Welp, Claire is deep into her very last club volleyball season.

She adores every girl on the team and is having such a good experience.

It’s the best thing as a mom to watch your child make a tough decision and just feel 100% about it. (I’m sure it’s pretty great for that kid as well!)

Anyway, as great as the team and experience has been so far, the tournaments themselves have been a little on the trickier side.

On an 18s club team everything in the schedule is condensed (since there are so many kids already signed for college and they’re all seniors and graduating). They pack stuff in there I tell you!

There have been two travel tournaments so far and sadly, both have been thwarted with some troubles.

The first one was a few weeks ago.

It just so happened that half the team ended up getting covid. At first just one girl, then two. They were trying to figure out if they could make the tournament with a skeleton of a team. But then the coaches got it too. So that tournament went by the wayside.

This is so sad for all these seniors who just want to play. But Claire and the remaining “negative” girls decided to take a little drive to California instead since they had a now-empty weekend ahead of them.

And although they would have loved to be playing volleyball, I think they survived just fine:) And the girls who were home recovered quickly with very mild symptoms.

(I can’t find all the cute pictures actually at the beach, in wetsuits since it was freezing, but just picture some happy faces with a beauty sunset backdrop.)

It was the best bonding time.

I love that Claire didn’t know any of these girls before and that she just loves them all so much. I also love that none of them are our same religion and she gets to branch out that way as well with these awesome girls (most of her high school friends are part of the same church).

Ok, so on to the next tournament.

It’s this weekend.

And it’s in Austin.

Yep, where Grace is serving as a missionary.

As “luck” would have it, THIS is the weather forecast for Austin, Texas this weekend:

Ice storms.

Here was the advisory they sent out in the group volleyball text:

And yesterday (Thursday) was the day everyone was supposed to arrive. Yep, the day when the roadways may be impassable. And flights? Hmmm…that remained to be determined.

Remember when Grace was iced-in in Texas last year? (Link at the end of this post)

All the ice storms, power shut off, so much damage, crazy times that you think must be a once-in-a-lifetime random event?

Yep here we are again the next February.

Our whole family was going to go to this tournament, Lucy too, but when all our flights got canceled, we changed plans.

Dave and Claire and the rest of the team were still able to get flights and they made it safe and sound. Hallelujah! Things look clear and good today.

Dave just let me know only 26 out of 40 teams made it, which makes this a strange tournament as well. But they are there, and the adventure continues! Crossing our fingers for some great volleyball in the midst of a crazy adventure!

And also crossing our fingers that the rest of the tournaments may be more smooth sailing!

Sure thinking of Grace (who is serving about an hour from Austin right now and wants to wait to see Dave and Claire until she gets home in a little over a month. Yep, you heard that right, MARCH 16th WE GET THAT GIRL HOME!!

Cannot wait.

GO CLAIRE!!

Other posts with more info about Texas weather craziness and volleyball:

Iced over in Texas

February Little Things

(a little more about the ice storm in the middle of that post)

Pandemic Volleyball

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10 Comments

  1. Good luck Claire!! Has she decided on a college yet??
    I can’t believe Grace is home next month!!! That flew by!!

    1. No decision on college yet…she’s working on it though! I cannot believe Grace is coming home either…I can hardly stand the wait to give her the biggest hug!

  2. I would love to know what your tournaments are like out there. Were I am (for a different sport) they are Saturday and Sunday. We’ve been going to them since they’re just a few weekends but it’s hard missing our home church.

    1. These are huge tournaments, like 60+ teams…so many different divisions, so many different levels. This one is an “Open” division tournament to get bids for nationals so it’s a pretty big deal (and Claire’s team got a bid which is so exciting!). But yes, most of the tournaments, especially this year, span over a Sunday and that’s a really hard part of it all. Trying to find some spiritual balance to those Sundays Claire misses, and hoping all the church Claire has been to growing up and all our family devotionals and seminary, family discussions, etc. will help her develop her own conviction to seek Jesus even when she can’t be in church.

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