sammweber Every Writer Must Start Somewhere

 

 

http://sammweber.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/twenty-one-a-very-special-year/  Click here to go to Sam's college blog...

Faith alone sustains the hurting soul

A mother feels the pain of her children, may her children know the confidence she has in the LORD JEHOVAH JIREH (THE LORD PROVIDES)!

Since sin taints the whole world I should not be surprised to learn that one of my favorite Christian institutions has a false foundation.  I loved this institution because I believed it was founded and guided by biblical truths; but, recent events and an unfolding drama involving someone I love have revealed that the operating principle is, instead, perception.  "Perception?!" was my initial reaction to the eye-opening course of events I had been observing: "Perception" is what matters?  Seems "Perception" is a top-marketing concept but if it conflicts with "The Truth" to me it then appears to be more of a tool of Satan!.

I'm a simple person and my faith in a Sovereign Omnipotent Creator God is simple: the Bible says it, I believe it, because of Jesus.  I know that if my life were examined there would be evidence to the contrary; I hope I am living by faith alone more today than yesterday though, and I think I definitely am.  I know God so much more: I hope to know Him more every day!  But my faith is in Him and not in myself.  May none of us ever "market" ourselves as anything other than sinners saved by grace!

This is the crux of the problem our family is suffering with  - Marketing princples rather than Biblical principles have undermined the sure foundation we depended on when our child stepped out into the world of Christian academia!  The rug has been pulled out from under our feet and we are in freefall heading for a crash -- NO!  For.......

     Ps. 55:22 ....for the LORD will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

    1 Peter 5:6-7 .....the mighty hand of God... will exalt you .... at the proper time.... cast all your anxiety upon him

     Ps. 27:1-3  The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread? When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In spite of this I shall be confident.

Given and Taken

Given and Taken 

August 6, 2005 (Zach's 20th Birthday)

"You give and take away, you give and take away
My heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name"

This is what I am determined to live my life by in the 20th year:
Everything I have, God has given to me, and everything that I have lost, God has taken from me - all according to His will, and I will thank him for both.

Every opportunity I have, every person in my life, every skill or talent, every longing I have is from God. God has given me the chance to live and work in Italy for 2 years. He's given me the chance to see and do things that most people will never be able to see or do in their life, they only dream about them and see them in movies. Wheter I like it or not, I have to deal with people every day, there's no escaping it. Some of them are easier to deal with than others. I thank God for the friends and other strong Christians that he's brought into my life, I thank him for the chance to witness to those that are lost, and there are many of them. I ask God for wisdom and tactfulness in dealing with the people in my life that I may not exactly enjoy being around. But God has given them to me, He has put them in my life, and that in itself is enough for me to see that there is a reason. There may not be many things that I am exceptionally tallented in, but nonetheless I still love to do. God has given me the ability to do these things, and I will use them to give back to Him what I can.

But I will not only rejoice in the things that God has given from me, I will also praise Him for the things that He has taken. He's taken me from my home, He's taken relationships from me. Some of my freedoms He's taken away by putting me in the Air Force.
It seems to me, however, that God does not take away without giving something back.
He took me from my home - but gave me the chance to see the world.

And some things He gave to me for a time, but never intended it to last on this world. Please, God, help me to accept that. Some things were only meant to last for a season, and that's the end of it.

This Is Just To Say

Monday, October 19, 2009 Honors English assignment

THIS IS JUST TO SAY

I SAW THE BOTTLE OF COKE YOU WERE SAVING AND DUMPED IT ALL TODAY.
I'M SORRY, BUT I COULDN'T DRINK THE WHOLE THING,
AND I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE AN EMPTY PLASTIC BOTTLE.



================================================================ I BURNED UP ALL YOUR BOOKS IN THE FIREPLACE.
I REALLY DIDN'T MEAN TO BUT I WASN'T FEELING WELL,
AND I DIDN'T THINK YOU WOULD WANT TO GO OUT FOR FIREWOOD.

================================================================ --Mrs. Boring - score 10/10 and a smiley face
January 13th 2002 Honors English

Crucified

Zach W., January 6, 2002, Honors English 10, Poetry

Crucified They drove the nails into my wrists For all my crimes exposed Upon a cross they nailed me down I was the Romans’ foe
They beat me down, then hung my cross Death soon will find its way Pierced through my hands and through my feet My mind becomes a haze
My time draws near, I will soon die The nails they took their toll But I deserve the death I die My body thrown down a hole
Crowds mock and scorn the pain I bear I cannot die in peace They do not know the suffering My nightmare doth increase
But then I look and see His face He wears a crown of thorns Above is written “King of the Jews” Death was why he was born
I know this man is innocent He is God’s sacred Son He came to save those such as I For me His blood does run
Upon this cross He’ll die tonight Though He has done no wrong I look to Him, my chance to live Salvation my sould does long
The power to save, the power to heal The power to rescue me He calms my soul; I’ll go in peace And live for eternity. **This ballad is about one of the criminals crucified with Jesus Christ. He knew that he suffered justly for his crimes, but that Jesus had done nothing wrong. Jesus forgave him, and that day he was saved. (Luke 23:40-42)
Mrs. Boring – score 25/25 “Excellent – a great message and skillfully written!” She also commented “soothing end” re the last stanza, and “good stanza” by the sixth stanza.

Walking Differently

reflections on life and death from the notebooks of Zachary Weber

Walking, walking differently....

The following piece was written in January 1998 for a Writing Club assignment. Zach would have been in the 6th grade and he was being home-educated.

Every day, well almost every day, we work out on the treadmill in our home gym. There are a lot of things to do on the gym equipment, but the treadmill isn't the most fun thing to do. While I was running on the treadmill once, I was trying to think what would make it more interesting. Something, uh, different. Then it hit me, not an idea, the light fixture above my head! Oh, well, I got my mile in; maybe, I'll think of something to make running on the treadmill fun tomorrow.

The next day: I think I got it; I decided to take my time doing my mile walking, walking backwards! I know what you may be thinking, "What kind of stupid, retarded, idiot without-any-brains-person would do that?" That is exactly what my sister thought. I soon found out that walking backwards was more difficult than I thought; the backs of my legs were soon aching. My sister said that I could never do it and that it was the most outrageous thing I had ever tried. Well, not the most because there was the time my friend and I rolled a 500-lb haybale down a steep hill, through a fence, and onto a road and got in serious trouble with the farmer who'd baled the hay, but that was a few years back and has nothing to do with this writing assignment. When I got off the treadmill, I thought about where and when I could walk backwards next.

