We were asked to speak in church on Sunday. The topic was gratitude, or gratitude in adversity. Well, anyone that has seen me talk in church knows, that’s not my best time. I am fine until I stand at the pulpit, and then I start crying. I cry the entire talk till I sit down, then I’m fine. Don’t ask me why, and I’d rather not have the opportunity to work on this. Well, when the counselor actually called us in to talk to us both about giving a talk, he looked at Kevin and said, “I already know how your wife feels about talking in church, but how are you?” (He had called on the phone while Kevin was in Reno.) A little puzzled, we both turned and looked at him.

The counselor looks at me and said, “When I called the other night, your phone wasn’t hung up all the way and I heard you say, “Daaannngggiiittt!” Wonderful.Well, at least I didn’t say anything else, right? So note to self, don’t say anything until your phone is back in standby mode.

We got ready and headed to church. Jameson looked adorable in his new outfit from Grammy Brazell. See for yourself…

We sat on the first row so we could easily get to the pulpit, but trade off sitting with Jameson. There was a youth speaker before me, and she actually gave a good talk which took 10 minutes. So I get up, and yes, start crying as soon as I talk. Having to talk about your adversities isn’t so much fun either, but the whole time I’m talking, Jameson is yelling and waving. I could hear, “Hi mom!” I could also hear, “Pig! oink oink!” This doesn’t help while your trying to concentrate. Anyways, I give my talk, the choir sings, and then Kevin gets up. I was trying to keep Jameson busy, but 5 minutes before the end, he got away from me. He ran away before I could catch him, over to the base of the stairs leading to the stand.

So here are my thoughts…

-I could run and grab him and bring him back, although he’ll probably cry and make a scene, and I’m on the front row.

-I could run and grab him and just head out, because I don’t want to take a chance of having him make a scene.

-I can hope he’ll just come back

-If I get up, am I fast enough to grab him before he makes a mad dash up the stairs?

All these thought ran through my head in about 10 seconds. Well, Jameson turned and looked at me, so I gave him “the look” and snapped my fingers at him to come sit down. At first, it looked like it worked. He turned back towards me, took one step, then turned, smiled and ran up the stairs. He found the stool next to the pulpit for children, hopped up on it, stuck his chest out, and grinned ear to ear at the congregation. Let me just say it’s a good thing he looked adorable. I jumped up and went to grab him, along with the bishopric. Instead, Kevin picked him up and finished his talk holding our son. Jameson was so proud of himself. So like I said, we like to keep things entertaining.

Needless to say, everyone in our ward now knows Jameson. We also got a few invites to Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe it was because people felt bad this pregnant girl got up and cried at the pulpit for 10 minutes, and mentioned her family wasn’t close. I’m sure it was because our ward has been very welcoming. Each week people come up and introduce themselves to us. It’s been nice not having to reach too far out of your comfort zone to meet new people.