For me singing in choir spiritually feeds me.  It is something that I need to do and luckily I enjoy it too.

I will say sometimes singing can feel overwhelming at Christmas time.

• My 3 boys and I are singing in our Stake’s Sing Noel performance this weekend.  We have been practicing each week since the middle of October.
• Then there is the Millennial Choir, T2 is singing in that.
• Then there is Shine – a singing group T2 is also in and they have 4 or 5 performances.
• Then there is Follow the Star and T2 is singing there too.
• THEN there is our ward choir.  Small, but sweet.  T2 sings with me there.

All the rehearsals and performances and it can feel overwhelming.   Is it worth the disruption it brings to our family?

Christmas time of 2009 reminds me it is.

Re-reading this birth story from a birth I attended in 2009, helps remind me why all the practices and performances are worth it and how God has a hand in everything!!

Or ward choir was planning on singing 3 numbers on the 20th of December.  I am an alto and you know how you need all the altos you can get!  I felt especially needed that day because we had

• 1 women’s number with 3 parts only 4 of us were singing alto
• We were singing the Hallalujah Chorus

I have fond memories of the Hallelujah Chorus.

We sang it every year in High School.

This year (2013) T2 is singing it with the Millenial Choir and he is LOVING it, he listened to the whole Messiah the other day while he was doing homework. 

Also on my mission I had read this inspirational story about the music of The Messiah.  (really worth going and reading this one!!)

It is about a woman who learned to play the Messiah in 5 days, because an organist had to leave town for a sick mother.

It really stuck with me and one day I mentioned it to my new companion, who loved music as much as I did.

She stopped, looked at me and said, “That was my mom.  I was the preschooler who played in the pews while she practiced.”

I loved that, it was a REAL story.

Saturday afternoon one of my doula clients called.

She was a first time mom in her early birthing time.  We talked a few times that evening.  I got my ducks in a row and went to bed, knowing she would most likely call me at some point in the night.

This meant I would probably miss singing in the choir. All I could do was pray about it and try to let that go.  If I was meant to be there, then I would be.  If not, it would be ok!  I tried to give it up to God!

I woke up about every hour, wondering why they hadn’t called yet.  I am too excited when I know I am about to go to a birth to sleep really well.

Finally at 5:30 AM they called.

I figured there was no way I would make it to choir.

They were on the way to the hospital, her water had broken.   I got up, took a 3 minute shower to wake up, put on my doula outfit and head out!  I arrived at the hospital at 6.  Mom was in a room and already pushing.  She did AWESOME!  Baby was born at 6:24 and mom and baby were both great.

I usually stay for 1-2 hours after birth.  By 8:30 baby had nursed, mom and dad were doing wonderfully, I had moved their car from the Emergency Room Parking lot.  They seemed settled and ready to be on their own.  I asked if they were ok with me leaving.  They were!

The timing was perfect!

I called home.  Told DH to have Thing 2 ready (he was singing too).  I drove home quickly, changed and got us both to church about 2 minutes after 9.   Thing 2 was a bit disgruntled we were a few minutes late.  I explained, “I was at a birth!”  He was totally surprised about that and then was fine with us being a bit late.  Luckily we didn’t have to be on the stand until a bit later in the program, so the timing worked perfectly!

I felt the spirit so very strongly while we sang. I kept tearing up and it was hard to sing.  I felt so honored to be a part of a beautiful birth that morning.  I kept seeing that baby being born in my mind, and remembering how peaceful and beautiful of a birth it was and couldn’t help thinking of the precious baby Jesus born over 2000 years ago and the angels singing to announce His birth.

The music of Christmas is so powerful and I felt like it was my own little Christmas Miracle that I was able to be there to sing with the choir!