2 years post spine surgery, Adie makes the soccer team and scores a date to a school dance.
Which do you want to know about first? Adie making the soccer team, or her going to a dance with a boy?
I'll do my best to help maintain the suspense.
In July 2020, Adie had emergency major spine surgery due to idiopathic scoliosis that got out of control. Her spine was pressing into her shoulder blade. She wore a brace for two years, and whenever I complain about any pain in my body, she reminds me, "I don't know what real pain is."
Teenagers.
After Adie's surgery, the doctor placed her on physical restrictions for about a year. She argued with him about the limits, but not in the way you might think: she said the physical limitations should be indefinite, not temporary. She would never be able to be physically active, and no one could force her to be.
Fast forward two years. Adie's best and only friend moved away in the summer of 2022. Adie prepared herself for the worst school year of her life with no friends and no happiness. She was on that path until she ended up talking with a girl from her class who encouraged her to try out for junior varsity soccer because her dad was the new coach, and she would ensure that he would allow Adie to make the team if Adie would work her butt off.
I strongly encouraged Adie to go out for the team, but she was hesitant because of her back and she hadn't been active since her surgery.
On the first day of tryouts, the grumpy assistant coach made several cutting remarks toward Adie. It would have normally knocked her down, except that the Varsity girls soccer coach came up to her after practice and told her how proud he was of her for working so hard and not giving up.
That was the wind beneath her sails.
Instead of quitting, Adie came home angry and energized: a lethal combo for Adie. She promised she would complete the tryouts and out-hustle everyone on the field. (I even think I remember her saying she would give her evil eye to the coach, but I could have been mistaken)
OK, enough suspense.
Adie made the team.
She then secured a second victory by asking the "boy of her dreams" to the Sadie Hawkins dance. She bought a soccer ball, wrote "Sadies?", and rolled it to him after practice.
In typical boy fashion, he picked it up, started juggling it, and failed to notice the big black words written all over the white ball. His friend noticed, however, and finally drew the boy's attention to the question posed to him.
He smiled big and said yes.