The real challenge is walking backwards in a room where you can trip over things or run into people, etc. When walking backwards on the treadmill, you don't have to worry about running into things and it's safer than walking outside too where the ground can be uneven. I experimented in these situations. Outside, I found it is better to take long strides, keeping your feet just above the ground. If the ground is bumpy this will help. One thing long strides don't help with though is preventing you from falling into the huge holes left on our property, which was originally a nursery, where shrubs were dug out and sold to someone. You could actually break a leg falling into one of them. You can just imagine that, right? For indoors backwards walking, you need to lean the upper part of your body forward so that the balls of your feet steady you even if your heels touch something unforeseen on the floor.

At first I thought that walking a mile backwards was difficult; but now, I can walk backwards at about 3.4 miles per hour while also chewing gum, laughing at jokes, telling my sister to be quiet, studying the "Snakes of Pennsylvania" wall chart, and wondering when my Dad will get home. I'm thinking about starting a "Backwards Walkers of America" club. No one in my family has taken me seriously yet and if they don't come around soon, I may try walking sideways or maybe while spinning in circles. Blah.
Note: You may have wondered why that "blah" is stuck at the end of my paper. I was one word short of 470 words so I added "blah," but now I have 517 words so there was absolutely no point in putting that "blah" there afterall.

Note from Mom to Sam during a difficult time (2011)

Hey, No one on the face of this earth loves you as much as I do, but the One who made the earth and everything else, loves you perfectly! 

And, He wants you to know that you can trust Him with your life and He’s given you His Word so you’ll know how to live and experience true joy.

His boundless love for you is a well you can draw on to love others – that’s why it is possible for you to “love your enemies and pray for those who despicably use you.” 

He cares for you, but He wants you to care for His Name too and you do that (we all do) in the way we live and treat others, especially in the hard times. 

I think that no matter how badly ** may be treating you, you will find peace and joy by loving ** in return.  It will bring a smile to your Father’s face and the most thrilling thing will be when you hear him saying to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Life is always about more than us,  Mom

Samantha to Her Brother (May 2011)

Title: Shadows and Dust

Shadows and Dust; Immortal soul
From dust he came and to dust he returned.
He disappeared in late April;
Showers of tears cover me now.

Standing on the mountaintop,
Staring at the splendor of the blue-glass lake
That reflects Your enchanting beauty
He fell from the heights of earth into Your open arms.

Returning to me in a flag-draped coffin
His homecoming was three days early.
My emotions now recollected in tranquility
Find my soul still cold, my heart still numb.

But as I laid his lifeless body in the ground
And on his tombstone wrote:
Shadows and Dust; Immortal Soul
I remember this is not goodbye; this is just see you later.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Sam on Making the Region 1 Team and How She Got This Far

Csaba – You first trained me when I was 9 down at PISA’S premier program and you were the first to show me how to play the flat back four when I was 11 in ODP.

 

Chet – I truly credit much of at Region 1 to your training w/me this year in ODP and the good start you gave me down at PISA when I was 9.

 

Rytel – Besides your expertise, you have offered me trustworthy advice many times and have just made me feel “special” by making yourself and Gail available when I needed you!

Sean – You’ve invested so much time in me, known me so well, pushed me to be my best, and taught me just about everything I know.  Whatever I achieve, it’s because you’ve been right beside me.

Reuben –  Working with your 91 ODP girls in 2005, I learned many things  from you, especially “toe down”   -- a simple thing but so important!

Mr. Eckman – You gave me some of my love for soccer through your wonderful positive attitude and by making soccer so much fun and taking me on into the more competitive 3v3 events.

Mr. Boroski – You were the one who led the way into unknown areas for me – pointing me to cup soccer, 3v3, leader center, and even ODP.   You and Kelly taught me the basics and without you, I might have never gotten out of Freeport.

Denny  - I first heard of Beadling when I was about 10 and asked my coach to explain what cup soccer was.  He picked up a touchline and showed me pictures of Beadling teams – all of whom had just won their State Cups.  He said if there was any way to get to Beadling that was what I should do.  It’s been worth the trip!

Erik – When you told me you had a “good feeling” I didn’t really pay much attention, but I’m really glad you did!

Thanks for leading our team to do the things necessary to be able to play in the Director’s League and enabling me to improve my speed of play and decision-making.  I couldn’t play at the regional level without it.

 

Mr. Lusby – “Check in, check out” ring any bells? That is only one of the many things I’ve learned from you.  You’ve taught me a lot about winning and losing and “wanting” it more than the other team. 

 

Dan Obremsky – You made me “look” like a soccer player and an elite athlete.  I mean competitive athletes cannot run around the field all hump shouldered the way I was before starting your awesome speed and agility program.  

PS – I can’t wait to start it again.

Chris Brown – To be perfectly honest, I absolutely hated learning footskills and dribbling around in a box doing moves.   Today, I recognize how important that early training was and I am so thankful that you started that program back here at PAWest when I was 9.

Tommy Geis – I think you were the first coach to introduce me to anything close to “real soccer.”   Although I felt I had to leave the team, I’ve always known you taught me a lot of the basics and introduced me to the tactical part of the game.  

Jay Burpee – Your encouragement to me has really meant a lot.

Brian Shrum – ODP is such a puzzle and it was a struggle to figure it out, but there are things you explained to me that first year that I have always remembered.  Thanks for getting me started.

Keystone Rehab – What could I have done without you guys!   You always got all my moving parts back to working order!

Lyn Kirkland – Your encouragement has meant a lot to me over the years and I appreciated your bringing me out to play with your boys from time to time and just share the love of soccer.

Note to President GW Bush on his 62nd birthday

(Another piece I wrote that I'm not at all sure I actually sent!)

Dear Mr. President:  Thank you for being our President.  I and my family have supported you from the beginning and prayed for you throughout your term in office with thanksgiving.  We felt secure with you at the helm to have peace when our son decided to go into the Air Force and he was pleased to serve under your leadership.   He never had a dangerous assignment; although he wanted to go into Iraq, the timing of his duty kept him at Aviano AFB working in avionics on the F-16s.  Unfortunately, he did not make it home but had a tragic fall in the Italian Alps at Lake Barcis two days before coming home.  (Hard to make up stuff like this, but that’s what actually happened.)  It’s okay though, he touched more people’s lives with a lived-out-gospel than most of us ever do and we believe his life was predetermined by a good and loving God to be exactly 21 years.   And that same God watches over you.  I hope that like Asaph in Psalm 73, that though you see wickedness and the unrighteous prospering all around you, that when you draw near to God, you know that in the end everything will be set right! 

