The Bee

It's not a coincidence that a kid who LOVES Geography ends up at a school that participates in the National Geographic Geography Bee.  We didn't know this at the time we picked the school.

That's purely a God thing.

As we headed down to D.C. the excitement in the car was palpable.  Plenty of chatter, much quizzing, and of course, a few prayers thrown in too.  It didn't hurt, that en route, we stopped to pick out the puppy that's soon to join our brood.  If nothing else, this face distracted us from any stress we might have had:

And no, she's not named yet.  A point of contention around here.

Our experience over the week was certainly unique.  Charlie roomed with two other contestants, giving us a short glimpse of life in the future, when he's off to college.  Audrey soaked up the extra attention from us both.  He learned that being away from your parents might be kind of cool, but roommates present a different set of challenges all together.  I'm sure you can relate.

As for the competition itself, he disappointed himself in that he made an error on one of the questions.  In giving the country, not the name of the island, he missed the point.  He composed himself well throughout, and it was obvious to me as his mother, that prayers were being answered for humility and good recall.  Out of the eleven contestants in our room (there were 5 rooms in total), three scored perfectly and moved on to the finals.  With ten spots available for the finals, nine of those spots were filled with kids who scored perfectly in the preliminaries.  The competition was stiff.

Given the circumstances, I do think he did his best.  There was no sense of what to expect, other than one would be competing against the best in each state.  The types of questions were unlike any he'd had previously, adding an element of difficulty.  

I'm so proud of him for his effort, but even more so for his character.  Not once did I ever hear him say anything negative or condescending.  It would be easy to get lost in the sorrow of losing, but he didn't. He was excited to see the others compete, and see if he knew the answers.

When all is said and done, Charlie walked away learning more about himself and how God answers prayers.  He heard the winner talk about how much time he spends studying for this, and Charlie was frank in his response of "I'd have no life if I did that".  I'm so thankful he has a sense of balance and priority at this age. 

All in all, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us all, and we are grateful to have been there.