Swimming Test

I took the girls and two friends (a girl their age and her older brother) to the high school swimming pool tonight for the public swim. For quite awhile they all played on a big foam mat in the water climbing on top and then one of them would turn it over and dump them all in the water. They had a ball with that.

Later on they wanted to go in the deep end which meant they had to take a swim test, swimming across the pool and back without stopping. Lydia had just had me help her put on a life jacket that she wanted to wear for fun (hence, the picture above that she insisted I take) but she got wind of what the other three kids were doing pretty quickly. She had that life jacket off and was ready to try the swim test. The other three all passed and then Lydia took her turn. I was dreading the disappointment because I knew she wasn't quite ready for it. She had never been in a swimming pool before we had her at the Hilton in Ethiopia. She took lessons for eight weeks when we got home and she's made amazing progress but still has a ways to go. Lately we've been working on treading water but she's had a hard time with that.

Well, I have never seen such a determined girl in my life. She SO wanted to go to the deep end because they were all jumping off the diving board. She swam clear across the pool without stopping. I was shocked because it's much longer than she's ever done. She did breathe to the front which almost sunk her but she managed to get to the other wall without touching and pretty quickly too. She mostly lets her feet dangle instead of kicking which really slows her down. In fact, when she first learned to swim she did the hands and NO feet and it was amazing to watch her swim like crazy but go absolutely nowhere.

At the other side of the pool she was very tired and had to rest a bit. She did head back but had to stop once or twice on the way back. With that plus the longer rest at the other side I looked up at the lifeguard and said, "I'm guessing that's a no?" He nodded and smiled. I leaned over to Lydia and told her she didn't quite pass but that she did SO well! I told her it wouldn't be long before she'd be able to do it and that she just needed a little practice.

I could tell she was disappointed but she didn't fall apart like I thought she might. Instead, she started back across the pool. As she got to the other side it dawned on me that she thought that she might be able to practice enough to still make it before the end of the hour-long swim! When she came back to the spectator side I came out to the pool deck again and told her how impressed and proud I was and how I couldn't wait to tell Nanya how well she'd done. She was beaming at that and seemed pleased. And yet, she set off again to work harder at it. I coached her a bit on her breathing and kicking and she did improve over the next 20 minutes of going back and forth over and over again. Even when there was only about ten minutes left she asked me if she could go do the diving board if she swam back and forth. She must have swum back and forth at least seven times. That Lydia is one tenacious girl!

She was the same way with learning to ride the scooter, use the brake on the scooter, ride the bike, ride without training wheels, ride while standing up and pumping...you get the picture. She really sticks with something and is willing to practice even on her own until she gets it. In fact, you can see the two big knee skins from two different occasions with the scooter.

Now, it would be like a Hallmark movie if she had passed the swim test before the end of the hour but of course this is real life and she didn't. However, you could have knocked me over with a feather by what she COULD do tonight. There is nothing like wanting to do what the "big" kids are doing to motivate and inspire. As she was getting ready to go she looked at me and asked if I was happy. I said, "Yes, I'm happy." I asked her if she was happy. She said, "Yes, I'm happy." A man sitting near us had heard the exchange and was smiling. As we walked past him I said, "And how about you? Are you happy?" He said that yes, he was happy.