We wish you a most joyous 62^nd birthday and that the best years of your life are yet to come.  Thank you again for your service!

Alison (Mrs. James O.) Weber

Link:

http://zachweber.blogspot.com/2007/04/we-just-wanted-to-set-up-central-place.html

Summer Days, Slipping Away (Taylor University)

Summer Days, Slipping Away

June 23, 2000

Headed on the 8-hour trek to Indiana with mom and sis!  I still don’t know what I think.  I’ve never been truly excited about spending my summer at college . . . 5 weeks of Calculus all summer?!

June 24, 2000

Has this only been one day?  I feel like I’ve known these people for years, like I’ve lived here forever!  My roomies are the greatest in the world!  What a blessing!  Already, in between the excitement of making our dorm home, we’ve burst into spontaneous moments of holding hands and praying together; we are already so single-minded.

June 26-27, 2000

Classes began: a shock of reality!  This is going to be a looooong week.  The first few days have found me completely inundated by HOMEWORK!  Absolutely mandatory homework has kept me up till 3:30 the past two nights!  I’ve always thought I had good time-management skills, but the college schedule came as a shock.  I’m glad I’m learning it now, though!  It’s not like “school” -- school all day, homework in the evening, free nights to study.  Instead, classes and activities are spread throughout the day and homework must be squeezed into the small hours between these scattered class periods.  My planner has not left my sight!  So much for the college sleep-ethic.  Sleep?  None of that around here!

June 28, 2000

Ah, today was the happiest day!!!  Perhaps it was the perfect weather -- I spent all day in creative study spots (isn’t college great?).  Perhaps it was because I finally got my schedule under control.  I found ways to minimize time-wasting by nailing down distractions and time-wasters, like walking all the way to the dorm between classes.  Instead, I brought all my books with me and studied in the quiet dining commons until lunch.  Perhaps it was the spontaneity.  There’s nothing like a midnight Steak and Shake-run to top off a lovely day!  Or perhaps it was the people.  Studying with friends -- spending the evening over Calculus, laughing till we cried -- oh, I cannot wait for college!

June 29, 2000

Team homework is absolutely miserable!  I love the guys -- I’m the only girl in my class of 6 -- but they WILL NOT work as a team!  I’m learning a lot about trust.  Homeschooling has taught me to be in control:  I’d rather do all of the team problems myself so that I could be confident that they were right than have to surrender and trust the guys, resting my confidence in them.  It’s terrifying, and yet so sweet.  Trust.

July 29, 2000

“The end of a matter,” Dr. Cosgrove, my worldviews-class professor, began, “is better than the beginning.”  It is sadder, he continued, but you are better off than you were at the beginning: you changed, you grew, you learned.  With a few words from staff and profs, the closing banquet marked the dreaded end of summer honors.  We clung tenaciously to the quickly-escaping hours, gathered in the grass outside our empty dorm, stubbornly refusing to sleep, refusing to lose even a few of those precious final minutes.  It was a picture-perfect night, complete with a campfire and worship songs, a final reminiscing walk around campus, and a 2am Krispy Kreme run. . . .  And then the morning came too soon.  The sky brightened.  We began to drift off into sleep: our final night was over.

August 6, 2000

It’s been a week since Summer Honors: it seems like forever ago and yet so close.  Time is such a strange and fickle thing.  Everything I learned this summer was about time.  I learned about TIME in Calculus (time, velocity, rates of change, etcetera), TIME management, and TIMEless moments:  those special moments when time stood still, those moments that suggest that I was not created for this earthly environment of time, but for eternity.

“All our most lovely moments perhaps are timeless.  We wish to know, to savour, to sink in -- into the heart of the experience -- to possess it wholly.  But there was never enough time; something still eluded us.  The pressure of time was our nearly inescapable awareness of an approaching terminus. . . . If we complain of time -- we are unable, despite a thousand generations, even to get used to it -- and take such joy in the seemingly timeless moment, what does that suggest?  Perhaps it suggests, as I believe, that we have not always been or will not always be purely temporary creatures.  It suggests that we were created for eternity.” -Sheldon Vanauken, from “A Severe Mercy”

A Letter to A Friend who lost a child by suicide

Note:  I don't know if I actually sent all or any of this to my friend.  Maybe bits and pieces, I'm just not sure now.

http://www.athealth.com/consumer/disorders/parentalgrief.html  

One of the hardest "thoughts" you have is about the length of time faced w/this hole in your life. You'll keep thinking, "Okay, I got through x weeks, now it's time for he/she to come back and for this to stop."  It's still uncomfortable for me to think about ongoing time w/o Zach.  We have a pretty close family, but Zach was definitely the hub about which we all rotated b/c of his incredible wit and wisdom, and so nothing, especially holidays are fun like they used to be. They're fine, but we don't have the raucous belly-laughing fun times  Alexa made a video of all our Christmases.  We'll watch it every Christmas, cry, and pray he knows how much we love and miss him.  

It’s hard, painful, seemingly impossible, and you may not even want to get through it.  I don’t think there’s a “how-to” guide for you, but, surprisingly,  I did come across a website( http://www.athealth.com/consumer/disorders/parentalgrief.htmlthis) afternoon that I thought had a lot to offer!  Check it out, seriously. There are sections that won’t apply but there’s some good stuff there, good insights. Somehow it helps, a little, to know that others have gone through what you’re going through.  On the site,  I related to how other families had done different things to try and keep their missing child as still a part of the family. I moved into Zach’s bedroom and I love it in there b/c it makes me feel close to him, and I have the big pix of him from the funeral on the walls; on the other hand, my husband can’t even come in the room b/c it upsets him.  Alexa has a place in her apartment that’s like a little museum of Zach’s stuff.  But, we’re almost 3 years down the road now.   I do believe you need to have someone or ones that you can talk to.  I don’t have any contact info for you, or I’d just call.  I have some appointments this week (hair, dr. dentist stuff) but Jim’s out of town and Sam won’t be home for another week so I’d like to get together, unless you already have people you can talk openly with, but I don’t want you to think I’d pry, but I’m a good listener.

One thing it says on the website, and I agree with it, is that your child, whether here or gone, will always be your child.  I think about Zach as much as I do my other two; he’s still a huge part of my life.  I missed him terribly while he was away in the Air Force and that just continues. 

