Brave

I can't believe this is the only picture I have.  How frustrating, oh well.  It all started when the last YW presidency asked me if they thought Emma would perform a solo for a program.  I knew that as long as I wasn't any part of the asking she would say yes, and it worked.  Another yw played the piano while she sang.  I was sick the night of the performance but I have the video that Nate kindly took for me. She did such a beautiful job she was asked to sing for sacrament meeting and then again for a RS night.  The picture above is from the RS program.  They were apparently going for "mood lighting" but it was just plain ole pitch dark and awkward.  What made it worse was that they finally realized that the piano player was trying to play in the dark and so to be helpful they shined an extremely bright light in her eyes making her completely blind.  So there were a few measures in there were Emma sang a cappella.   Aside from the side show (gotta love church activities), It was so beautiful.  

What makes this such a big deal is that I had to hold Emma back from starting kindergarten because of her extreme shyness and attachment to me.  It was really bad.  The first 4 years of school, all I heard about was how quiet she was and that she needed to work harder at group participation.  A lot of prayer and thought went into how to help her.  Her 4th grade year she really surprised me by participating in a musical program.  She still doesn't enjoy being around people all that much and is pretty shy, but you wouldn't know it when she sings or plays the piano.  She is an amazing kid and I'm so proud of her and the major obstacles she has overcome in her short time here thus far.  She can be absolutely fearless when she needs to be.