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Anna loved her acting class at Casa Manana this spring, so after a summer of agonizing I decided to go ahead and sign her up for a fall class, despite the cost. She's a good kid, and I think she needs this creative outlet.

I signed her up over the internet, which is the only way to register for their classes. Unfortunately, the sign-up web site is not real time, and I got a call the next day saying that all of the classes for Anna's age group were full, and would they like me to put her on the waiting list?

My heart sank. If I had just signed her up when the registration started instead of waiting and worrying! I had them put her on the list, and explained the situation to Anna. She took it well, thank goodness.

Classes started this week, so not having received a call I figured we were out of luck. Then yesterday afternoon at 3:50, I got a call from the theater school director. The classes were all still full, but the lady who taught Anna's class in the spring saw her name on the waiting list and said "We can't leave Anna without a class." So she offered to increase her class size to accommodate our Anna.

Wow - that says a lot about what this teacher thinks of Anna. I was thrilled. Then came the kicker - the class started in 40 minutes. Since the theater is 25 minutes away, that didn't give us much time to get ready.

I went out to the living room, where the girls were watching Lucy on DVD, and asked Anna to turn it off for a second. She grudgingly complied (she loves Lucy) and I explained the situation to her. She was thrilled, as you may well imagine.

Anna was a whirlwind getting things ready to go. I wrapped up my job as quickly as I could, redid Alyssa's hair, and we made it to the theater with minutes to spare.

Anna's sure she's going to like this class as much as she did the last one. I'm grateful she was able to get into it.

Having her get into the class really helped me, too. Yesterday was one of the toughest days I have had in a long time, and this joy and excitement helped pull me up just enough. It also reminded me that, for some reason, the Lord likes to wait until the very last minute before handing over those blessings.

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