If there was a "how to" guide that could be written, someone would probably make a lot of money from it.  And I guess how one gets through is pretty unique to each person. I do not know of anyone who did not get through it - please count on getting through. As moms I'm not sure we have a choice anyway. I met with a woman who worked for my dentist for a year or so. Her son had killed himself after he was already packed and ready to go back for his sophomore year of college. The family saw no clues leading up to it.  This happened before Zach, which was Apr 2007, and I saw her before this past Thanksgiving and happy to sense she was at least a little bet better, and her daughter, late 20s, was coming home for Thanksgiving for the first time.  When someone surmounts any hurtle in this struggle, it is joyous.  But when you are hurting, you don't want to ever be joyous again, and that's okay b/c it is where you start from.  People will tell you, "it takes time," and that's true but not particularly helpful.  I think that you just eventually get comfortable with the sorrow.  As a mom, you carry not just your own sorrow but also the sorrow for the sorrow of your other children who must also find a way carry the pain that has fallen on them.

‘

My Christian worldview helped me to accept what had happened and avoid self-pity ( a huge trap that one feels entirely entitled to) and be strong for everyone else.  But accepting is a mental/faith thing that does not mean you do not still hurt and sorrow.  Losing my first husband was a pretty horrible experience. We'd been water-skiing and having a beautiful day. As we drove home, pulling our boat behind us, and singing, he fell forward on the steering wheel and was dead.  The first night my plan was to kill myself. I was staying with friends who lived nearby my home. I got up at 4 a.m. to go to my house, but outside was my husband's older brother, sitting in his van in the friend's driveway. Because he'd had some agreement with my husband to do this, he’d driven from Cleveland to Sterling, VA,  and so I was never left alone for a good while.  ......I could go on and on.

The best thing I can hope for you for right now is to have a friend you can really talk to.  You are on my mind pretty constantly; if you get to the point you want to talk, I'll come.  I'm crying now as I think about your child b/c you know this didn't have to be and that's a situation I haven't dealt with although many have. I imagine it makes it a million times worse, which means you need a million times more support and help.

Letter to Kelly as she prepares to join her church

Dear Kelly,   Do you know that we love you and think you are a caring, intelligent, gracious, kind and beautiful young woman?  Oh, and not to forget, a great athlete!  We do; and even though it’s been from afar most of the time, nevertheless it’s true.  One of my favorite holiday memories is when you sang a meaningful song you’d written.  While you’re lots of fun to be around and know how to have fun, we also enjoy that part of you that is a dreamer and a thinker. 

We’re happy and proud to hear that you’re making a commitment to your church and Jesus Christ, whom we worship too.  In the Bible (John 18:37) it says Jesus came to testify to the truth.  And, it also says that Jesus said He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.   So we want to encourage you to seek after Truth.   We all live our lives based on things we believe (our worldview), but many people have never really thought about what they truly believe.  And, even if you were to write a list of things you believe, sometimes, if you examine the things you do, you find that maybe you don’t really believe what you think you do.  For example, I might believe that God really loves me, but feel like I don’t really matter and so maybe I wouldn’t offer my opinion on something or try to do something because of that feeling.   That feeling is inconsistent with the idea that God loves me .If God loves us that gives us tremendous worth right there!

Joining the church is usually a time of committing to what we believe to be true, but it’s really something we have to keep coming back to our whole lives.  The question is always, “Do I really believe that what I believe is really true?”  If so, my life will be consistent with my beliefs.   So stay true to the Kelly who wanted to sing to us of the love of Jesus those few years ago (I figure it was Thanksgiving a few years back and I’m so sorry I can’t remember exactly when – I just know your spirit touched us all!)

One more thing.  We are your family too and are here if you ever need us.

Alison for Jim and Sam too  (ps Sam tore her ACL and messed up her knee and is headed for surgery in the very near future)

Email to Sheila re Zach's Death

Hi Sheila:  First, let me apologize for not answering your email more promptly, especially if my not doing so caused you any anxiety!  I've been a little out of gas mentally and emotionally since the holidays were over.  We weren't sure how Christmas was going to be having it at home for the first time w/o Zach.   Mostly because Lex and Seth were here for a good while and had planned family activities, the season ended up being very good, but then I personally just bottomed out afterwards, but not really because of Zach - more just life itself - Jim's gone all the time travelling with work, Sam is just coming off of  a year and half of injuries, involving constant trips to Pittsburgh, and on and on.  I'm better now although not quite where I want to be.  When feeling low, sometimes it's hard to know just what the cause is, but I'm working on it and putting more time into Scripture too.

I am truly glad to hear from you.  Be assured there is no right or wrong in dealing with what happened to Zach and you and Jake on April 21 2007.   Your experience is unique although sometimes we can learn from others (reading about how surviving Jews dealt with the loss of their family members during the Holocaust, for example).  When I read your April 20th 2008 post on Zach’s  Myspace, I realized for the first time how you and perhaps Jake have felt that Zach "saved your lives."  I'd (stupidly, no doubt) never even thought of that.  I knew those frantic hours of trying to get him help were horrific and that your "experience" was far worse than mine.  Truly. 

My experience was actually a faith-building one, I believe.  I say that because I believe God spoke to me and was preparing me for it hours before I got the news.  And, since that time, I've felt like God has intervened in my thoughts with answers and assurances that came from beyond myself.  For example, when I was really feeling sad and wanting Zach back one morning, I heard Zach (not audibly but how you hear your own thoughts, except that this seemed interjected into my thoughts) say, " Mo-omm, I'm w-i-t-h Jesus!"   That little reminder was huge and I remember it still when those sad feelings come.  Christmas morning, at some point, I started to tear up but was stopped by thinking how we gave Zach our blessings to not come home for Christmas in 2006 so he could take advantage of the opportunity to travel around England and see the castles he always loved.  To me, Zach is travelling around heaven now and I'd never call him back from that experience.

God also gave me an explanation for why Zach is no longer earthbound.  Basically, I hear God saying something like, "Zach, you have seen many of the places and people I have created on Earth, but now I want you to come with Me because I have far greater things to show you!"    The history for this is a video I've watched a couple times, called "Indescribable," by Louis Giglio.  There's a lot of dialog in the video, directed to teens, before getting to the parts that are significant to me - where he starts showing pix from the Hubble telescope and talking about earth and the universe through which I glimpsed some of the bigness of God.  There's a link to it where you can actually watch online, but the small screen does not do it justice.  (http://ronsworld.wordpress.com/2007/09/09/louie-giglios-indescribable-dvd/)

What gets to me in this video is the actual satellite images of the universe - incredible light shows going on far, far into the outer reaches of space.  Then there's tiny, tiny earth, more or less (seems to me) nestled in a narrow blue band of light w/in our solar system.  I've wondered how God manages to know what we are all doing and thinking, and how can He hear all our prayers, but then when you see the enormity of the Creation beyond earth, the question seems absurd.  Then earth, in comparison to the rest of the universe, makes me believe in the tenderness and love of God for us.  Earth seems to be like his "pet project" - something he has tucked away in a safe place that He cares for the way a mother cares for her infant child.   And, I know that God loves us so much, and I believe he reached out for Zach because He wanted to take Zach to see wonderful things way beyond Earth - a personal journey with our Father God.  

