"Little Mermaid"

These blogs posts are a bit out of order.  This event happened on Saturday afternoon, June 28th.  Jena and I were invited to attend a performance of "Little Mermaid Jr.-Jr." performed by the Friend to Friend Class at the Centerpoint Theatre.  This is a class for any person with an cognitive disability 16 years and older.  The class is provided free to the community and it turns out that Jena and I knew a number of the performers from Special Olympics and school.  I was grateful for the invitation as we are considering putting Jena in this class next year as we have a conflict with the Tuesday class she attended this year.

We loved it and you could tell that the performers loved it too.

The cast was over 30 people at least.  As you can see, the costumes were amazing.  Some of the performers said their own lines, others used a soundtrack--it didn't matter. The director stood in front of the stage and directed them there with tears running down her face most of the time.  And most of us in the audience had those same tears.  When joy, love, and accomplishments are on display,  tears come easily.

I don't pretend to understand the whole plan and why many come to earth with such difficult physical challenges.  I understand of course that they came for a mortal body and that their tasks and assignments are unique to each of them as mine are to me and that the overall goal is for each of us to prove successful and return to our Heavenly Father. However as a mortal person sometimes it really doesn't seem fair.  As I watched those performers, I thought about their parents--how they have cared and worried and dealt with medical trials and fought with school systems and the financial stains--just to give them a meaningful life.  How great those parents are--and as we stood for a standing ovation at the end of the show, I clapped for them as well. Life is a great gift of God to all of His children and how our lives are blessed by the diversity we found among us.