And the World Gets Smaller

I originally wrote this to post on here but then decided this blog may not be the best place for it. After sharing it and discussing the details with my mom, she suggested posting. So here it is.

At the moment I should really begin studying for the GRE but I've been putting that off for weeks; what's another few hours?

This past weekend one of my long time best friends got hitched. We've anticipated this day for quite some time but as the events of the weekend (which were quite full) unraveled I couldn't help but think about how small the world really is. Perhaps it is "small" or perhaps this perceived smallness is really evidence of the things unseen, the details that our Creator has been weaving together since the beginning only to manifest themselves at His appointed times.

You see, Megan and Andy began dating our junior (his senior) year of high school. During this time we were all a part of a youth group together. This YG was at Andy's home church which would become Megan's as well and later served as a place to worship for my family as they struggled to find somewhere to fit. The Church in some amazing way unites a bunch of stories together. The pastor (up north that's what they're called) is actually the father of my long time babysitter Meghann. Yes this is a different Meghann. This Meghann began babysitting me when I was four or five years old and would until I was probably 11. She was a part of the local swim team and in summers we would go to the pool to play and then watch her practice at 4:00 before heading home. When I was five I decided I wanted to do what Meghann was doing...and that summer I began swimming. She convinced me to join the YMCA team when the summer was over and before I knew it swimming would become my life.

I loved the sport and at the age of ten I was invited to participate at the National Dissability Championships. We had no idea what that was and I only had qualified in two events. But my mom who is very much a "seize every opportunity" kind of person decided we should go. That June at The U of Minnesota pool I was the youngest swimmer competing but it was where my interests in people may have first started.

Originally, I was a little frightened. There were former soldiers who had lost limbs, I watched a quadriplegic take 20 minutes to "swim" a 400IM and I made friends with three girls: one blind, one who was adopted from Russia after they removed the lower section of her legs (who would later become a multiple world champion-Jessica Long), and a girl in a wheelchair. They had amazing stories and worked so hard. They inspired me. We were the youngest kiddos there and a few of the athletes, myself included were invited to spend a day at Mayo clinic visiting with children and signing autographs. Looking back I realize how formative this whole experience was. Unfortunately, it is something that I'm often ashamed and embarrassed to talk about because I hate being jumbled with "disabled" or "handicapped". This is something that I would and still struggle with.

 Another person to mention is Malcolm Green- a deaf man who came to compete from Great Britain. He was in his early twenties at the time but he and I were the two deaf swimmers amongst hundreds of other 'disabled' swimmers. For the week of competition- we stayed to watch it all because it was really incredible- he befriended and encouraged me. Having known what it is like to go through school, be teased, all the other little things,I enjoyed my new friend who was much cooler and older than I. Not to mention he had a gorgeous accent. Little did I know that I would meet him again five years later on the other side of the world.

I left the NDC determined to go again and qualify in more than just two events. My coach even said I couldn't. But the next year we packed up and went; I had qualified in six events. Malcolm was not there but my other friends were. Turns out, Malcolm was in Melbourne Australia competing at the Deaflympics. That year's NDC would be the last year the deaf were allowed to participate- because they didn't associate with the Paralympics (a rather frustrating arrangement if you ask me). I watched my friends who had worked so hard over the last year be selected as the youngest members of the US Paralympic teams to Athens.  It was bittersweet. Fast forward two more years and by this point I had started training with a team in Madison- also the result of a connection at NDC. A year earlier, a boy, Alex was from Milwaukee and his mom and coach told me that if I wanted to live with his family for a summer they would train me. Not really comfortable with being gone a whole summer at the age of 12 I decided to do 4 weeks. Having been an avid camper, that wasn't too bad. After that summer, which was incredibly difficult training, I knew that I wanted this all the time...so my parents talked about it and my sister and I started swimming in Madison. I don't want this post to be all about swimming but as I reflect, I am realizing how formative my time with the sport was and how much it influenced my independence and willingness to just go and try something.

So in 2007 I qualified for the World Championships in Taipei Taiwan. Again one of the youngest, there was a group of four of us who to this day stay in touch. It was a great experience and I was amazed when I saw a familiar face- Malcolm's. Small world.

Through swimming, which all originated from my babysitter and that first coach telling me I couldn't do it, I would again spend a summer somewhere- this time Brownsville TX- and then compete in the 2009 Deaflympics which was absolutely incredible and beyond what I could have done on my own. Many of you have heard my Pringles and Pumpkin Seeds story. The Deaflympics was where I can most distinctly recall giving something wholly and totally to God and being satisfied with whatever outcome -only to have Him bless me beyond belief.