I don't think about what Zach is not getting to do here - because while some of those things are good, they're just shadows of what God has taken him on to experience!  I would never call him back.  (I also recall what Paul writes in one of his letters, that his desire is to die and go and be with Jesus, but that it is better for the ones to whom he’s writing, that he remain in order to bolster their faith.)

I'd love to share the actual video, best watched on a big screen, with you.  Maybe when you come to PA.  I have to find it though and I hope I haven't loaned it to someone and not gotten it back.  Have to look.   It impacted me a lot when I saw it probably in 2005 or 2006 at church.  Then I bought it and we watched it at home and shared with others.   I know that God put this before me in preparation for Zach's departure.

God has been so kind and gracious to me and blessed me so enormously, allowing me to be Zach's mother and to just know him.  He was gracious to me in our last time together, Christmas 2005 as well, because there was a very sweet time between Zach and I where we really connected in faith and forgiveness over something and we knew each others’ hearts, and it was very good.

So, writing these things I think is helping my spirits.  I hope that my experiences will help you too and that you will hear from God personally as well.  I can't make God speak to me, nor can you make him speak to you.  Giving Him your time, reading His word or a good devotional (like Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest), having fellowship with other believers, all these things help our spirits to be in tune with His Spirit.  Most of the times that God has seemed to personally minister to me have been times when I was sitting reading the Bible or praying.

ABOUT YOUR TRIP -  We would, of course, love to have you and Jake come here and stay with us if that at all works with your plans!   Sam's new soccer team has applied to play in a tournament Mar 20-22 and we are waiting to hear if they've been accepted.  Other than that we should be home.

If you want to share the things that trouble or haunt you, I am here for you.  I don't know if I will have answers. The answers I have for myself came more from without me than within me. I do feel confident in God that whether you get clear answers or peace, that God is mindful of your struggle and will either keep you where you are or lead you out.  God’s ways are far above ours and he works according to His will, not ours.   I feel confident in the answers I have gotten because I believe they're in agreement with what God has revealed in His Word rather than being confident in any personal "experience."  There are other areas in my life where God leaves me struggling and frustrated!

I apologize for this being a rather long email.  You can read it in parts, over several days though!   Anyway, something else I’m thinking about is just how much older I am and thinking about when I was your age.  When I actually was about your age, I’d already dealt with sudden death several times.  First, my mother was murdered by my alcoholic step-father, then my grandfather (who’d been more a father and w/whom I’d always lived) died unexpectedly in a minor surgery, and then at the conclusion of a day of water-skiing, my older husband (age 39) died as we drove home in our truck, pulling our boat. While we were singing to the radio, he suddenly fell forward on the steering wheel and was dead. 

I didn’t have a Christian worldview completely put together back then, just bits and pieces.   I did some stupid stuff – maybe similar to you.   But, as I look back at my life, God definitely brought the missing pieces into place over years.  I think a huge question that always hung over me was to what purpose did I exist?  I thought a lot about the fact that I could just quit – die or cease to leave my bed catatonically, and it would not make one bit of difference in the world.  Maybe just for a short time, a few people would be affected, but then life would go on.  I have come a long way!   Because sitting alone, right now in my house, not seeing anyone except Sam today, I know that how I spend my minutes is of ultimate value to God.  Everything I do, think, etc., I want to do for God to honor Him. He gave me life and set me in this beautiful world and blesses me.  I mostly don’t think about this (to my shame), but when I do, this is what I want!  And, He must know and gives me opportunities to serve Him as in sharing with you today.

So, I will pray that this very long email can be useful to Him to bring His love and guidance to you!

Let us hear from you and we hope you can include us in some part of your plans to come east!  

We love you.

Alison

Parent Summary, Samantha Weber, 10th gr, 07-08

Parent Summary

Samantha M. Weber

10^th Grade, 2007-2008

“It was the worst of times, it was the best of times,” summarizes the year.   The worst of times has to do with the actual series of unfortunate events Samantha faced – continuing aftermath of her brother’s death in April 2007, then the series of soccer injuries that first robbed her of her “place in the sun” in high school soccer, then entirely swept her away from her climb into the national spotlight of classic Olympic-development soccer, separated her from the friends she had finally gathered around her during her first year of public school, and made accomplishing her sophomore academic requirements a herculian task.   The best of times?   The best of times was in overcoming the obstacles that continually fell before her.  Naturally a positive and optimistic, hopeful person, Sam now consciously and purposefully chose to be hopeful, not lose heart, and never give up.  Right now, even though doctors are perplexed and somewhat embarrassed, that a 3-month old ankle injury is still unresolved, Sam is moving forward to July 9^th when she takes an 11-hour bus ride to the University of Rhode Island where the Olympic Development Identification Camp will be held over 4 days.  She knows she will have to endure pain, and taping, and a brace, probably blisters on her softened heels, but she’s picturing how she will perform and put all of her talent and especially her hours of performance training to full benefit once she gets there.

I am glad that Dr. Lovell’s wisdom held her back from trying to push through school during the first semester when she was enrolled at Freeport although only attended in the neightborhood of 11-17 days, and that he provided for many adaptations to her curriculum for the second semester – Jan 20- Jun 30 2008 when she would attempt to cover everything needed for full credit in all of her subjects.   As I observed her daily, I concluded that she did not truly recover from the effects of the concussion until sometime in May.  She was taking a drug called amantadine to “clear her mind” every morning until the first of April, and now continues to take a mild sleep aid.

One of the benefits of the year has been an increased self-awareness which has blossomed into a better awareness of the needs and issues of others as well.  She is growing out of the habit of “forgetting” things that don’t interest her but benefit others.  I find myself thanking her for little things she now helps with w/o being asked.  

She also makes friends wherever she goes.  Her doctors and physical therapists keep in contact with her beyond their professional relationships.  One physical therapist, Jen, left UPMC Sports and moved to California and maintains an email communication, encouraging and advising her to explore career and college options.  While her neuropsychologist has called upon her when a concussion patient has been needed for an interview, and will bring her up-to-date on concussion-related work he thinks she might have an interest in.

More of the plusses of the year will be mentioned as I comment on the subject areas, Sam has worked in.

