Yesterday, we watched our biggest three girls, Lily, Jenite and Grace in a play at church called "Oh, Jonah". They had practiced all week, worked hard, helped make the decorations and sang, sang, sang their little hearts out in preparation.
They did such a great job, we were so proud. It was especially nice to see them working together on something so positive and to succeed through their own hard work. So often, nowadays, I think we underestimate what our kids are capable of. Yes, they could have had longer than a week to practice, yes, going every day and Saturday to practice was hard, yes, they were tired. But they did it!! And they did it well.
Jenite was amazing, although she didn't have many lines, because she can't read yet, she learned all the moves and the songs and worked really hard. Lily had many lines and a solo and did great! I couldn't believe how calm and focused she was. Grace did a good job just being 5. She learned the songs and the moves, but spent most of the time at the actual performance fiddling with her shirt and looking a little nervous (but she didn't run off the stage crying...).
I was so proud of them all.
After the play was a potluck. As this wasn't our regular church, everyone came up to welcome us and meet the kids. At one point, someone asked how many kids there were in our family and the kids answered that there used to be 6, but now there were 5. It took my breath away, and gave me pause, and obviously shocked the person asking, but the kids were OK with it. I think that they see that Kenley is in a good place for him and that we are moving forward with our lives as well. This is the new reality, and thankfully, it doesn't seem to have left any one of the kids, Kenley included, much the worse for the wear.
So that is it. We are forging ahead with our lives. School is starting, there are plays to be done, trips to be had and new memories to be made. Hopefully, many, many good memories...
