Miracles

"Where there is great love, there are always miracles." ~Willa Cather

I feel like there are miracles all around us right now. Nature of course is an amazing miracle. And, [well, duh!], a new baby in the family is probably the biggest miracle of all. Baby Simon is the greatest gift we've been given since Mason, Ben, Maya and Daniel arrived. He is sweet, calm and loves to snuggle -- what's not to love, right? He really is a miraculous blessing. I know his mama and dad would agree. We are so grateful.

And then yesterday, in Primary, we really had another miracle. We were in the 2nd week of rehearsal for our Children's Sacrament Meeting Presentation. You know the drill -- when the kids sit in the chapel for 2 full hours right after they just finished sitting through Sacrament meeting. [I know you are nodding and grimacing right now. It's what I think of in my mind as the 'Great and Dreadful Day'].

Normally, we would only have had one hour [or less] for practice, as we are the 'middle' ward and the other ward needs the chapel for their Sacrament Meeting. But yesterday, the ward that meets last wasn't in the building as they had Stake Conference held elsewhere. [long story there: just know that this ward used to be in our stake till very recently, when a brand new stake was created. So now they are working on building a stake center, but till that happens, we still share our building with them.]

At any rate, we were given the huge gift of having the use of the chapel for the full 2 hours yesterday and we took advantage of it. I was concerned about it, since last week all we got done was seating. But our Primary kids and their teachers really are miraculous. By the time the chapel was emptied out, they were all in their places on the stand. I had anticipated spending a lot of time reminding and it just wasn't necessary.

Then, Kristi, who is my counselor supervising the program, was out of town for a family baptism. So I sort of stepped in and ran the show -- and was amazed and thrilled when I realized that a good 80% or more of our Primary children had already memorized their parts. Some of the parts are pretty long, many are straight from the scriptures, and I couldn't believe how many kids were totally prepared. "Goodly parents" indeed.

The singing? Like angels. Antsy kids? Sure, a few. But not as many as I expected. Most were so quiet and attentive that we were able to get a lot done. Next week, we'll get them seated, run through the entire program [without stopping!] and hopefully feel ready for the final performance for the ward on November 16.

Miraculous? I think so. Grateful? Oh, yes!