Back in the saddle again?

I posted on Facebook that I was starting a couple lessons again and a lot of you commented your encouragement.  This has been a journey in prayer, that's for sure.  I've given lessons everywhere we've lived- mostly out of a combination of need and enjoyment.  I love teaching and the relationships I get to build with the girls and their families. I grew so close to my NC and SC families- some of them, I had taught for eight years!  In fact, when I look at my adult friends, almost 80 percent I found through lessons.  I talked to most of them everyday and they became a large part of Elizabeth's life once she was born.  So it's been a pretty big social component for my life and was one of the hardest things for me to face leaving when we moved.

Baby ERS and Chelsey - she was one of my very first lessons after moving to NC!

Megan and me at my old mound

Money-wise, we survived on lessons when we were at Gardner-Webb.  I look back now and have no idea how we lived on the $400 a month paycheck we received as Graduate Assistants.  Lessons were how we ate! 

Haley and ERS

So naturally, when we moved to TN, I started looking for lessons.  I couldn't find them.  Scott was working, I wasn't, I couldn't find lessons...how were we going to make it?!   

Be still, and know that I am God.  Pslam 46:10. 

I put out resumes for positions I was overqualified for.  I never heard back.  I did our budget and couldn't figure out how we were going to pay the bills.

This is why I tell you:  Don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the sky: they don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Aren't you worth more than they?  Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying?  And why do you worry about clothes?  Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don't labor or spin thread.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these!  If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't He do much more for you -- you of little faith?  So don't worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?'  For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be provided for you.  Therefore don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.  Matthew 6:25-35

And then we found out we were pregnant.  All we could do was pray.  We prayed to be led.  We prayed that He would provide.  We prayed for success for Scott's job.  We were completely reliant on Him...even me, who was (at one point) convinced that we wouldn't be able to survive without my lessons.  It was a humbling experience for prideful me.  A year later, I started missing my lessons - not because I thought we couldn't survive without the money, but because I missed the families and the pitchers.

Tammy giving ERS a driving lesson

Taylor getting her baby fix.

So when I saw an ad for the Smyrna fastpitch league, I showed it to Scott and we decided to send an email out to the coaches to inquire about lessons.  I sent it out at 8:00 p.m. Sunday night and got my first phone call at 8:30 p.m.  Holy moly!  I ran in the bedroom and almost tackled Scott, telling him about the message on my phone.  

Miss Alice - clearly suffering as she rocks ERS

I gave two lessons last week and met two very nice families.  I'm not sure how it's going to work with my two babies, but I'm just praying my way through the process.  I have no idea where I'm going to teach, but I'm convinced it will work out.  I miss my SC and NC families and their pitchers and my little mound across the street from our house desperately, but I think it might just work out here too.

 

Little did we know how much Elizabeth would love chips!  Our first trip to El Mexicano with Miss Donna and Chelsey!

Just a note...these were the only pictures I could find.  I apologize that I don't have pictures of all my lesson pitchers and families.  Of course, it is difficult to find any pictures anymore that don't have one of my children in them!