soccer

Sami LOVES LOVES LOVES soccer. We signed her up for a church league before she was even home. We debated about signing her up for something that would begin 48 hours after she landed in America, but ended up deciding to let her try to play the game that she loves.

I naively thought that because she is an athletic girl, who played soccer almost everyday in Ethiopia, that it would be something that would be very easy for her to do here.

The basic skills were very easy for her, but taking even very simple directions from her coach was difficult. We are blessed to have a christian man ,who is the father of 5 children, as her coach. He has done a great job teaching her the words that she needed to learn and the rule of the game.

Samrawit was used to playing coed soccer on a cement "field" that had no boundaries marked. Playing with 6-9 year old girls has been a little bit of an adjustment for our princess when she was used to tangling with boys of all ages. While she made some mistakes because of communication problems, her athletic ability made her a real asset to her team.

Watching Samrawit play soccer has taught us so much about her. Even though it hasn't always been easy for her, she has worked hard, played VERY hard and has an absolute blast doing it. Samrawit is one determined young lady. I am going to love watching her explore America.