My oldest son coached his first game in his new role as the offensive line coach for a college football team. It’s a big step for him.

He’s worked hard for this moment. The crazy hours as a graduate assistant, the missed events, and all the unglamorous parts of building a career in college football.

There isn’t much work-life balance during football season.

It is pretty much all work.

He has missed weddings, bachelor parties, birthday celebrations, and annual guys’ trips, not because he wanted to, but because he understands the sacrifices needed to get to where he wants to go.

So this past Saturday, when two of his college buddies surprised him at his first game, it got me.

They each drove more than three hours from different directions just to be there for Coach Kooper.

These are busy guys.

They have jobs, wives, kids, responsibilities, and full lives of their own.

And still, they made the drive.

That made me tear up.

Because as parents, there are certain things we quietly hope and pray our children will find as they make their way through life.

Good people are near the top of that list.

People who show up.

People who celebrate them.

People who make room in their already busy lives to say, “This matters to you, so it matters to me.”

People who make the drive.

And maybe this is something we appreciate differently once our kids are grown.

We can’t always be there anymore.

So there is something incredibly comforting about seeing that they have found people who love them well.

As my kids have gotten older, I have become increasingly grateful for the people they have chosen and for the people who have chosen them back.

Their friends.

Their teammates.

Their coworkers.

The people who slowly become family along the way.

Because the older I get, the more certain I am that the things we accumulate really don’t matter all that much.

The car.
The clothes.
The stuff.

It all comes and goes.

But the people who answer the phone.

The people who sit beside you when life is hard.

The people who make the drive to sit in the stands and say, “We are here.”

That is what makes life rich.

Maybe one of the unexpected gifts of raising adult children is realizing we are no longer the only ones loving them fiercely.

They have built a village of their own.

And that may be one of the greatest answers to a mother’s prayer: to know that as their world gets bigger, their circle grows with it.

Filled with people who show up.
Who love them well.
Who make the drive.

💛💛💛