A few years back, Natalie showed some interest in piano. She had found an app on an ipad that was supposed to teach her how to play a piano. Thankfully, Grandma (Dad’s mom) has a piano and Natalie was able to try it out a little. She continued to show interest in it, so we got her signed up for lessons. We got her all of the books and got the appointments scheduled for our days.
She continued to show interest so for Christmas that year, we bought her a keyboard to have in her room for practicing between lessons. Our intention was to get her a piano but she had never followed through with things so we wanted to make sure that she continued to practice and keep with it before we made that leap.
Leading up to the first piano recital, Natalie expressed how nervous she was. We made it a weekly thing leading up to the recital that she would go practice for half hour and then come give us a personal recital. We would all march up to her bedroom and listen to her play. We all clapped loudly and cheered for her when she was finished, trying to build up some confidence so she wouldn’t be so nervous when the recital came.
Recital night came. Natalie did a great job for her first time. She had a few hiccups but she didn’t show fear and she got through her songs so well, and we were SO proud!
I volunteered to make cupcakes and to help serve after the recital was over, so as soon as the recital was almost over, I made my way to the back of the church where all the of the food and drinks were. As soon as they released the kids, Natalie walked right past her dad and sisters, and then past DB…. the first person she ran up to was me. I gave her a giant hug and told her how proud I was. She replied by saying “I did it!!!! And I wasn’t even that nervous!”, hugged me again and then got her snack to go over by Dad.
If you’ve read the majority of posts, you will know the current situation we’re in. To go from blowing past her parents to come hug me to not coming home to her Dad and I….. it doesn’t make sense. It’s heartbreaking…