But I'm pleased to say that with a lot of hard work, patience, practice, prayer, a little blood, a little sweat, alot of tears, several explanations that we're not abandoning them and pure determination, we've almost worked through that. Caleb broke through his shell when he was about five, close to six. He was ready and willing to stay in any preschool, Sunday School class, Wednesday night church class or dentist appointment offered to him. (Being homeschooled, I admit our opportunities at practicing independence is a little limited at this point.) And he will talk the ear off anyone willing to listen to a little boy's big ideas of inventions and calamities or tales of tractors or goats! At five, almost six, Sarah Rose is still making progress, slowly but surely. She'll finally proudly stay all by herself for Children's Church without a complaint, just don't go expecting her to carry a conversation with you... or even give you a high five....quite yet!
Even with all the progress we made, this Mama was nervous when it came time for our church's Christmas program. Especially when Caleb was asked to be a narrator! Sarah the Leader (not to be confused with Sarah the Van Zante) made it clear to Caleb that he would be in front of the WHOLE congregation, speaking into a microphone. And Caleb was confident that he could do it! So we got his script and practiced. Sure enough, his confidence was proven and he did fantastic! Though we did start off kinda panicky... When Caleb walked on the stage to find his seat among the other seven narrators' seats, he discovered his script had come unstapled. He turned to look at me (I was standing behind the narrators at the keyboard... look at the picture) with panic in his eyes, along with huge tears welling up in them. He was worried that the papers would get out of order and that he would get confused. Thankfully, I was able to slip around the keyboard before the narrators' parts began and give him confirmation that everything would be fine, fold the corners of the paper to kinda hold them in place, and tell him he'd do great. And he did.
It was determined that Sarah would be an angel. She was excited, but I knew very well her reputation for stage fright. She often will want with all her might to do something in front of or with people, but when she gets within a step of the stage or the event starts, stage fright hits and sheer fear runs through her. So since my hands were tied up with being on the keyboard to accompany the carols, I told Josh to be on standby to help if need be. BUT!!!!! On her cue, she walked in with the other angels and stood up in her spot as part of the multitude of heavenly hosts and, like her brother, did wonderful. She told me later that she was really nervous, but she was as brave as she could be and she did it! I think she was pretty proud of herself to have accomplished such a big feat for her!
I literally held back tears the whole program at how far my kids have come. We've been through quite a bit with his struggle. Severe shyness is probably not something anyone would understand the hardship of until they've been through it. So I nearly cried when my kiddos showed their goats at the fair this summer and I nearly cried when they consented agreeably to be in the church Christmas program. I'll probably cry at everything they do for as long as I'm a witness to it.
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| Josh took the best picture he could using his phone from the back of the sanctuary. Sarah Rose is on the left, the angel on floor level. Caleb is on the right, sitting among the narrators behind the angels. He's got a light blue shirt and tie on. (The tie was a big deal! He always asks to wear a tie because it's fun to a little boy who never gets to wear a tie! So on Christmas, he wore a tie :-) ) You can barely make me out (which is how I like it), but I'm standing in the very back behind the narrators, dressed in black, by the keyboard... which is how I was able to help them when the mic fell and when the papers got confused and when there were a couple of starting jitters with the other narrators, too. |
The program was called "The Music of Christmas". The narrators told history of how some of the favorite and most popular carols came to be, followed by the congregation singing the carols after each explanation. Before "Silent Night" was sang, the little kids portrayed the Nativity as the story of Jesus' birth was read from Luke. It was touching and cute. I'm working on getting a DVD so I can see it from the front view, so if anyone wants to see it, I'll sure have it for your viewing pleasure!
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