I would spend my Saturdays doing twirls and jumps on the ice at the outdoor skating rink down by Utah Lake while my dad and brother swished by on their hockey skates.
When I was 11 I got bored of twirling and jumping and told my dad I wanted to play hockey just like him. He didn't waste a second getting me fitted in hockey gear and bought me my first pair of hockey skates.
I remember sitting on the bench watching my dad lace my skates up.
He had to do it countless more times before I finally got the hang of it.
He signed me up to play in a pewee league and my love of hockey took off.
By the time I was a senior in high school playing on the boys varsity team,
I had long dreamed of going on to play hockey in College and one day being the first woman in the NHL
I dream big or I go home!
But sometimes life takes us down different paths than even we can imagine.
Within a few years I was married and my dreams were replaced with a deep desire to have children and the agonizing discovery that it might not happen.
When infertility struck, our dreams were all but shattered. We became consumed by it. All the things that my husband and I assumed would so easily fall into place, the ones we sometimes took for granted, were now miles from our reach.
The innocent dream I had once had, that one day I’d be teaching my own kids how to skate and play hockey, was being replaced by a different reality.
But 7 years into our marriage through many heart felt prayers our loving Heavenly Father made it possible for us to have a family through adoption
When I took our 3 ½ year old son ice skating for the very first time I had a very surreal moment..was this really happening?
Our first lap around the rink was excruciatingly long. My feet were tingling and cramping in my skates from hunching over him and moving so slowly.
After the 2nd lap he ditched the little walker and we held hands instead.
After the 5th lap he let go of my hand and said "I want to try all by myself".
I was proud of him. I thought we would last 5 minutes and instead we stayed the whole hour.
I am not the type of person who is interested in living vicariously through my children. I intend to support them whether we share the same interests or not.
But for now I'm going to cherish a dream that came true. The moment when I laced up my little boys skates for the first time.
-----
Angie is passionate about adoption. She has been married to her best friend for almost 11 years and is the SAHM of two beautiful boys. She loves photography, digital scrap booking, cooking and sunny days. When she is not cleaning up after her incredibly messy 3 year old or wiping slobber off her incredibly slobbery 5 month old she can be found writing on her blog The Blessings of Adoption.
