Walk Like You Have Somewhere to Go by Lucille O'Neal & Allison Samuels

Author:Lucille O'Neal & Allison Samuels [O’Neal, Lucille & Samuels, Allison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2018-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

The Family That Plays Together . . .

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

–Matthew 6:21

While Phil initially frowned on my working outside the home, there were no complaints when the extra money began trickling in. Now at least our phone could stay connected (it was frequently turned off because of long-distance calls back home), and the children, who all grew like weeds in the middle of every summer, could have the extra clothes and shoes they needed for school.

It was also during this time that Shaquille began to gain some local attention for his sports acumen. He’d developed a nice little following as he played basketball for the American high school team on the base and as he traveled around Germany, playing in different tournaments. Those times were particularly worrisome for me because I had no idea where he was going in a country that was still foreign to us. What if something were to go wrong on one of his trips? What if he got sick? How could we get to him, and how would we even know where to go? Despite regularly being in the middle of one of my drunken weekend stupors, I’d stay up late into the night during his trips, waiting until I saw the bus drive up and Shaquille’s head round the corner near our home. Only then could I go to sleep in peace.

When he did play on base, the entire family would go to every game to cheer him on. It was very refreshing and cute to watch him find his way on the court. His height, of course, was a plus, but basketball is much more than how tall you are. Learning plays, coordination, and other physical skills is needed to really excel in high school and beyond. The games in Germany were usually against other kids on the base. His games against other schools took place off the base, and that made it difficult for all of us to attend. After his trips, Shaquille would give the family play-by-play descriptions of the opposing team and how the game progressed quarter by quarter. He also loved to describe the area and how beautiful each particular city or town was he played in. We’d sit and listen for hours.

Though my marriage wasn’t exactly headed in the direction I hoped, Phil and I remained on the same page when it came to parenting. I cannot give Phil enough credit for being the loving, supportive, and involved father he was to all our children. I’ve been around long enough to know that not all men take their parental responsibilities seriously.

Being on the same page also meant we both felt strongly about teaching our children that school was the only avenue to a better life. While Phil attended college for a few years, I hadn’t had the chance to go right after high school, but we certainly expected our children to do so.

Now, given our financial situation, it was unclear how we’d pay for that education, but as parents, we were committed to finding a way.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.