Seeing more than I expected!

So back to last night, since I promised to add on...

I've been prepping our kids for 3 weeks now that Monday, February 23rd would be the day they would come see mommy in the play. I made sure to arrange for McKenna and Lindsey to come with Marc to help with the kids.

One adult for each kid.

I think the preparation helped because they made it through the whole thing!

I was even prepared with popcorn and drinks when they got there!

I guess Baby had a little case of ants in her pants, but for the most part they were good.

I even got to hear Brother holler out during my main scene, "Oh, Mother!" It made me night and almost made me break. I had even warned my fellow cast members to listen for him. Turns out they didn't hear him—I guess it's a parent thing.

Anyway, I was really excited, because afterward they were even able to handle coming to say "hi" to me and get a picture with me. All except Brother, he had a bit of a rough time and refused to be in the group shot.

One of the other big UPs of my night was having some special friends show up and surprise me! It was especially awesome because one of those friends is a very special friend to Brother from our old neighborhood. She was able to get Brother out of his funk and he was excited to see her and talk to her a little bit.

I am always truly humbled by the youth in Brother's life and how they really care about him. I love it! Thank you M for being you and being being sweet to Brother no matter his reaction!

After M and her family had left, Brother hid back in the corner again.

It didn't last long though, because Felesha, my friend from the cast, was able to connect with Brother and got him to come out of his shell. I was impressed at her time and effort to befriend him and make him feel comfortable.

I often take the time to explain Our Life, Fragile X and all that these two things combined can induce, but it is always nice to see that what I  have taught is actually put into action.

The other thing that is cute about Felesha is that she thinks my hubby is a hottie and it just makes me giggle to see her act like a school girl. Marc took a selfie with her and I think her smile says it all:

I was so happy too when Baby let me take a selfie with her:

This is the face Baby makes for most of her pictures now-a-days... reference below to her recent pic with Marc

I was also really happy to see Yaya at the play!

Oh, and I was so happy to see her parents too!

Earlier in the day, a couple ours before I left for the play I had a bit of a down moment. It started off happy because I was so excited that I was taking the time to redesign my header for this blog:

Then Marc came home while I was finishing up and after a few minutes he called down and asked, "Rachael, have you seen the Christus?"

I had to glue the hand on once because I knocked something over that was next to it and it nicked it just right. I thought that one of the kids had bumped it and broken it again. It is very special because my parents gave it to us years ago for Christmas and it is one of those really nice ones that stands about 14 inches tall. It's a centerpiece in our home.

I wasn't expecting to see this:

I about died when I saw it. I knew immediately it was Sister and I thought for sure it was permanent marker. I took a picture because I just had to. I was amazed she would silently do this while I thought all was well.

I told her to find the marker she had used and was so relieved that it was a washable one and proceeded to get the right cleaner and a dish cloth to begin removing the graffiti.

As I did so, I began to chuckle to myself as I noticed that she had given him a heart, some eyebrows and his crown on top.

And then, it became my up.

Our daughter knows enough about Christ to know that he is our king, he has a heart full of love and his eyes are the window to his soul (so of course you have to frame them with good eyebrows.)

That was yesterday's biggest lesson.

Today, was fun and rough and good.

The play is always fun:

Wearing these humongous butterfly wings always bring me UP

My fellow butterfly, Paige!

I had fun pretending to be a windshield butterfly...

And of course I had to do a selfie!

I got these pictures from my sister this morning from when they came to the play last Friday:

And there was a other stuff that happened today that made me reflect on what I have ahead of me in my parenting journey and all that I have in front of me in the here and now.

I feel inadequate, under-quallified, and overwhelmed.

I have to say though, that today, my UPs certainly outweighed my downs.

Besides, how could I possible be sad having gotten another YouTube video finally put together AND it was from Christmas so it brought TONS of happy Christmas memories!

Merry Christmas!