English

            Reading – Samantha especially enjoyed Cissy Space’s interpretation of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, which we listened to on our trips back and forth to UPMC Sports on the Southside in January and February.  We were helped in our discussion of the book by use of an online study guide I printed out.  Samantha is an excellent listener and learns well in this manner.  We also both read (sometimes together) Tilly by Frank Peretti.  This is a book that we have all read, and Alexa wrote a very sensitive piece for the LAL contest based on this book about aborted children that we went back and read also.  We both also read (partly) and listened (partly) to an audio book of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Sam  read several books  in the Bible:  Romans, Esther, and 2st and 2^nd Peter.  Romans was also the subject of a series of lectures by her Youth Group leader at our church, who introduced her to John Calvin and reformed, conservative Christianity, and I read the books of Peter aloud to her.  (I should mention that Sam has been faithful in her participation in her Youth Group’s Sunday morning Bible studies and in the Sunday evening youth group fellowship meetings, where they have had a series of speakers on topics such as abortion, how to study the Bible, and the drawbacks of cell phone communication.  In the hour-long drives home, she usually shares these for my edification and enjoyment.)

Samantha also read and listened to a selection of short stories by the following authors:

Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Ambrose Bierce, and Jack London.  In primarily listening to these and discussing them, we felt that the story lines were truly reflective of the time period where survival was more of a pre-occupation than it is with modern man – so far.  In Crane’s the Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, we laughingly remembered a newly wed, odd couple, who boarded a train from Venice with us.  The bride was an older, large, comely woman in a big yellow flowered dress and large-brimmed hat and the man was a bit of a cowboy and seemed to be from an earlier time period.  Sam noted the availability of short stories online and realizes that she does not have to look to full length books for reading pleasure. 

Writing Club – Samantha was very happy to be able to return to the Pa Homeschool Writing Club this year.  She has participated in this writing club since she was 2, when she started bringing colored pictures with short stories to share, with only the one-year absence while she was at Freeport for 9^th grade.  The backdrop of the Writing Club audience has always pumped her up to produce her best work and continuedto do so  this year.  She produced papers that were both sensitive and entertaining and, sometimes, inspiring, such as her winning entry in the LAL contest. 

Samantha had hoped to complete a 10-page research paper and studied the guidelines for doing so at a website designed by Purdue University.   She also brainstormed and did research for two topics she was considering, one that she hoped would result in a pamphlet for soccer parents in Freeport on what to do if your child receives a blow to the head while on the field, and the other having to do with the benefits of proprioception in recovering from an injury, particularly to the ankle and foot.  She did considerable reading of current literature on these subjects and discussed what she was reading with professionals, such as Dr. Lovell, her neuropsychologist, and her physical therapist, especially Jen Swanson, both of whom had authored some of the pieces she read.  She also read a series of articles that were published in the NY Times that were relative to sports injuries.

Public Speaking and Communication..  Samantha has made significant improvement in being able to speak in front of others and on the phone and with adults, especially professionals.   During the first semester, she participated in a mock trial in Mrs. Boring’s English class having to do with the book, Lord of the Flies, and Mrs. Boring has provided a letter complimenting her on this.  Sam also had numerous occasions when she dealt one-on-one with doctors, psychologists, and physical therapists, providing information on her progress and asking questions and making assessments of information she was being given.  She was also responsible for contacting and making all arrangements with her soccer coaches and keeping them apprised of her recovery and status.   This involved introducing herself to several teams and multiple coaches, from California, Virginia, Canada, and Kentucky, in regards to invitations to her to guest play with them.    She also had to develop a Soccer Profile and begin introducing herself to college coaches at schools of interest to her.  In early June, she and I visited Princeton and Sam met with the Women’s Soccer coach there for an hour or more.  This served as a dry run for the following week, when she traveled with a music-major friend from our church to visit Yale.  Sam made all of her own arrangements and got a meeting with the head coach there, on short notice, and went one-on-one with him for an hour-long interview and introduction to the school.  During the Spring term, she visited not only Princeton and Yale, but also George Mason University, University of Virginia, University of Arizona, and the Penn State.   At Christmas, we took a walking tour of Stanford and Santa Clara University while visiting Alexa and Seth in San Francisco.  She is in contact with these and many more schools via email and many of the schools have had coaches out to watch her at the tournaments she has attended.  She also attended two “Meet the Coaches” programs, one in Pittsburgh and one in Phoenix, where she asked questions about recruiting procedures and such.

Two of the most difficult public speaking tests she faced this year were arranged by her concussion doctor, Mark  Lovell.  Dr. Lovell asked her to participate in a program public television on concussions with  Jim Lehrer and “The Newshour,” and to also do a radio interview with Katherine Fink  (http://www.wduq.org/news/newsaudio2.html   “Sports Concussion Research May Apply to Military Broadcast Date: February 22, 2008.
Pittsburgh has been at the forefront of research into sports-related concussions.  Now that expertise may be used to help the military.  DUQ's Katherine Fink reports: LISTEN)”
In the TV interview, a full crew came to our house and talked with Sam “under lights”  for several hours as she conveyed to them her experiences with a concussion and the possible impact it would have on her life.  The interview with Sam provided a lot of background information for the program although there was only a brief segment with her that was aired since her prognosis at the time of the interview was good and others in the greater Pittsburgh area were in much more dramatic situations.   See the website http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec07/concussions_11-26.html
Sam also introduced the TV producer to Freeport’s sports trainer, Bill Siegel, who now fields questions on the concussion forum on the pbs website  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/health/july-dec07/concussions_11-265.html

During the first semester while Samantha was instructed to not “do school” and especially to not “push through” with any mentally taxing activity, there were a few things she accomplished.  She read Lord of the Flies for Mrs. Boring’s English class and Elie Weisel’s Night.  She also wrote a winning entry for the 9^th-12^th grade PA Letters About Literature contest.  This book and paper were of considerable help in her personal processing of her brother’s death the previous April.   The writing of the paper took place over several months and she truly implemented the “writing is a process” concept and appreciated the value of being able to step away from her work and then be able to look at it afresh.  She also learned the value of getting input from others and being open to others’ opinions and critiques.  For these, she thanked her Freeport teacher Mrs. Boring, who continued to encourage her throughout the year, and her homeschool advisor, Mrs. Susan Richman, and her Homeschool Writing Club participants.  She received her award at a luncheon in State College in April.  She had received two previous honorable mention awards in past years.

Sam also completed the online  SAT Writing course (through PA Homeschoolers) and secured the top grade in the class!    The class environment fed her competitive nature..

