Cleats of fate

Soccer season starts in just a few days--well, practices anyway. Abby is going to be playing on a 4 year old girls' team. Her friends Audrey and Carol Grace are on her team, as is Mandy's daughter Katie. There are 9 girls total. Their coach is my dear husband, with Audrey's dad Chad serving as assistant coach.

Really, this is more soccer lite than true competitive soccer. The playing field is tiny, they don't keep score, the coaches are the refs, and the parents are encouraged to spread out around the perimeter of the field to help keep the ball inside the bounds. It's mainly to get the girls to have fun, learn the basic rules of soccer (and by basic I mean REALLY basic, like don't touch the ball with your hands and don't sit down on the grass while the game is going on), and get some exercise.

The unfortunate fact is that while Abby may be playing soccer lite, the pre-season purchases were anything but cost lite. Abby has unluckily inherited my wide feet, bless her. We went on Saturday to buy soccer shoes. There is, it turns out, only one brand of soccer shoes that makes models even remotely wide enough to get her feet into, and even that company had only one shoe that would work for her. They're cute, and she loved them. Then she turned around, and I got a glimpse of the price tag. FIFTY FIVE DOLLARS. Before I could stop myself, I said, "You have got to be KIDDING me! I am not paying fifty five dollars for a four year old to run around and kick at a ball for two months!" The owner of the store, who was incredibly cute but waaay too into soccer, smiled kindly at me and said, "I completely understand. But I mean, this pair IS hers, they are meant for her." Seriously? I am a spiritual person, but I do not believe in the pre-destiny of soccer shoes. I could tell that he was dead serious too--this was not an attempt to get me to buy expensive shoes. In fact, there were more expensive pairs than that. At any rate, he figured out that Matt was the coach and that we were also buying soccer balls and cones and shin guards, so he knocked the price down to $30--still a lot of money, but he discounted everything else too, so I was okay with it. Besides, now Abby and her soul shoes can be together forever. Hey, those whom God has brought together, let no turf break asunder, right?