One of the best things to come from quarantineJV and Gabe's games are streamed now on YouTube so we get to watch their home games. Tonight after Sarah's game we all watched the boys.
Leah is working on AR points and so we headed to the local library because she was having trouble finding stuff she liked at school. She was super excited to find books that she could read to Heidi to teach her all about her "cousins". Sweet girl and sweet dog!
DSJH played Episcopal tonight. Rosalie and Leah were excited they could watch their older siblings and hangout with each other.
I'm not sure why I like to take pictures of Leah sleeping but I do. She always looks so peaceful and I guess secretly I'm hoping save this little bit of sweetness for as long as I can. She's pretty much moved into our room. When Andy travels she's in my bed. When he's home, she's moved her mattress in our room. We should probably stop all of this....but she's only little once and it's all going by so fast.
ONE!! We sure do love us some baby cousin Amelia!! And we had a great time celebrating her birthday today. Grandma was even able to join us for the trip down to Luling. Stacy did a great job with the theme and the decorations. We love you sweet girl! Can't wait to celebrate many, many more birthdays with you!!
We were super excited when LSU hired Kim Mulkey to be the new women's coach and so of course we bought season tickets! And mom did too! Well Mom got to enjoy the first half of the season before she got sick and then we finally got to make it to a couple of games after Sarah's basketball schedule let up. It was so much fun. I love seeing the PMAC rocking again for Women's Basketball. Geaux Tigers!!
EDMOND — Jai’Vion Seat remembers writing the note that changed his life.
He was living at Boys Ranch Town, a boys home in Edmond near Lake Arcadia. But he wanted a family of his own.
JV always expressed his feelings best in writing, so he scribbled down that he wanted the Seat family to adopt him. When a counselor at Boys Ranch Town found the note, they contacted Rob and Katie Seat.
That note surprised even them.
“I had no idea what they were talking about,” Rob said. “We had three kids already and didn’t expect our family to grow anymore, but we felt like it was God’s calling.”
JV, now a senior at Edmond Memorial, was homeless before arriving at Boys Ranch Town. He started third grade at Chisholm Elementary, where he developed a friendship with Gabe Seat, the oldest of three kids, and eventually a deeper one with Rob and Katie. The Seats adopted JV in the summer of 2015.
The adoption happened thanks to a note, basketball and God’s will.
“Being comfortable with them early on helped me a lot,” JV said. “It felt like home.”
Bonding at Chisholm Elementary
JV and his biological mother fell on hard times.
They became homeless, and JV said he spent time at shelters before going to Boys Ranch Town.
There, he started school at Chisholm Elementary. He and Gabe Seat bonded over sports.
Gabe played on a basketball team, and JV would often come and watch, but he played on a different team.
Gabe also had JV over to the Seats’ house often to hang out, furthering their friendship. At first, Rob and Katie didn’t know JV lived at Boys Ranch Town. When they found out, they contacted his teacher at Chisholm, who put them into contact with the boys home. Then the Seats became his sponsor.
Rob has been in Edmond his entire life. He once was a star for the Oklahoma Christian basketball team. Rob met Katie, a San Diego transplant, at OC. The two have been together since.
The year after beginning school at Chisholm, JV began playing on the same basketball team as Gabe. With Rob and Katie being sponsors, JV also stayed at the Seats every other weekend.
They were starting to become family.
One day, Rob and Katie were having a conversation with a case worker who started talking with them about possibly adopting JV.
It caught them off guard.
“We were done,” Rob said of he and Katie having more children. “But I had always wanted another boy.”
The breaking point came when the Seats learned about the note JV wrote to his counselor. Before the start of fifth grade, JV moved in with the Seats. They were officially his foster parents.
“Coming from a place where there were a bunch of different boys around and transition to this, it was a major step,” JV said.
But JV wanted more. So did the Seats.
'That football guy can really hoop'
The Seats officially adopted JV on July 21, 2015, before he and Gabe started sixth grade.
Except legally, the adoption didn’t change much. He was already a Seat. It was a culmination of what started in a third grade classroom.
As far as sports, JV has always dominated the competition. He and Gabe played football and basketball together, and the duo always starred.
Now at 6-foot-3, JV is a dynamic guard who can score from anywhere on the basketball court, but he has a huge frame. He’s physically imposing and can dominate in the paint or setting screens up high.
When he was younger, JV was always one of the bigger kids on his teams. He was used to people playing physically against him. He continued to fall in love with basketball and work at perfecting his craft, but it wasn’t until an injury on the last play of his final eighth-grade game that made him stop playing football.
“There were times during AAU basketball where people would say, ‘That football guy can really hoop,’” Rob said. “And JV just wanted to prove them wrong. He wanted to show he was a basketball player.”
Rob takes some of the blame for keeping him in football as long as he did. JV’s passion was on the hardwood, but Rob pushed him to continue playing football because of pressure from friends and others in athletics commenting on how JV was supposed to be a football player.
JV heard all those comments. Even this past season, he had football coaches trying to recruit him to come play.
The football injury made JV miss all of his eighth-grade basketball season, but that didn’t take away from the excitement of waiting for him to become an Edmond Memorial Bulldog.
JV didn’t play football as a freshman. Instead he spent all summer and fall preparing for basketball.
He made the varsity.
“And the rest is history,” Rob said.
JV Seat's rise to Abilene Christian signee
JV caught the ball on the block and was immediately surrounded by three defenders.
That didn’t faze him.
He swiftly took a dribble and went in for a tough layup, making the basket and earning a foul call.
Sequences like that one last weekend during the McGuinness Classic have become a common sight for opponents guarding JV.
Even triple teams often can’t stop him. He’s a dynamic playmaker. He can hit a 3. Post up shorter players and score. Pass and create open looks for teammates.
JV is well rounded on the basketball court, and it comes from how even keel he is.
In addition to Abilene Christian, JV also held interest from Arkansas Pine-Bluff and Wofford. Last year, he was named to the Class 6A All-Tournament team.
Basketball is tough. It’s a physical sport. But it’s nothing like what JV has overcome to get to this point.
That’s why he never gets flustered during a game. JV’s expression hardly changes, whether he hits a 3-pointer, takes a charge or gets called for a foul.
That mental fortitude and leadership extends to his teammates, and it’s a big reason why Edmond Memorial is again one of the favorites to win the Class 6A state championship at Lloyd Noble Center in March.
“I’m just trying to win a ring, really,” JV said. “Just going all out.”
His easy-going demeanor is a big reason why he has been so successful.
JV is one of the best boys basketball players in the state. His skills on the court are a major factor, but it’s his mental makeup and approach that sets him apart.
A decade ago, JV was homeless. Then he was put into a boys home.
But he always fought. Fought for survival. Fought for family. Fought to prove a basketball court was where he belonged.
And he has accomplished all that and more.
“He has got a little chip on his shoulder,” Rob said.
Every Tuesday and Friday night in different gyms across Oklahoma, JV proves to more and more people he does belong on a basketball court.
Go ahead and doubt JV Seat. Nothing’s going to fluster him.
After a crazy fall....literally and figuratively, mom is starting her treatments for her breast cancer. Thankfully treatments have changed so much since the 90s when she had it the first time. And the research done on breast cancer has been amazing. They now classify the types of cancer differently and treat them differently as well. Today she will start antibody infusions every three weeks for a year that will prevent the growth of any new cancer cells. No chemo and no radiation this time and we just can't express enough how much of an answered prayer this is!! After her brain injury from her fall in Walmart in November and then her pacemaker being put in, this was a welcome form of treatment!
