage. I love this li'l girl as if she were my own... I wish she was. But right now, God is telling me I'm not ready yet. So life goes on. She's sitting on my desktop right now. I sure do miss her. Her eyes are so captivating... God is teaching me a lot about waiting on his timing right now and this is just one example of those teaching moments...

Getting back into the swing of things (no pun intended :D)...
Played softball for the first time in over a year yesterday and again tonight. Last night was the team I play on with my mom and sister in a women's-only league. Tonight I played for my work as the NICU got a team together which is a co-ed league. Very low-key league as many of them play like they need to go back to little league ;) So they have never seen me play before and the majority of the women play like girls. So having never seen me play before and being a "girl", they started me out at catcher. That quickly changed once they realized I knew what I was doing (as I've played since I was 10 y/o). I was then placed in left-center which is where I play on Tuesday nights. My norm and comfort zone. My first time in this position for this team, a guy hit a high pop up to me and while everyone held their breath waiting for the ball to hit the ground, I carefully placed my glove under the ball as it gracefully fell into my glove for the 3rd out of the inning. Next inning, a guy hit a line drive out my way and as it was just starting to make it's descent to the ground, I snatched it out of mid-air for the 3rd out of the inning. Let's just say the "coach" of the team said, "Amanda, you don't need to play catcher anymore!" :) I had asked him at the start of the game if I could play outfield instead of catcher, but he insisted that I had to at least start there... Well, let's just say I played the rest of the game in left center. Then there was another line drive that I went for and short-stop went for it too. We collided as neither of us called for it, but he caught it. He was more than floored that I came from the outfield and would have had it had he not gotten in the way! That was again the 3rd out of the inning. He gave me several looks after that as he was more than shocked that I almost had that ting! I think he was also shocked by how hard we collided as I was more than serious about catching that ball. I ended up on the ground with the wind close to being knocked from me. (Some of you know I tend to be on the competitive side ;) ) He then coached 3rd base while we were up to bat and just looked at me in disbelief. Ya mon... this girl can play ball!! I was also told tonight that I throw like a boy... Now THAT is a compliment (as most of these women throw like girls!)... Good times :D