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Ali’s hand absent mindedly finds the scar on her knee from where she tore her ACL all those years ago. That was such a hard time but she got through it. She worked hard to get back and they won the World Cup. She couldn’t help but smile at the memory. So much has changed since then. 23 years later and she is laying in her bed next to her wife who is starting to stir. Being pulled out of her thoughts she stares at Ashlyn waiting to see if she is going to wake up. After a moment Ashlyn stills and her breathing evens back out allowing Ali to go back down memory lane. She does this a lot, especially when she is worried. It’s 6:24 am and she should be asleep. In just a few hours she and Ashlyn will be getting on a plane to fly to a small training camp for this USWNT. This time as coaches. Ali has accepted the Head coach position and Ashlyn is the goalkeeper coach. She loved being the coach. What she didn’t love was leaving her kids behind.
She loved her kids and, yeah, she would miss them, but her main concern was what she would return home to. She honestly just prayed the house would still be standing. Jeez her kids are a handful. Whatever made them want to have 6 kids?! It started out simple. Right after their one year anniversary they adopted their oldest, Ava. She is now 22, an assistant social worker, and living a few miles from them in LA with her wife, Kate. They then decided they wanted to expand the family and Ali started doing IVF treatments. 2 years later they had their son, Tyler, who is now 20. A few years ago he moved to Colorado to “find himself” and they don’t really hear from him much anymore. Honestly, they are just happy to get a phone call on Mother’s Day and Christmas. Then came Eli. He can never sit still, even at 19, and he could easily eat everything in the house. Then there was the twins. Oh, the twins. Ashlyn decided she wanted to experience pregnancy thinking one kid can’t be that bad. Well nine months and two babies later she decided she would leave all future baby making to Ali. The twins, Micah and Matt, are now 16 and the biggest handful of them all. They constantly stay in trouble and have taken years off their mothers’ lives due to stress. Micah is definitely the mastermind of the two. She knows exactly how to bend rules and takes crap from no one. Matt is her right hand man ready to help cause the chaos.
Ali was finally starting to doze off when she heard her bedroom door open. She glanced over and saw that it was now 7:15 am. Of course, like clockwork. She watched as Parker walked over to Ashlyn’s side of the bed. Parker was the youngest of the Harris clan and he milked every bit of it. They adopted him as a baby 10 years ago and knew that the family was finally complete. Parker began lightly tapping Ashlyn’s shoulder waiting for her to realize that her personal alarm clock was here and ready for her to get up. After a moment Ashlyn popped open her eyes.
“Morning buddy.”
“Morning Mama. Will you make pancakes today?”
Ashlyn pretended to think before answering, “Um. Yes.”
As he started to leave Ali got his attention.
“Hey Park will you wake up Micah and Matt for me? Eli is probably already up.”
Parker immediately froze. His eyes saying, Please no. Ash laughed and told him not to worry about it that she would get them. After he left Ashlyn rolled over snuggling into her wife. She glanced up and let out a deep breath.
“Really Al?”
“What?”
“Did you sleep at all?”
Ali didn’t answer. She just looked around the room trying not to make eye contact. Ash gave up, laughing already knowing how her wife is. She stood up, stretched and reached down taking Ali’s hand.
“Come on beautiful. It’s going to be a long morning.”