We arrived at the Adaptive Show Choir concert about an hour early because we were coming from volunteering at the Centerpoint theatre and that is how the timing worked out. As we walked in, I remembered that Jena had "reminded" me that parents bring flowers for performers. Hint, hint, hint! But I did not have any flowers and the flower shop in the basement of the Wilkinson Center was closed.
Soon after we sat down, Sara Bailey's family sat by us and commented that same thing--Sara had reminded them about bringing flowers but she had forgotten. We were bemoaning our "mom fail moment" and trying to figure out if we could run somewhere and get some flowers before the performance started. At that same moment, we noticed two young BYU students sit at the end of our row with a dozen gorgeous red roses. Annagrath asked them if they had gotten them on campus and the student said no that she had gotten them at a store off campus. Annagrath asked if she wanted to sell one or two of them to her. The student laughed, not really thinking she was serious. Annagrath was dead serious and I would have bought one as well. That is the power of "mom fail moments." Oh, well, we were stuck. We would have to own up to it at the end. (Of course, Jena is always sweet about stuff like this. The times it does happen, she is delighted, but she is okay when it doesn't.)
We enjoyed the performance, cried a few tears at the end, took photos, and had fun. After the performance, I was hurrying through the crowds of performers, students, and families to get to Jena in order to take a photo with her and her choir buddy. Of course, she was at the very back of the group. And this is what I saw:
There was Jena holding all of those beautiful flowers standing by this BYU student who had sat on our row. She (Alia) was having another friend take a picture of her with Jena. She saw me take this photo and asked if I was her mother. When I said yes, she said, please take a photo of us looking at you.
And then she told me her story. Alia is a freshman at BYU and was living away from her home for the first time. She said that it has been a very hard adjustment and she was lonely. When she received the email from her biology teacher asking if someone who serve as Jena's buddy, she quickly responded to the email and also prayed that she would be picked. She was so delighted when she was notified that she had been chosen. She said that Jena was her first friend at BYU, that it was the class that she also knew who she would sit by and that Jena would smile at her and bump knuckles and make her whole day go better. She said that she relied on those days to make it through her first weeks of school. She said that she knew that Heavenly Father knew she needed that and made it happen.
A bit later, I mentioned to Vicki, the WW director, that we had met Alia. She commented that Alia was amazing and that 14 students had volunteered from that class to be Jena's buddy. She said that she didn't know how to pick between them based on their brief comments, but looking down the list, she just felt Alia was right and she had been wonderful.
I know I have mentioned that when we adopted Jena, one of the strong impressions I had was that we would not be alone to parent her--that angels would be around and always there. How true that has been in her life and ours! However, we also know that Jena herself has been an angel to those around her, too. Maybe better than most of us, she touches people softly and they feel love--her love and the love of our Heavenly Father.
I am glad that I forgot flowers for Jena that day. It made these even more sweet. I teared up several times in the next 10 days as they sat on our kitchen table just thinking about Alia's story and how Jena was an answer to her prayers.
Jena also got these cute red carnations from some of her Family Home Evening group sisters who came to the concert as well.
It wasn't hard to get into the holiday spirit with this type of stuff happening. :)
