Besides being blessed by a great job while we were in Cushing, I also met some of the dearest people I know. Honestly, my life as a coach's wife has given me wonderful friends, pseudo grand-parents for my kids, big brothers for my kids, and a host of young men I would be proud to call my own. The quarterback in Cushing is just one of those boys for whom I have prayed and loved. His parents, Bill and Jo, are great friends and came to the hospital that night in July. Every memory with the Arhberg family makes me smile. They are truly good.
Will, when he was a senior at Cushing High School, learned a new offense and his new coach's "love language". If Joey is yelling at you, making fun of you, ragging on you - you are in good standing. If he is silent, well, there aren't very many of us who can help you. A student of the game, Will stood tall in his new world leading his team from a one and nine record to a five and six record. The poor man dealt with his football coach 7 days a week - five days at school, Saturdays for film work and Sundays after church at lunch. If he celebrated any success too boastfully, Joey would remind him that he still couldn't get the ball in the fundamentally correct position to throw the ball. Will persevered, and his mama still called me friend.
His little sister, AnnaMarie, was Taylor's best friend in first and second grade. Two precious baby girls, we did very little without doing it with AnnaMarie. We stayed close during elementary school even after we moved from Cushing to Tulsa and the girls would meet during the summer and for birthday parties before the teen years would complicate our schedules. Years later, at OSU homecoming, we haphazardly ran into AnnaMarie and her parents at Walk-around. We hugged and visited and walked from house to house before the social demands on both girls sent us separate ways. So thankful we captured one more picture of those beautiful smiles.
He had already reached out to Mario while in Tulsa on business earlier this week - but he wasn't done sharing his light. Today he sent me this text:
Here is a #golighttheworld moment I wanted to pass
along; a little boy in my daughter's class was just diagnosed
with a brain tumor on Monday...I found out he liked
Superhero's so I put on a Batman costume I just bought
on the cheap (I'm a sucker for a good deal) and we went
to the hospital to cheer him up. After a long day at
work, it wasn't what I wanted to do but in the end I felt
incredibly blessed and know it cheered him up. I just
wanted you to know the ongoing, lasting good the
#golighttheworld message has been and continues to be.
He enclosed a picture of himself in that batman costume with the little boy and the boy's mom. I don't feel like I can share that without their permission, but I am hoping you can see Batman and a blonde haired baby boy and the light that shines.
#golighttheworld
"And whatever you do for the least of these, you do also for me." Matthew 25:40