Sunday, January 19, 2014

3 Hour Delay

So the call came in that we have a three hour delay tomorrow. Three hour delays are weird for the kids I think. We start school and then 25 minutes later we are going to lunch. We will miss music, which my kids love, and the whole day will just be a bit off. Personally though I like the delay because I can work in my room and get a lot done. Tomorrow I think I will be working on report cards before school starts.

Tomorrow holds more significance than a 3-hour delay though. Our country recognizes a man and the impact that he has had on our wonderful country. Martin Luther King Jr. is honored the third Monday of January each year for his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. His "I have a dream" speech may be one of the most well known speeches. I would have loved to meet this man. His willingness to stand up in such a public way for what he believed in is beyond commendable. The contributions that MLK Jr. and others like Rosa Parks made can never be forgotten. Appropriately and probably not coincidentally, my daughter and I just got through watching the movie The Help tonight. I believe that there is still a lot of racism and hate in America but we are definitely better than we once were and I think we will continue to become more acceptable but I have to admit I am glad that I live in this time period and not in those earlier years. Throughout my life I have met many people from many different ethnic groups  and nationalities. I can't tell you a single one that I hated because of where they were from or what color their skin was. Some of my closest friends in college were African American. I can't imagine living in a time when hate was so prevalent and accepted. I believe that we are all special and that we are all basically the same, the packaging is just a bit different. Scripture tells us to love others as we love ourselves and to love our enemies. That is how I want to live my life. I want to be accepting of others for who they are based solely on who they are. I want to be color blind, I want my kids to be color blind. I have two daughters who are bi-racial. I don't want them to ever have to deal with the hate that MLK Jr. fought so hard to overcome. I hope and pray that his dream will come true one day.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Too long....but there is some great news!

It has definitely been too long since I have blogged, over a month now I think. The reasons are many, the excuses even more, but I am ready to blog again. A special person in my family's life said she misses my blogs so I figured I better get back at it. I am not promising that it will be every day or every week. I don't know how much or how often but I am going to work at doing more writing going forward. I decided that tonight I was going to write regardless because I have some great news to announce. But you will have to read to the bottom to get that. First I must vent a bit. Though what gets published will be the cleaned up, family friendly vision.

As most of my readers know, I coach basketball. I love coaching, I coach all year round basically, be it baseball, football or basketball, with a bit of softball in there too, I have very few weeks where I am not working with one team or another. Coaching is really a passion of mine. Tonight for the first time though I felt almost helpless and almost physically sick to my stomach. I felt embarrassment, I felt failure, but I refuse to let those feelings consume me or even grab hold of me. Tomorrow is a new day and there is another game to prepare for this week. Tonight, frankly we were terrible. I won't go into the details, or the possible reasons for it. There is no room for excuses. But here are the facts: we turned the ball over way too often, we didn't make shots that we should of made, our decision making was terrible, and we didn't do the little things that teams must do to win. So now we are faced with a critical point in the season I feel. The team we face next is a good team and the odds are stacked against us. Does that mean we throw in the towel, just show up, and be content with just playing? I hope not. I hope that the young men come ready to work tomorrow, that they recognize that we are better than what we showed tonight and that us and only us can do anything about it. We need to practice harder! We need to quit making excuses and execute our game plan! We need to dig deep within ourselves and vow to do the little things! We must get better every day! Today's game is over, we must learn from it and move on. I believe that this team has its best days in front of it. One of the things I love about Michigan high school basketball is that when the season is over every team is still alive in the tournament. So our mission has to be that come March when it's district time we must be playing our best basketball. So boys, if you are reading this, let's be ready to go each and every day. Let's do the extra work in the mornings, before and after practice, and whenever and wherever we can to get to that point. It isn't about how you start it is how you finish.

"Natural talent only determines the limits of your potential. Its dedication and disciplining your life that makes you great." - Coach K (@CoachKWisdom)

Okay, now for the big news. Some may have already heard that we got our tentative court date for the adoption, February 3rd. I can't wait for that day when Maddex and Ella will officially and legally join the Koutz family for life. What is really cool too is that Maddex and Ella's older brother and sister are being adopted at the same time by my wife's brother and his wife. All 4 of these special kids will finally be legally and permanently bound to their forever family. It has been a long, hard road for such young children and it hasn't been the easiest for us adults either but oh has it ever been worth it. So on February 3rd around 3 o'clock or so. We will all be crammed into a courtroom (I have a feeling we may learn what it is like to be a sardine) celebrating together as one big family! I can't wait!  For my final thought tonight I am going to leave you with a quote that I posted back in October in an earlier blog. It is a summation of my take on adoption and my family.

"Our children are not ours because they share our genes, or because a piece of paper says they are. They are ours because they are a part of our soul. It was not an accident that they came into our lives. It was God's design that led them home. It was Him who placed them in our soul even before they were born."