visitor on stage

It was bound to happen sooner or later...

It was a very busy and musical weekend for our family the past few days. Since we've moved to Colorado, I have sung in the worship services about once every two months. I sing for a number of reasons and know that I need to for those reasons, but it does add a certain element of stress to the entire weekend.

Timberline only opens the childcare area 15 minutes before the services. On the weekends that I sing (and of course, Terry does, too), this can be difficult, to say the least. This morning, I did a quick sound check with Terry for the "traditional" service, and down the hall I ran with the kids. Aidan started crying that she didn't want to go to her class. She started this last weekend, and they actually had to page me because she wouldn't stop crying. It was the first time that's ever happened. Today, when I tried to explain to her why she just had to go, she ran away from me down the hall. Finally, I checked Taylor in and realized that I was supposed to be on the stage five minutes prior...so I grabbed Aidan's hand, we ran to the South auditorium only to hear Terry starting the service, and so I plopped her down in the third row and told her not to move or make a peep. I ran up the steps and grabbed the mike.

This traditional service contains somewhere between 100-200 people (I'm not great at those kinds of numbers) and they are mostly above 60 years old, I'd say. This service so far has not been as successful as the other two types (Edge and Main), so Terry really wanted to knock it out of the park. Also, this was his very first time in this particular service. We needed things to go seamlessly, and here I was running on stage a bit late, and breathless, at that.

We got through the first two songs, and I regained my focus. I just decided to ignore the fact that Aidan was sitting to my far left. I trusted her to be that "good girl" I knew she could be. That was my mistake.

Why would she stay in her seat when she's free to run around during practice?

Why would she do what I told her to when she hadn't so far that day?

And why, oh why wouldn't she run on stage when she does any other time she's in that room?

(she's never there during real church)

We were almost done with "Amazing Grace" when my peripheral vision caught a small person running up the stairs on stage. Yes, that's what I said. Here comes Aidan in her Easter dress (pictured above), running straight for us. During the last line of the song, she just bear hugged my leg. I acted like nothing happened and kept singing my harmony.

Once the song was over, Terry got ready to start the next one, peeked over and saw her, and handled it like the pro he is. He made a joke, a good friend of ours ran up and coaxed her down, and we went on. As they went down the stairs, Terry had everyone give her a hand.

So what was her reaction later? We were in the greenroom, relaying the story to the band from the other auditorium, and all Aidan had to say was, "They clapped for me."

If that weren't enough, her last line on that topic? "When I get a little bigger, I don't even HAVE to go to my church class anymore, because I'm going to be singing with you and Daddy." Pause. Eye roll. "Mom, you KNEW that."