Thirteen!

We have a teenager in the house!  Audrey celebrated her birthday last month in a unique way...back in January she auditioned for a part in the Sound of Music.  The musical was put on by Fresno Pacific University's music, theater and choral departments, but the children's roles would have to be filled with kids in the community.  There were open try-outs and Audrey was cast in the role of Louisa.  She was ecstatic!  We decided to take a day to pray, discuss and decided whether or not Audrey should say yes.  In doing so, we realized that the weekend of all the performances was the same weekend as her thirteenth birthday.  We knew it would be a stretch for our family to coordinate all the rehearsals and showtimes along with all our other kids' activities, not to mention school!  Audrey graciously declared that being in the musical was a present in and of itself!  She needed no party or hoopla, she wanted to be Louisa.  So she said yes!  Life was a bit more crazy than usual for the next 10 weeks, but with the help of family and friends, and lots of meals cooked on the weekends, then frozen or pre-prepped, we got everyone where they needed to be on time and fed (for the most part)!  Audrey had an amazing experience she will never forget...what a wonderful present it was!

Final dress rehearsal!  

Audrey was so grateful to have friends and family at all four of her performances!

 

Backstage fun!

As I reflect on the past few months, I think of the wonderful things our family learned together.  First, we took seriously the decision of whether or not to allow Audrey to do an activity that would take so much of a time commitment.  We prayed about it together, and we waited a day to give a yes/no answer to  the director after hearing she got the part to talk as a family about what the next 10 weeks would require of everyone (ie. Audrey's homework, fitting in driving time, allowing for family time, etc.).  So often our American society values busyness, activity after activity.  But not all activities are worth doing.  And even some of the activities worth doing should still not be done if there are better things that are required of you (like church on Sundays)!  So we started off this adventure, albeit a bit leery (this momma didn't want to become just a taxi-driver), all in agreement!  Secondly, I think of the benefit that the car rides themselves were.  Having rehearsals across town, 3-4 times a week, there were many chances to sit across from Audrey (now sitting in the front passenger seat) for the full 20 minutes and just chat.  Audrey would chat about her day, her homework, her friends, a concern about a teacher, and on and on...just chatting.  It is often hard to have a one-on-one chat in a house full of 4 kids and I genuinely thank God for allowing me so much time to just listen to my daughter over those 10 weeks.  And finally, we learned that we CAN do it!  Granted, we also learned that we don't want our schedule to always be like this, playing tag-team for drop-offs and pick-ups, eating dinners on the run, all being in the same house only when we are in bed.  But we learned that our family can adjust if something is really important to one person (as this was to Audrey), and all pitch in to make it happen.  We were, at the same time, happy to be done!