Grammar.   From a grammatical standpoint, Sam’s writing is much better each year.  She has her own “checkpoints” for vocabulary usage, eliminating meaningless words, varying sentence structure, etc.  She’s working on getting the use of “not only” and “but also” straight.   She usually forgets to save a draft where she’s made grammatical corrections and so has tried to illustrate what she does for this in the writing of her summaries for her subjects.

Vocab – Word Smart   Sam worked on vocabulary when she started school in January and was faithful and successful in doing SAT test prep questions in English in the beginning weeks.  Math and Chemistry took so much time that she found it hard to keep up but did get back to this in May-June.  She is excellent at putting new words into use and to recognize them when she hears them, which she finds exciting.   She will hopefully continue working on this beyond the school year.

Honors Algebra II

After the first test, Sam got very serious about math and put to good use all the great techniques she’d learned from Mr. Unks last year.  After this, on her tests, she never transposed a number, wrote out every part of every problem, and received basically perfect scores.  She had a tremendous sense of accomplishment from being able to teach herself a subject she would have anticipated being very difficult for her.   I’m very proud of her efforts and accomplishments.  She also coordinated with Mr. Unks and students in her Honors Alg class at Freeport so that she covered basically what they were covering in school.  When she ran into difficulty, she also sought assistance from two students that were excellent tutors for her.

Chemistry

This was another subject which she attacked, though she found it difficult.  She persevered, sought help when needed from her tutoring peers and once called the author of her text for assistance.  She mostly planned her own program, sometimes wanting me present to assure she was understanding the lab setups correctly, but became more independent and confident as the months went by.  She very seldom missed any review or test questions.  Again, I was very proud of work ethic in this course in particular.  This course was very heavily lab-oriented and also emphasized safety.

American Cultures

Samantha completed an online AP course at Hippocampus.org that was recommended by her homeschool evaluator, Mrs. Susan Richman, who has also taught AP US History for many years.  Samantha began studying the Civil War in Mr. Stell’s class and continued that using the hippocampus curriculum.  She then went on to study Reconstruction through the Great Depression and the New Deal (1929 -1941).  Altogether, according to the organization of the hippocampus curriculum, she completed 9 chapters and 25 lessons.    Following the adaptations recommended by her concussion doctor, she did not do written work for this class.  The online work involved reading text , listening to audio/visual components – the “lecture” portion of the course, and an explore activity, where, for example, two positions on a subject, using original source material, was reviewed and the student would be required to consider these and take a stand herself.   During the many hours we spent in the car traveling to UPMC Sports on the Southside, Sam would tell me about what she was learning and I would ask questions.  At home, we would review key terms and events and sometimes speculate on how history had contributed to our present day experiences.   Sam enjoyed this course tremendously.  Being an auditory learner, this curriculum was perfect for her and she became truly interested in American History – her interest level meant that she usually initiated conversations about what she was learning.

To augment her study of this period, she concentrated her PA History exploration on the same period and read/listened to a selection of short stories by late 19^th century authors as well.

PA History

Throughout Samantha’s elementary and middle school years of homeschooling, we were always interested in learning about our state and Sam kept a compilation of this in her PA State Notebook.  She began her 10^th grade PA History unit by reading and reminiscing through this notebook, that included many wonderful memories of trips to various places in our beautiful Pennsylvania.  After that she decided that she’d like to know what was going on in PA during the time period from the Civil War through WWI, the same period she concentrated on in American Cultures.   She was fortunate to find a website that addressed this particular time period (http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/VC/visitor_info/pa_history/pa_history.htm).  We read from this site together and explored various connections that occurred to us at the time and she took notes.   She also spent considerable time perusing the http://www.explorepahistory.com/index.php website and read some short stories from our collection of Pennsylvania Profiles by Patrick M. Reynolds, which is a series of comic-style illustrated booklets of PA history and little known stories.

In our many, many trips to Pittsburgh, Sam also started her own collection of original photographs of the city.    There’s always construction and changes going on and viewing this gives us some understanding of the changing nature of a city and helps us to understand the evolution of Pittsburgh from early on.

Health

This was realtime health class as Sam learned about her body and the areas of health care that related to her series of injuries: hamstring pull, damage to manubrium, concussion, microfracture of orbital floor bone, severe ankle sprain, ligament damage in the ankle, severe bruising of talus bone, subtalar spraining, midfoot sprain, ganglion cyst in the midfoot, tendonitis, especially of the peroneal tendon,  spraining of all the ligaments in the thumb.  In the treatment of all these, she dealt with many orthopedists, a physiologist, a neuropsychologist, a sports psychologist, performance trainers, emergency room personnel, radiologists and technicians, and a myriad of physical therapists.  She had multiple x-rays, three mri’s including one functional mri on the brain, a CT scan, and one midfoot injection of steroids under real-time xray (called fluoroscopy), and took the IMPACT test numerous times.  Surgery on her right foot is now being discussed.  

Sam had 35-40  medical visits and she had about 60 sessions with physical therapists or performance trainers.   She received a very unique health education as she questioned and listened to those who worked with her to understand her medical problems and what was necessary to get better.  She was given many articles to read that she would then discuss, sometimes with the authors.  She learned about mri’s and was very good to understand what she was seeing/reading on them in the follow-up visits.  She learned about quite a few medical professions and especially about how life experiences led people into their chosen careers.   She learned  human anatomy and some of its pathologies, such as how ganglion cysts develop. 

French III

Samantha arranged with her high school French teacher exactly what she should learn and accomplish for French 3 this year in order to be able to move into French 4 at Freeport next year.  I’ve helped her with some of these lessons and found that she had good retention although moving fairly quickly through the material.  Time became a real issue as I hope is understandable given all the medical attention she was requiring.  Although she did not work on spoken-French, her written French is improved.

http://www.psycheducation.org/emotion/hippocampus.htm

Worldviews

The primary curriculum for this course was “The Truth Project,” a Christian worldview class taught at the Focus on the Family campus in Colorado Springs, Colorado, by Dr. Del Tackett.  Tackett’s bio is attached.  The website description of the course is as follows:

In a recent study, the Barna Research Group revealed a stunning statistic that continues to reverberate throughout the evangelical world. Only 9 percent of professing Christians have a biblical worldview.¹

Because of this, today's believers live very similarly to non-believers. A personal sense of significance is rarely experienced, we spend our money and time on things that fail to satisfy and we begin to wonder what life's ultimate purpose really is. We are, in short, losing our bearings as a people and a nation.  The Truth Project is developed to help Christians develop a consistent view of the world.

The Truth Project is a DVD-based small group curriculum comprised of 12 one-hour lessons taught by Dr. Del Tackett. This home study is the starting point for looking at life from a biblical perspective. Each lesson discusses in great detail the relevance and importance of living the Christian worldview in daily life.

