A couple of Sundays ago, Benjamin decided to take his prize baseball to church with him to show to his teacher, Bro. Smith. Bro. Smith is an awesome Primary teacher. He is totally involved in his students lives and has been to a couple of Ben's games to show his support. Anyhow, after church, one of the older boys, a 14 year old, decided it would be "funny" to throw the ball down the storm drain. I didn't know it was happening, obviously because said boy is still breathing, but when I got in the car, Ben was uncharacteristically quiet. I asked a couple of times and got no answer, so I was content to leave it as, Ben is in a "mood". Then from the backseat Danny reports, "Carl threw Ben's ball down the big hole". This was a bit confusing to me because first, there is NO CARL at church. Second, I had no idea that Ben had brought a ball to church that day. After a few additional questions, Ben's "dam" broke and it all came out. Mike and I rushed over to see what could be done. Ben reported that he had tried everything and that it was just lost for good. It took me a few minutes, but I got out the crow bar from the jack on my truck/tank:) That allowed us to open the manhole, but it was not long enough to reach the ball. After a few minutes and Dad coming out from his meetings, finally, I decided to bust Dan out of his car seat and see if he was brave enough to make the trip. He was ecstatic to be able to help his big brother. No fear of army crawling the 15 feet into the tunnel to reach the ball....... all we heard was "GOTCHA!!!!!" He then came back out with this grin to all our cheering. When he got back in the truck where Eli was waiting with Aaron and Josh, he said, "Eli, that was so awesome, I got the ball and they were all clapping for ME!"
Needless to say, he was showered with hugs and "hi-fives" for the rest of the day, every time he brought it up. Then he proceeded to explain to me for the next three days, how he deserved to have ice cream because he was so brave for his big brother. What can I say, I obliged.
