Clara

 About three years ago Clara was taking a tumbling class at the community center.  She pointed to the uneven bars and asked when she would get to try those.  I realized she wanted to do full blown gymnastics so she did some research and asked questions and decided she wanted to take gymnastics classes at Vitaly Scherbo School of gymnastics.  We signed her up for beginners but she was already way past that.  She quickly moved up and within a few months was given an invitation to compete with their teams.

Before we even realized what was happening this simple gym class took over our lives.  She started out going once a week for an hour and within a few months was going four times a week for two hours.  She loved it.  She loved going every single day.  
She loved the competitions.  She loved her coaches
This is Robert.  He was probably her favorite.  He loved Clara and he is the reason she ended up on teams in the first place.  She learned the most from him and we miss him.  He is awesome. 
 and her teammates. 
This is Elizabeth.  Clara and Elizabeth were together almost from the very beginning.

This is her teammate Stephanie.

I watched her work and work as she tried to learn a new skill.  She would be red faced and exhausted at the end of each practice.  I loved watching the huge smile on her face when she landed her back tuck.  She worked and worked for several months to get her kip.  I watched her coaches look at her in awe.  Her work ethic far exceeded most kids in the gym.  Her coaches loved her and would spend most of the time coaching her because she would listen and practice what they taught her.  
As time went on some things changed and the schedule became more vigorous.  She ended up going to the gym four nights a week for 2 hours.  The drive was about 20 minutes so we would leave at 6 and get home at 9.  She also got a new coach that wasn't super awesome and because of it Clara had an injury on the beam that could have been tragic.  Thankfully she was spared real harm but it caused her to not trust the coach.  She decided she wanted to quit.  I knew that she had worked too hard to just quit so I had her set a goal.  Her goal was to make it to state.  She had qualified for state her first year but we didn't let her travel to Reno to compete.  She set this goal in November and state wasn't until March.  I watched her work her little heart out and qualify herself for state. 

 It took a lot of grit and a ton of perseverance.  It is really hard to keep working hard at something when you know you are going to quit.  I was so proud of her.  The thing I was most proud of was the way she treated the other kids in the gym.  She was young on her team and this bugged one girl in particular.  She was cruel to Clara both verbally and physically.  I watched as this girl fell off the beam in a competition.  The first person to greet her and hug her of course was Clara.  I watched her do things like this over and over.  It was humbling for me to see.  
I took her out into the desert to take some pictures in her competition leotard.  I was looking at the pictures of this beautiful girl and was overcome with a sense of gratitude that I get to be her mom.  Clara is good all the way through.  She is one of those kids that would have thrived and succeeded no matter what home or environment she was placed in.  She has a pure heart and a true desire to do what is right.  I feel like I learn a lot more about our Heavenly Father's plan from her than I could ever teach her.

I know God loves me because He trusted me with Clara.