This is where you will find us this month.
Sitting in the stands cheering on our teenage boys as they play basketball.
We will never take for granted the privilege of being a part of our boy's daily school life. When Joel boarded for 3 years of middle school, we always felt like we missed out. Friends and dorm parents sent pictures, even took videos; but it was never the same. Never the same as being there to experience with him life's ups and downs, victories and defeats. To be able to pat him on the back, tuck him in at night, see him interacting with friends in the hallways or hoop and holler when he was high scorer. Thankfully God has granted us the blessing of living with our kids now, which is not always the case for missionary families working overseas.
Another aspect of going to these games here in Japan is the time and energy involved. We live close enough to school so that we can drive to a home game in 15 minutes. But away games? You are talking 45 minutes to 3 hours each way by car or train. International and Base schools are few and far between. And travel within Tokyo is time and money consuming. The other day we commented about how it only took 1 hour to drive to a game. Then we realized we had only traveled 15 miles! And then the another time we went by train to a distant school. We tallied that cost at over $25 round trip for the 2 of us! Oh, the curvy, congested roads and the wallet emptying train fares of this Asian metropolis that we call home.
We know we can't always be there, but we still try. These teen years go by so quickly and we want to do all we can to support our kids. So even though I complain about our busy winter sport's schedule, I love it. And I wouldn't trade those late nights, car drives, sore backs, hard stands, smelly uniforms or over-priced shoes for the world. I will soak up each moment and thank God each day for the blessing of being with these boys of ours.
