Exciting!

Ok, I have a cool God story to share. I started to get sick (again) Sunday afternoon, and by Sunday night I didn't have a voice at all. I barely had a voice yesterday or today, and I had a wicked cough and sore throat. I found out in late December that I was chosen to play in the finals of the ISU Concerto Competition. Those finals were held tonight at 7 p.m. I haven't really been able to practice my piece much at all in the past 2 weeks, as I was very sick the last 8 days of break and into the first 3-4 days of classes last week.

It came down to whether I was going to try and make it through my piece tonight or just not even attempt. During a run-through/dress rehearsal yesterday, I had a coughing fit in the middle of the crazy hard end section of the piece, so I was sort of nervous that would happen again tonight. I had an extra stand out there with me that had my handy dandy water bottle on it- (which I ended up using quite a bit during my rests). I had been praying yesterday and today that God would give me energy and strength during my performance tonight to be able to not just get through it, but to really just have a good time. God answered my prayers! There were 10 of us competing for just 3 spots, and I just checked my email to find out I was one of them! God gave me the grace and endurance to perform well even though my circumstances would have proven otherwise.

I'm going to be soloing Weber's "Clarinet Concerto N.2 Mvt. 3" with the ISU orchestra on March 28th (the day after my birthday!). I'm so excited! PTL!