A great couple of days

We're back form the Area Special Olympics.  To say it was a great time is to say Christmas and Thanksgiving are kind of fun.  This is better than both.

Amanda has been practicing her two events: the fifty meter dash and the tennis ball throw and the work paid off.

What I thought was so great was how serious she was about the competition.  She stretched her arms and legs and even practiced her throwing motion.  She placed for a silver medal with her personal best throw of 22 feet.
She loved receiving the medal, but more importantly, she loved that a policeman gave it to her.  She loves cops.

Later that evening she had her fifty meter dash.  She did an outstanding job.  She pumped her arms and kept in her lane and ran all the way to the end.

After the race she was walked by a volunteer over to the awards tent.  The girl, I believe to be a high school student, spent about a minute and a half with Amanda and then made a point to tells us, "She is such a sweet heart.  You are so blessed."  That made my trip.

The next day was the actual opening ceremony.  Amanda found a friend on the team who held her hand and walked around the track with her.  We sat in the stands and watched with pride.

The national anthem was sung by a special needs middle school boy who gave it more than his all.  Half way through the nearly four minute version of the Star Spangle Banner I looked over at Tina who was just balling her eyes out.  She said, "Thats the best I ever heard."

We spent the rest of the morning watching friends compete and then headed home about one.  Amanda was so worn out she fell asleep in the car.  The last time that happened was 2005.  She went to bed at 8:30 last night and slept twelve hours, only because I woke her up for church.

We have two more Special Olympics this month.  One is for the county and the second is for state.  this will be our first trip to state, so we are very excited about it.