Life with the Ball's: Big Changes Around Here

Marcus moved to Utah and that’s a picture of his court hearing with a judge in Utah. It was a difficult decision but as we started the process, things fell into place unnaturally well. I don’t remember where or when we got the idea to allow such a thing to happen, but we knew Marcus couldn’t miss another season of lacrosse if he wanted to reach his goal of playing college lacrosse for a D1 program. Washington continues to be a step behind the rest of the country in moving forward despite Covid, school continues to be remote, and sports are limited to small groups with no games. Marcus was thrilled with the idea of moving to Utah for a semester of in-person school and a normal lacrosse season and thankfully April and Toby have welcomed him into their home.

I quickly learned that enrolling him in school was much more complicated than I expected and miraculously happened to have a lawyer friend who helped me through the legal process to make April Marcus’s legal guardian. The process takes weeks to get a court hearing, but for once I was on top of things and got it done with time to spare.

Marcus’s last week at home was filled with schoolwork, early finals, and saying goodbye. It made me sad and definitely made Marcus sad as well, especially saying goodbye to his brothers. We loaded just about all of his belongs into his truck and he and I headed to Utah. Per tradition before starting any road trip, I offered a prayer of protection and started crying as soon as I started to speak. Luckily I had the next 12 hours to work through my feelings and received a strong confirmation that Marcus is where he needs to be.

We got him settled in his new room (thanks to Sam for sharing a room with Max), ate lunch at Crown Burger to celebrate my dad’s retirement, and the two of us flew to sunny Arizona for his last lacrosse tournament with his club team, the Seattle Starz.

After the tournament was over and we were back at the airport, it was time for Marcus to board his flight back to UT while I waited another hour for my flight to WA. I was doing fine until I looked over at Marcus and saw huge tears running down his cheeks and into his mask. I felt my heart break as I gave him a last, big hug. Then he walked onto the plane, never looking back. As I waited to board my flight I couldn’t stop crying. All the feelings of peace that this was the right thing had gone and I just missed my boy. Finally I got on my plane when I got an unexpected text from Marcus. His plane was still sitting on the runway so we were able to text back and forth for awhile and get all our sadness out. By the time I got home I was done being sad, relieved he made it safely to UT even after his lacrosse bag had gotten lost, and didn’t even cry when I walked past his empty bedroom.

Marcus is going to love this experience and I told him no matter how much he loves it there, he has to come back in June after school gets out. I’ve talked to him on FaceTime every day and even helped him find a few things at the grocery store so I’m still able to mother him from afar. Leaving for college will be no big deal for us!

Here are some pictures from our three-day weekend in Arizona...