Courage

So the younger two kiddos participated in the story telling festival at school. They get to memorize a story or poem then perform it speech style for a room of people. This might not seem like a big deal to some but for Jocelyn to do this is HUGE!

 Last year she had an awesome poem memorized and despite getting up twice to do hers she was so anxious she couldn't utter a single word of it. And wow there were a lot of tears. because she really wanted to show what she knew. 

This year when she came home from school with the paperwork telling me she was going to do it I was really nervous for her. I didn't want her to feel pressured or have another bad experience but I did want her to have the learning opportunity. I asked her if she was sure she wanted to and she said YES so we busted out memorizing another poem. Creed saw the process and wanted to jump in too. 

She memorized easily and was excited but I still was unsure if she would get up there and do it....and unfortunately she and Creed were almost the last on the program so she had the whole almost hour to sit and get nervous. But they called her name and I could visibly see her gather her guts and stand up. She got up there and busted it out...quiet and fast but word perfect. Then Creed followed without an ounce of hesitation because Jocelyn had just shown him how it was done. I was so relieved and proud of my kiddos doing hard things! Like really it was beautiful to see the courage.