by Robin Bourland

Created on: March 16, 2009

Having five children makes for a lot of good "mommy moment" opportunities. Each one of my children is unique and wonderful in his or her own right. They have all done wonderful, magical things that have caused butterflies in my stomach and tears in my eyes. However, there is one very special moment that forever stands out in my memory and I call it my favorite "mommy moment."

A little background first. I'm going to take you back two years to May, 2007. My oldest son, Tyler, was 13 and my 2nd oldest, Colton, who is 17 months younger, was 11. My oldest three children, including Paige, who is two years younger than Colton, and I have been through hell and back together. We survived abuse from their biological father and then were on our own with not much money, not a lot of support and our whole lives ahead of us. Tyler has been diagnosed with a couple of mental health disorders and all of us have had to work though lots of baggage and struggles individually and as a family. Tyler was always a good athlete. He loved sports; baseball, football, anything that involved a ball and running. When the summer of his 12th birthday came along, it was very disheartening to find out that Tyler was not going to play baseball and was giving up sports. He had been struggling in school and struggling socially and he decided that he was going to spend that summer buried in video games. While Tyler hid away that summer, Colton stepped up to the plate both literally and figuratively and became quite the sports sensation in our little town. With his red curly hair, he quickly gained a nickname that sticks with him to this day. Everybody in town knows him by "Red."

Red became a sports machine. Baseball, his strongest sport by far. Red could pitch a ball that nobody could hit, catch a ball that nobody could catch and steal a base before anyone knew what was going on. He had a wonderful summer of stealing bases, turning double plays and striking out disappointed pre-teen boys one right after another. He even made the regional all-star team and became a legend in our area.

By this time, I had re-married to a wonderful man and we have two children of our own, Michael and Victoria. Life went on. Tyler retreated into his hibernation and Red continued to light up the sports world in our little town. Baseball turned to football and pitcher turned to quarterback. Soon basketball and wrestling came around and then back to baseball. Tyler continued to struggle in school and socially and all

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