This past weekend was an amazing whirlwind of emotions and activities. Actually, I guess it was more than the weekend, the entire week was chock full of stuff. Yes, I said "chock". My mom started her radiation treatments for breast cancer on Wednesday. Her appointments happen at 7:30 am, so that means the kids had to have new arrangements for getting to school. No problems there - the arrangements went smoothly. What it does change, however, is that we now have to be up at 6:00 am and on the road by 6:45 am. Thursday and Friday were dental appointments for my three sons. Oldest and youngest went on Thursday, middle on Friday. Friday afternoon was a meeting for a project I'm working on and then Friday night was my usual dance ministry rehearsals with my three groups of children, youth and teens. Oh, did I mention that during this rehearsal which I arrived late for, because the meeting that was supposed to be at 10:30am got pushed back to 4:00pm and then ran over to 6:15pm, even though I was supposed to be at the church at 6:00pm, (shift gears here) I was also rehearsing my quartet, that was now a trio, for a presentation concert scheduled for Saturday. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.
About that quartet that became a trio - one dancer hurt her hip and had to pull out from the piece and then my son sprained and cut his toe at Taekwondo practice. So I tried to insert another dancer into the choreography, while my son hobbled around his dance steps. How many ways can you say "disaster"? Both directors for the concert voiced concern, but I told them the kids would be fine and we would work it out. My mind said "Trust God".
Saturday morning began at 4:30am. The middle son had an audition for The Disney Channel and the The Group (pronounced "tay" group) at 7:30am in downtown Detroit. We arrived 5 minutes early and the audition went great. We both felt very positive about what the outcome would be. They announced at the audition that call backs would be on Sunday, but we had to check back in on Sunday morning via email, to await a phone call, to tell us whether or not we made call backs and if so, then what time to be there. Great. Dropped Son 2 off at home and on to the next stop.
A funeral for a God-loving, talented, young (he just turned 25) man, who had been a student of mine back in the day when I was teaching high school. There was such an outpouring the church was beyond "standing-room-only", people were standing outside the doors and onto the sidewalk. For my students, it was a family reunion for the worst reason. The service was scheduled to begin at 11:00am, but because the viewing processional was amazing, the officials at the funeral had to cut off the viewing in order to start the service at 11:30 or we may still have been there today. As it was, I had to leave to pick up my 3 sons to go to the church for the presentation concert (remember that). Call time was at 11:00am.
We got there at 12:45pm. Remember my mind said, "Trust God". On my way to pick up the boys, the mom of my other injured dancer, called to say she was at the church waiting for us to arrive and that her daughter was going to dance. People when I say God showed up and showed out through his children on Saturday, I mean just that. When I arrived at the church, one of the directors asked me were we cutting my piece from the concert? - Oh ye, of little faith - to which I replied no, my kids would be dancing. I saw the frown of concern on the other director's face - Et tu, Brutus?
I won't leave you in suspense, the children danced and received a standing ovation. They made me cry - that's only happened three times in the over twenty years I've been teaching dance. It was truly a blessed performance.
Onward, back to my house to pack up the children and myself for our overnight adventures. The children were spending the night with their cousins at my parents house to take care of my dad, so that my mom, sisters and I could enjoy an evening out at a plush hotel to chillax (chill out and relax) and pamper ourselves. Okay, okay, so pampering meant being able to sleep through the night without someone needing us. We had a great time, laughed at silly movies, walked around Greektown, SLEPT IN, and had a leisurely morning. I emailed at 10:00am to the audition people while we planned where to have breakfast. On the way to breakfast, audition people called me to say that Son 2 had indeed made call backs! Yea! Yahoo! He had to be back downtown at 4:30pm. Okay, okay. And we needed to have $2845.00 to hold his spot at the convention/competition in July. Uhmmmm....
We went to call backs, another great interview, and no we cannot give you nearly three thousand dollars today - can you say single parent, fixed income? Yes, my son was very disappointed as was I, but we are the bounce-back family and there's more than one way to skin a cat. So we're making plans to get him into what he wants to do right here in good ol Michigan and see if this is truly what he wants to pursue.
"Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so." - Belva Davis
Till next week.
