Nashville, I want to give you a gift if you will let me.  It is not going to be easy for me. This gift I want to give you will require me to let go of someone I love with all my heart, so they can live 2,400 miles away from me. However, in order for me to give you this gift, we have a few things to work out, like a college scholarship.

Grace gets very little sleep these days. A senior in high school, she spends her days going to school, doing band stuff afterschool, then rushing off for her bassoon lessons, squeezing in babysitting jobs, doing homework every night, practicing the bassoon for hours and hours, and then finishing the evening by writing classical music compositions. Sundays, you may find her playing drums at church too.

If it sounds crazy, yes we are. Her schedule makes us all crazy.

In just a couple weeks, Grace will be doing music auditions playing the bassoon at several colleges. She will also be submitting her music compositions.  Her heart is set on Nashville for Belmont University, but she is leaving other options on the table just in case. She needs a good scholarship to make it work. We are praying!

So for now, she is as anxious, excited, stressed, and dedicated. She has chewed off her fingernails. If she was just an average musician, I would never let her go through the kind of stress she is taking on, but because she can truly rock that bassoon (and drums and piano and a multitude of other instruments), we are supporting her on this path. After all, Grace was the first kid in her 4th grade class who figured out you can play the recorder with the nose, and then all the kids followed.

So Nashville, if my girl does end up at Belmont University, then I am excited for you. You will not only get a very talented bassoon player (I know, I know, you have lots of musicians), but you will get a fantastic, fun, loving, silly girl who makes for a great friend, a fantastic babysitter (kids adore this one and she adores kids), and you will receive my baby girl.

 I write all this tonight to ask for your prayers too. She needs to feel the presence of God, to give her peace during this tremendously stressful and exciting adventure she is on. Change is coming for her, and she is feeling it.

Photo credit: Keely Marie Scott