Jalan's meet

On Saturday Jalan had another cross country meet in Salem. He was excited to run in the JV run. He has been running in the "open" race, which is all the boys who want to run that didnt make varisty or jv top runners from their school. But Jalan had beat out a few other boys and got a spot on the Jv team. He has been finishing 5th from his team. Jalan started out the race with 147 boys, and was tripped and fell down. He was in second to last place-in front of another boy who tripped as well. He got up and we were afraid he was pretty much out of the race. This course was very tough, with lots of hills and valleys. We watched him pass halfway and he was going pretty good, but looked tired. We were worried. The kids and I went to the finish line to see him cross it, and Troy stayed behind to yell for him at the tough last hill. Troy says that as Jalan came up the hill, he started yelling for jalan to keep going and he gave him a fist pump, and said he could see Jalan's face and it gave him a boost. It brought tears to his daddys eyes to see his face with such a strong will. Here is Jalan almost to finish.

Jalan finished strong and got 39th place out of 147 runners. We were SOOO proud of him and his determination to finish strong and even got a trophy! This was his first trophy this year for cross country. He has several ribbons but was thrilled to receive a trophy. After Troy made his way back to us at the finish and saw Jalan with his trophy, he had another opportunity to hide his eyes as his emotions took over. It was such a warming experience to see the love of a father to his son. Wow I cant imagine how much better this will continue to get as he gets older and continues in his achievements!! We had such a great start to our Saturday and we were all so thrilled to been able to watch jalan do so good and shared that as a family-minus Disnee who was too lazy on a saturday to get up and leave the house at 8:20 AM. CAn you see how tired Jalan looks in the picture!! We love this boy!!