Many of you know that Abbie loves soccer. She’s been playing since she was very small. We tried community soccer leagues, AYSO, school teams and travel teams. If it was available, she wanted to do it! Well, moving to Hungary we surely thought that her school here would have a girls’ team. When we got here we realized that wasn’t the case so we started to search for a team for Abbie to play on. Our first year here Abbie played every sport that the school had to offer because we couldn’t find a soccer team for her to play on. Then this past fall a coach came to the school and asked if any high school girls wanted to play on a Hungarian team. This coach was starting a new team and would be practicing in Diosd which is the village where the girls go to school. So we started to go to practices. Then we realized that everyone that plays on a Hungarian team has to be cleared of all other teams and must have the correct documentation and paperwork to play. We had been warned this is a lengthy and expensive process but we thought we’d see how far we can get in the Hungarian system.
First we had to provide an incredible amount of paperwork to prove that Abbie is who she is and that she can legally be in Hungary. This also included papers on Brad and I, our reasons for being here and documentation that Brad has a job! Well after weeks of providing one thing after another, we moved to the next level. The coach had to check with FIFA in the US to make sure Abbie was clear to play in Hungary! OK. To us, this seems excessive (now really, who in the US are they going to contact and who in the US really cares?) But here, apparently it matters that she only plays on one club team. So they were satisfied that she can play here. Next is the physical. She had to have an EKG as well as bloodwork and a specy taken. We are very fortunate to have a wonderful Peds doctor at our church who helped us through this process. Then we were required to take all of the paperwork and test results to the sports doctor who is the only one who can give this certificate for her to play soccer. So we found one and our wonderful doctor went with us. Way above and beyond the call of duty. I think she felt sorry for us poor Americans trying to work our way through the Hungarian medical system! We met with the sports doctor who asked us for Abbie’s sports card. We didn’t have one so he stamped a prescription note that said she could play. We payed our 5000 forint and thought we were in the clear. Abbie goes to practice the next day and discovers that, even though the coach had urged her to get this approval done soon so she could play in this weekend’s game, she had not given us the appropriate “card” for the sports doctor to sign. Without that, it was up to the ref of the game to determine if Abbie could actually play in the game or not.
Well, he was gracious and let her play. She started and had a blast! The following week a Hungarian teammate took Abbie’s note back to the sports doctor with the correct “card” and he signed it. No extra charge. Miracle!
So here I sit after months of Hungarian paperwork, waiting for Abbie to be done with soccer practice. It’s her senior year and she is gleaning everything she can out of it – including sports at school, 3 AP classes and Hungarian soccer where half of her teammates including her coach don’t speak English!
This is the view from our car looking at the soccer fields. There is usually a wonderful view no matter where you go!