A little while ago I wrote about my son getting braces. He was nervous, and to make him feel better, I wrote him a story about a kid whose braces saved the day. He thought it was funny. Then I posted about losing the baseball championship. Both of these things were heart breakers to my ten year old, but I’ve already seen the personal growth as a result of these events. Allow me to explain.

Softball season went one week longer than baseball season and kid #2’s team was in the end of the year tournament. It was a single elimination tournament and they were slated to possibly win the championship. But they wound up playing against their toughest team. It was a great game with both teams playing well. Unfortunately, my daughter’s team lost by two runs in the last inning.

She held herself together the whole way home, but once at home, she ran to her room and broke down. I went up to comfort her, but I wasn’t the only perceptive one. Kid #1 observes way more than we give him credit for. Upon arriving at home, he announced he wanted to write a story. Being an author, I never say no to a request like this, so I set him up with a clean Word document on the computer. He typed away for a good hour.

Midway through, I peeked over his shoulder to see what he was writing. It was a story called “The Number One Kid” and it was about his sister playing softball. He’d done exactly what I’d done for him weeks before by writing a story. He knew the sting of loss from only a week before. He knew what his sister was feeling and wanted to alleviate her pain. I never told him to console her. I never told him what to write. He gave it to her and calmed her tears.

That act of kindness and compassion made me incredibly proud to be his mom. And when you’re a proud mom, you make sure the world knows what a great kid you have.

(The pic is from a while ago, but it’s one of my favorites.)