"There shall not be room enough to receive it."

Oh my goodness. So I was in the little boy shoe aisle at Target today thinking, "Should I get size 5 1/2 or 6? Brown? Navy? Or should I just forget it and go check out the resale shop first?....All I really want to do is get those gorgeous black pumps I just saw...." When my cell phone rang. I thought, "Oh it must be Brian calling on his lunch break." It wasn't. It was the personnel manager for the KC Symphony.

I immediately got panicked and flustered thinking something bad had happened to Brian and they were calling the emergency contact (me) to give me the worst news of my life. Nope. It was some of the best news of my life. "So I hear you play horn." "Yes, I do indeed play horn." "How would you like to come play with the symphony on the next opera? You start next week."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA my mind was reeling in excitement. I'm glad Elliott didn't try to run off cause I may not have noticed. The man kept asking me, "Now do you need to check your schedule?" "Ummm no, I don't really do much." blah blah etc. etc. I couldn't even think straight I was so surprised and so happy and in total disbelief. Oh my gosh this is such a big deal. I don't really understand why they needed to hire a sub, Brian's not playing in it. But who cares? The other amazing part of the whole thing is that because Brian's not playing it , he'll be able to watch Elliott most of the 13 days I get to go to work. So as soon as I got off the phone, Brian called. He was excited for me. I couldn't talk to him long cause Elliott was starting to have a meltdown about trying on all the shoes so then I just wandered frantically around Target, completely forgetting everything I had come there for in the first place. "I can't shop in a condition like this" I remember thinking. I was so excited/nervous about playing in a professional setting for the first time, I thought I might throw up.

This is such a big deal. I've been playing horn since I was 11 and have been studying it really seriously since I was 16 or so. I am way in debt from my last two years of college studying with Mr. Clevenger and so obviously, playing in a professional orchestra has been a dream/goal of mine for a long time. I pretty much gave up hope when I got married, and really gave up hope when I got pregnant. I know this opportunity is not the same at all as winning a job. It is just a lucky break, they knew Brian's wife played horn, and thought I could probably hack it, knowing who I studied with, and whoever they asked before me, couldn't do it. Therefore, it is so important that I do an amazing job and leave no doubt in their mind that they should ask me back. The symphony horn players have told me the "guys in town" who they often hire as subs aren't that great. I really hope I can play really well so I won't become another "guy in town" who's not so great. I do feel inadequate, playing in an ensemble is a skill, a skill I haven't had the opportunity to use in a year and a half. And I think the part might be hard, I have to transpose every note up a minor third. Horn in A flat alto, what was Bizet thinking?

I know it's God who gave me this opportunity and through my diligent preparation over the next few days, and my faith, he'll make me equal to the task.... You see, we'd gotten a little behind on paying tithing over the summer because we were traveling all over and we weren't really in a ward. (Of course in hindsight we should've mailed it to our previous ward.) Well moving and getting settled has been really expensive and it'd been killing me but we just couldn't find a way to pay off that extra tithing. I have a strong testimony of the law of tithing and all these weeks when I've been searching and praying to find private students, I knew I wouldn't find any until we paid that tithing. Well, just last night, we figured out a way we could pay the tithing we owed from this summer and just today, we got this huge blessing. Incredible how God does it every time huh? =)

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse...and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it."