She scored!

Holy cats she scored. Her first ever travel soccer goal. And a pretty one it was too. Corner kick coming in from the right...she's at the top of the box, the kick gets banged around a bit and hits Stretch right on the laces. She can't kick it through the traffic in front of her, so she lifts it high, arcing it up and over the goalie's head.

She scored.

And nothing, NOTHING will match the grin on my little girl's face as she turned and saw me on the sidelines cheering for her.

They won the game, her goal was the only score. It sent them to the championship.

Okay, they didn't win the championship, they lost on a pretty crappy call that gave the other team a PK. 0-1.

But for today, it was Stretch's day. This is a child who started playing travel soccer when she was 8 years old. It took four years, eight seasons of travel soccer to reach this day. She is growing, my girl... she is coming into her own. I once told her that there are some times that I can't believe she's mine. That I'll be looking at her, or watching her, and I'll get tears in my eyes because I can't believe that beautiful creature is MY child.

Today was one of those days.

Congratulations, kid. I'm awfully proud of you.