That grin

Matthew had soccer tonight. I was worried about him running without his AFO. Thought he would trip and hurt himself on that indoor soccer surface.

Some days I need to give my head a shake. Did I really think that? Why?

He entered the gate of the field at a run, sprinted as fast as he could to the other side, put his water bottle up, got a ball and took off. During the game, he ran his heart out with a grin on his face the whole time. He kept up with them all and even took the ball away from the other team time and time again.

But his foot looked terrible. His foot was turned in and he was running on the side of it. And when he was walking, his ankle would roll every step.

But that was me seeing it. He didn't see it that way. Neither did his coach. Matthew took a ball to the face near the end. The whole crowd of parents gave a collective groan. The coach walked him off as I was making my way to him. He had a few tears, but was ok within minutes. His coach said 'he is just flying out there!' I mentioned, yes and even without his AFO. His coach had to do a double take and realized he was not wearing it.

It makes me feel good to realize that I do see more then most people. Maybe no other parent saw his odd gait, his terry fox hop. Maybe they never made it past that grin on the kid who was flying around the field.