Noah's Mountain Climb: I asked Noah if he would climb the mountain with me about 3 weeks ago. He said yes without hesitation. I knew I was asking a lot of him since he isn't the outdoors type and having done it myself, I know it takes a lot of determination to get to that 10,188 straight up in the snow to Camp Muir. But he didn't know that. It was a perfect Washington day, not a cloud in the sky and he started off strong, even if I had him overdressed, poor kid. But fatigue and burning muscles started to take their toll at about 7,000 feet and he wasn't having fun anymore. He pushed on slowly with me starting to agonize on whether to call it a day and stop his discomfort or push on to our goal. Every time I asked if he wanted to stop he answered with a quick "No" and we pressed on. Until we got to about 9,500. He fell into a heep in the snow in tears and despair. I told him that of course he had already accomplished so much and I was so proud of him. We had been getting the attention of many climbers already and their first question was "How old is he?" You don't see kids do this climb. They all told them how proud they were of him. We had a lot of cheerleaders along the way, which is another thing I love about climbing. There are no strangers on the mountain We sat there just a couple more minutes before heading down. I helped him up but to my surprise he said, "I just want to crest this hill and then we can go back." His heart was broken that we had not reached our goal. I was so proud already and I helped him up and we made it another 30 feet to the top of this hill, very slowly. He saw the camp, that's all it took. He didn't say anything, he didn't have to. I saw it in his face. He wanted to get there. I loaded him up with ibuprofen and he trucked his little hiney up that mountain for another 1 hour and 30 minutes with the camp in sight the whole way. He fell into this heap on the closest rock we came to in the camp and I cried. We had an audience and they were proud too. Now I know the kind of grit and determination my little boy has and my hopes are high and my heart is full of joy. I am so excited for his future because when the going gets tough my son will get tougher, and I pray he gives God the glory every step of the way as I give God the glory for entrusting him to my care for a few short years. The downside is that we made it back to the car at 9:10 p.m., an 11-hour climbing day, a 1 hour 45 minute car ride ahead of us, and a very worried daddy at home with no cell phone service until 1 hour into the drive. But it didn't take long for Daddy to understand that it had to be done. That is the story of Noah's first mountain climb.
