Coming Home

There was this girl who married this guy who's dream was to coach football.  That girl is me and there is a WHOLE lot more to that story than just this.

I've always loved sports.  I wanted to be the star athlete in every sport growing up.  I kinda day dreamed about it actually!  Just being honest here folks!!!  I tried hard and gave great effort.  Athleticism just didn't pump thick in my veins!  But, that didn't change how I felt about sports.  When I was in sixth grade I was walking around the football field during lunch recess at Taylor Middle School and a thought popped into my mind.  I remember almost stopping in my tracks and saying it out loud.  "You will marry a football coach" was the thought I had.  But it seemed like more than a thought to me.  So much so, that I went to my Granny and Grandad's house after school that day and told them about it.  I asked my Granny if she thought it was God telling me I was going to marry a coach.  She jokingly said in her smart ass Granny voice "I hope not"!!  Granny wasn't fond of the stereotypical coach (who was lazy, wore tight shorts, and only cared about football) from back in her school secretary days.  And that was it!!  We didn't talk about it again for years.

My senior year in high school I was a student trainer for football.  One Friday night before a game I was walking down the track with some equipment to set down on the home side of the field, and I glanced up in the stands at the spot where I knew the head coach's wife always sat.  I stood there for a second and thought about why she sat there and what that must have been like to be the head coach's wife.  I thought about what she must have felt when she heard comments from the crowd about her husband.  And there it was...that "thought" from sixth grade popped back in my mind!  "You will marry a football coach."  The guy I was dating at the time was a football player, but deep down I knew he wasn't the guy I would want to marry.  So the thought passed, and I moved on back to the training room to do my job before the game.

My Sophomore year in college I applied for an open on-campus job in the athletic office (which was in the gym on campus).  On-campus jobs didn't come open often.  Especially in the athletic office.  I interviewed and was asked to go across campus to the football field house and visit with the Head Football Coach.  As I walked across campus my stomach was in knots.  I'll never forget sitting in the office with Coach Keeling talking about football, and New Mexico, and goals in life.  At the end of our conversation he said "Well, Miss New Mexico (there is a story behind that too), welcome to the Field House".  I told him thank you very much for the opportunity, and as he walked me to the front door to leave he said, "You know every single football secretary has ended up marrying one of the football players.  Are you ready for that?" There was that "thought" again!  "You will marry a football coach."  

To this day Jimmie Keeing still calls me Miss New Mexico.  In fact he used to tell high school recruits when they walked in the front door of the field house right in front of my desk that I was Miss New Mexico and wouldn't they want to come play football where Miss New Mexico went to school.  I always just shook my head and kept working.  One time I told him he had to quit telling people that because somebody was going to look it up and think I was telling that lie!

So I began working in the field house and put my very best "kiss my butt" face on when guys walked through acting like big dumb animals.  I dated a few different guys (who played football) but it was short and clear that they weren't who God had in mind.  One of my very best friends was a guy who played defensive tackle named Gonzo.  We sat together in Chapel 2 days a week.  We sat together in the caf at lunch.  He always stayed after practice on Fridays until I got off work, and we chatted in the field house.  Then one day he told me his "true feeling" about me.  I gave him the "we are just such good friends" response not once, or twice, or even three times.  I told him that 4 times over the next year until finally he played hard to get, and I was smitten!  We started dating in September of my junior year, and I knew right away that this was the guy.  Gonzo was who I was going to marry, and his life-long dream was to coach football.  A few months into our dating I took him home to New Mexico and when Granny met him and found out he was going to be a football coach she pinched his arm and said you better not be like all the coaches I ever knew!  I knew what she was thinking!!!

This past summer I happened to be home visiting during the fair and rodeo. My mom and I took the girls to the parade, and as the band and football float float passed by, I started to cry. Cry?!?!  What in the world?!?!  Thank goodness I had my sunglasses on because how do you explain crying when the band walks by and then letting out another boohoo when the football float went by?  I even took a video and sent it to Gonzo. Why? I sent it to him and told him I cried!  Little did I know that in less than a year that very part of the parade that made me cry would be a new chapter of our life. 

And that brings me to now!
11 years into our marriage
4 kids in 4 years
5 different schools
4 moves
And now that girl is married to that guy who is a head football coach in the town she grew up in. Now that girl will sit up at the top of the stands where all the other coaches wives before me have sat. Now I will watch my girls run around with dad at practice and in the field house like the coaches kids I watched when I was a student trainer.

How did this all happen?  I never ever mentioned to Gonzo in our 14 years together that I wanted to go back to Lovington.  Moving back was never in the vision of where I saw our life going.  Not because I didn't like Lovington, but because I had been gone for so long.  It just never seemed like a possibility.  I've been gone for 16 years!!!  Our life was in Texas.  We weren't looking for this at all.  When this job came open, it was the day we were driving home for Christmas break. We put in the application and asked The Lord to slam the door if it wasn't right.  I had countless conversations with God telling Him that if He was moving me back home I was gonna need Him to make it REAL clear. Like write it across the sky clear!  I asked God to leave NO doubt if Lovington was where He was moving us.  From the day that Gonzo applied for the job to the day he got the call that he was their guy, it was about 6 weeks.  That was a long but necessary 6 weeks of praying and fasting and asking over and over for The Lord to slam the door if it wasn't right.  Over and over God told me Gonzo got the job.  I've never felt so near to Him than in that 6 weeks.  In those 6 weeks door after door opened and Gonzo was offered the Head Football Coaching job in Lovington.  I was going home!!!

So on this day, 11 years ago we were married. I had no idea we would be where we are now. The process!  The process He has walked us through to get to this very spot has been so good!  Tough at times but worth every single second of it all!