Songbirds

"Good Morning Mommy" says Youngest Daughter. "I made you breakfast in bed," she continues as she takes very deliberate and cautious steps toward me with a tray containing a bowl of my favorite cereal and a nice cold bottle of water.

I'm surprised and grateful and as soon as my mouth is full she exclaims "by the way we have to get to church today cuz it's Stake Conference and me and Sister are singing in the choir." She immediately retreats with the Ward Directory in hand and begins the task of arranging a ride to one of my least favorite Church events (it was actually a great Conference which I'll blog about in a separate entry)...secretly I was hoping everyone had already left and we'd be unable to find a ride.

Youngest Daughter arranges a ride for Sister first and Sister only has like 10 minutes to get ready to go. She's still in jammies and hasn't eaten either. Another couple phone calls and Youngest Daughter reports that she has arranged a ride for the rest of us and we have about 15 minutes to be dressed and ready to go. WHAT...I'm still in bed cozy under the blankets...

I jump out of bed and frantically try to pull myself together enough to be "presentable" and while putting on mascara we hear the familiar buzz of the call box announcing our ride has arrived. My eyes still feel swollen, I've just thrown something on, there was no time for a shower, I have not had time to inspect their attire to make sure it's church appropriate, our ride is here and of course we can't find the keys.

We look under cushions, under papers, on counters, on shelves, in the bathroom, in the living room EVERYWHERE only to find Youngest Daughter had them around her neck the WHOLE time. UGH..."Hurry out the door it's not polite to keep people waiting," I grumbled and we race down the steps.

Thankfully we are early enough I actually get to sit in the pews this time and our Sister Missionaries comment on how great I look...this day is looking better already.

As I look to the stand I see can see the tops of Sister and Youngest Daughter's heads present and accounted for in the Ward Choir. They are EIGHT and NINE years old and the chapel is packed, the overflow packed, AND there are EVEN rows of chairs on he stage behind the overflow but they are not nervous at all. I guess they didn't have to be, cuz I was nervous enough for the three of us I'm sure.

The Stake President announces that the Choir will now sing and honestly I don't even remember what they sang...my children stand on cue of their Director and all of a sudden I was an oozing mass of pride and love. Good thing I had skin to hold it in. Look, those are MY girls. I just kept thinking how did I get so lucky to have such great kids?

At the end of Stake Conference, when I went to the stand to thank what was essentially the keynote speaker for his remarks, Choir Director thanks me for allowing her to borrow my songbirds. I can't explain the pride I feel but it's ok cuz I don't have to. The mom's reading this either already know or will soon discover that pride and the rest can imagine it I'm sure.