Living Life in the Mountains and the Valleys

Day 202 of Photo Inspirations -- Living Life in the Mountains AND the Valleys
Big weekend of baseball.  This is repeat of last year with my girl, Shawntel Wuerch​ and our two youngest boys, Brennan & Bryson, and now, once again, here we are in Yakima, WA for a big Baseball Tournament.  The drive here, of itself, provides inspirational moments.  Majestic mountains and spectacular views as we drove through the Snolquamie Pass.

The two-hour drive goes by quickly as we take in God's handiwork through the mountains and before long, it seems as though we made a wrong turn because now it looks like the Arizona desertlands.  The temperature difference between Bellevue and here is about 20 degrees.  They call it the Palm Springs of WA.

Just in the distance you can see Mt Adams (named for President John Adams), 2nd largest mountain in WA (Mt Rainer is first).

The real inspiration for me, of course, was watching my grandson, Brennan, and his teammates play incredible ball -- winning both of their first day's games of the tournament.

Lots of practice -- made almost perfect game play.  What a joy to see one of their teammates hit a home run -- literally out of the ballpark, and all of the team ran out to encircle him at home base!  There's nothing like the thrill of a big win -- especially for their teammate.

But my greatest inspiration was meeting this beautiful couple, Steve and Linda.  They were kind, quiet, composed and reserved during game play.  That is until their boy stepped up to pitch.  He pitched a no-hitter inning.  Suddenly, they were in "that's-our-boy mode".  I loved it. Getting to visit with them afterward, I found out that their boy is their grandson that they adopted when he was one-year-old -- at the time of their lives when they were thinking retirement, but LOVE changed that season.  Linda shared there's times in life you do what you HAVE to do.  Their grandson is a confident, highly skilled, well-rounded athlete at just 10-years old.  He knows he is loved.  He knows he is blessed.  And, Linda & Steve, know they have been given the opportunity to pour into their grandson's life and create a masterpiece out of the gift they were given.

It's a season that altered Steve & Linda's plans to retire.....but instead, they have had the opportunity to re-fire and make their latter years.....their greatest years that will carry on.  Is it easy?  They would tell you it hasn't been.  Is it worth it?  They would give us a resounding, "YES"!!!  Yes, in our travels we see the mountaintops and the valleys....and in our lives we experience the mountaintops and the valleys.  How we look at the landscape and how we look at LIFE -- determines our attitude and altitude!  I choose to take Steve & Linda's attitude and altitude to heart -- make the best of it ALL!