There have been quite a few surveys that reveal the inconsistencies of beliefs that the majority of people hold today, not just Christians.  The latest Pew Forum (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/23/BATE11AKBJ.DTL) survey on religious beliefs says that 21% of self-defined atheists believe in God!  That’s crazy.   And, as Christians, we’re crazy too when we say we believe in the God of the Bible and then think we can live to ourselves and, for example, not love our neighbors.  So, this is basically the purpose of the Truth Project curriculum and it asks the question, “Do you really believe that what you believe is really real?
I’ve taken this class myself with a group of women, and then have co-led it for a mixed group of adults.  When I said that I was going to do it with my 16-year old daughter, my friends said she wouldn’t like it, it would be over her head, and definitely beyond her interest level.  I was very pleased that she was truly interested and looked forward to each lesson.  The lessons cover a lot of material and are at least 60 minutes long and require serious mental activity.  I’d liked to have had Sam write some papers and do some research and really pursue some of the topics that were covered, but time just did not allow.  I think that in the future, she will probably go back through these.  The Truth Project website also has abundant material for follow-up.  I am extremely pleased that she was able to critically process most of the information and draw her own conclusions as to what she believes about God and Man, Truth, Creation, Darwinism, etc.

Samantha also watched the Ben Stiller movie, Expelled, that shows the extreme bias against those who believe in not only the Christian view of creation but also the possibility of intelligent design.  Stein confronts the many assumptions in academic circles that deny the possibility of conjecture and open study on the origins of life. The Truth Project course consisted of 12 lessons

 For each of the 12 lessons there were Tour Guide notes, a lesson outline, key terms and people, biographical sketches of key people, video slides, lecture, recommended reading, questions, and Scripture.  Also in each lesson there were cutaways to three noted theologians, R. C. Sproul, Ravi Zacharias, and Os Guinness, and then cutaways to random “people on the street” for their answers to the big philosophical questions posed in the study.  The same people appeared in every segment and one drew conclusions as to whether they had conflicting beliefs, how they came up with what they believed, etc. – was fascinating.  They included an engineer, a young college girl, an older probably, low-middle income black man, a tattoo artist, a 13 yo autistic boy in a wheelchair, a 20-something musician, and more.

With lessons 5 and 6 on the origin of life and all matter, Sam also watched the DVD, “Unlocking the Mysteries of Life.”

Because of time and the adaptations given her, Sam and I mostly discussed the lessons as we rode in the car.  Some of the lessons we watched multiple times as we shared them friends and other family members.  This material has certainly established a foundation for her to question what she believes and why.

Photography

Samantha read the book, How to Photograph  Your Life, by Nick Kelsh, and read the manual for her new Sony cybershot as well as the online manual for my Nikon D40 and learned to use both cameras and understand their settings.

She also experimented with all the suggestions for capturing quality photographs with these digital cameras by changing viewpoints, various settings, and lighting.  A comparison of her pre-class pictures and post-pictures illustrates great improvement in the quality of her pictures.

She entered one photograph in a contest  sponsored by the Pittsburgh Technical Institute in Moon Township.  She did not win and was disappointed she hadn’t realized she could have entered more than one photo.

She’s also started a photo-journal of Pittsburgh.

Community Service

During the past academic year, Samantha spent a week in Appalachia/Kentucky with Jim and I and various members of our church.  During this time, our group worked on improving a house where a single mom and 4 teenage daughters were living.  A water line was run to the house from the road, a new kitchen and porch were built, and the house was sided.  This was actually a 2-summer project and Sam was present the summer before when the work was begun.  This past summer, she learned to install vinyl siding.  The week also included devotional and worship time and singing, and a separate community service project where we showed a film, sang hymns, and had a speaker.  Sam will be returning to the same area again this year but on a new project.

Sam has become increasingly interested in going into the medical field and did what was necessary, on her own, to arrange for the training and opportunity to volunteer at Alle Kiski Medical Center.  She’s completed 30 hours of volunteer work in the physical therapy unit.  She has some interesting stories to share about her experiences there --  a long conversation with a Pearl Harbor survivor, being able to bring some cheer to some elderly women, helping clean up from unfortunate, yet common, “accidents” as well.  She’s happy to be asked to do more and more in terms of the actual rehab that is performed.  

Places Visited

San Francisco – toured the whole city with Seth and Lex at Christmas, including Alcatraz, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Santa Clara University

Lancaster – went to see the Living Theater production of “Creation”

Bodies Exhibit at the Science Center, Pgh

Phoenix – and surrounding area for college showcase tournament, played for CA North State Cup Champion team

Richmond – for Jefferson Cup, where ankle injury occurred

Cincinatti – for Blue Chip where she guest played for a Canadian team, Burlington Sting – players spoke French

Southside—several times/week to UPMC Sports – combination museum and medical facility

Washington DC—to visit relatives and friends at Thanksgiving

Yale—college visit

Princeton—college visit

Buffalo—indoor tournament with ODP before ankle injury

UPMC Sports

Convention Center, Pgh, where Sam participated in Community Service project, filling gift bags for the USYS National Convention and Conference.  She also participated as a player in a training demonstration and teaching session for coaches

Penn State—met coaches and watched spring opener

Two college-recruiting talks—Phoenix and Point Park Coll, Pgh

Upbuilding seminar at church, North Park

Physical Education

Samantha has recreated her body in the past 5 months to the point where she actually “looks” different, bigger, stronger.  She has done an incredible amount of physical therapy for an ankle injury that involved strengthening exercises.  She did these for both legs and ankles so as not to become unbalanced.   She also took a series of 24 classes in performance training at the Center for Performance Training at UPMC Sports on the Southside.  Her instructor was the developer and director of the program, Ron Deangelo.  She worked on technicque in running and movement and agility and did core strengthening and muscle-specific strengthening exercises.  Ron also put together a strengthening program for her to follow at home when she had to be non-weight bearing after her ankle injury on March 30^th.  Sam has worked very hard on all of this and has reason to be proud of her accomplishments.  She  can also now do 25 pull ups on our chin-up bar we have in the kitchen!  Great job!

Normally, Sam would be training in soccer 6 days a week.  Her series of injuries this year has made that impossible, but she did manage to do indoor training with her Beadling team for several weeks, and made a great showing while guest playing with the California North state-championship Deanza Force team at a college showcase tournament in Phoenix earlier this year.  After that, she guest played at two other tournaments but played injured, and made an appearance at the prestigious ODP tournament at Rider University in New Jersey in June, but was still injured.