Eventually, for various reasons, I decided not to pursue swimming in college and ended up at ACU. Here I met so many people who had connections to my parents or brother from years before. I would take a coaching job that fall and be on the other side of the sport as a coach now. Interestingly, the national team coach contacted me about swimming again. He hadn't wanted me to stop and there was an extra girls spot on the 2011 World Championships team (if you haven't figured it out- World Champs are every 4 years, as are Deaflympics- so every 2 years there is a major international competition). If I could get back into the pool and into shape in 8 months, I could have it without going to tryouts. That was very difficult to decide upon. But eventually, I trained with my senior swimmers that I'd assisted with coaching after I finished the age-group practice. It made for long evenings especially considering the ACU pool was under construction that year. Needless to say, it was an adventure. Why say no to an opportunity when you just never know what might happen by saying yes? That August I joined the team in DC and we headed to Portugal. My local newspaper ran a story and when I got back there was a Facebook message for me.

This is where the world gets smaller once more. Last night I was having coffee with a former teacher. She was my deafed teacher. Basically over the years I had to check in with her and let her know how classes were going. She taught me to sign and helped to find an interpreter for when I lost a bunch of hearing my sophomore year of high school. She married my first mentor- Jeremy. I started school when I was three so that I wouldn't be behind my peers. He was in high school at the time. Maybe he thought I was the cutest kid ever- which would totally make sense -but he talked to me about hearing aids and how they are like magic ears and its okay to wear them. He was also a camp counselor at a camp that I used to go to-obviously a guys counselor but it was cool to see him when I was up north, Mr. Macho state champion wrestler. I wanted to be like Jeremy. Years later, he marries Donna. Interestingly, her father was also in the Air Force stationed at the same base as my dad. We were both born in the same town in Texas but ended up north. Eventually I would babysit their kids. It's crazy. But back to coffee. She mentioned how the program was changing and that they have lots more kids than they used to. Without using names she told me about this sweet boy who will be starting kindergarten this fall. He's been in school since he was three and they absolutely adore him and his family. He has two cochlear implants and his family have all started to learn to sign. Overcoming the language barriers has been a family effort and everyone is on board. It really is great to hear that because so many kids that I saw while growing up didn't have as fortunate families like his or mine and that can really slow language and overall academic progress. Apparently this little boy is the same little boy who's mom Facebook messaged me two years ago. After seeing the article in the paper she found me on Facebook and wanted to know more about how my family had gone about raising me- sign or speaking only, or both, having aids, cochlear implants, etc. She and her husband had just learned their two year old was completely deaf in both ears. They had decided to get him CIs in both ears but were unsure of the next step. We talked back and forth but I knew that from Texas and never having been a parent in her shoes she needed to talk to someone else. So I gave her my mom's contact info. After that, the rest is history. They moved to my hometown and started him in school and now his language skills are at the appropriate place.

It is so neat to see how connections work out. This weekend the US Team will head to Bulgaria for the Deaflympics. I wish I could be there with them, but I've more than had my opportunities. Best luck and wishes to them all.

The time you spend with someone here or there eventually tie something back together somewhere else. I don't think my parents ever expected to raise two daughters who are deaf and have to learn sign as adults. But my dad's job now entails him flying the students at the state school for the deaf home every Friday and picking them up on Sundays. He is able to communicate with the little he remembers. My mom has mentored countless other mothers who find themselves unsure of what to do. Every opportunity is unique and see may seem tiring and pointless. But each time we say yes to something or someone else, the world gets a little smaller and there is a whole lot more underneath that is being woven together.

Back to Megan and Andy's wedding. The photographer who captured their first kiss after five years of dating happened to be Meghann.

Let me throw in one more thing. A sweet couple back in TX have played a tremendous role in my mom's life. Amos used to grow the most beautiful roses to take to people in the hospital. His wife is probably more popularly known, but the quiet servant of Papa Amos in his prime years has always stuck with me. Last week he had an heart attack and has requested DNR for his remaining days in the hospital. It's difficult knowing his time isn't much longer, but as I walked outside my house this morning, one of the very few living plants in my mom's front garden is a beautiful rose bush- the very one Papa Amos brought up from his garden and planted here when they came to visit our family some 12 years ago.