Slightly Late Memorial Box Thursday! :)

A month ago ShaoXi had the awesome opportunity to audition privately for Nutmeg Conservatory. Before we even drove up for the audition, I had inquired about scholarships. I knew the price...$4900 for the 4 week program. That is way more than a third of our annual income!!! So I KNEW that a scholarship was our only chance! But the director did say there were limited scholarships available, but sounded like it was not a shoe in, by any means.

Going up there, I told her I thought it might be about a half hour audition, since she was the only one! WRONG!!! She danced for almost two hours, all by herself, with the director. No mamas allowed. I sat in the foyer and waited...and waited...and waited. After about 90 minutes, the director came and found me, and said Shao was taking a little break, and then they were going to do pointe! YIKES! Talk about thorough!

Finally Shao came down, and Mr. Alexander came and ushered us into his office. The first thing he said was "Well, you're definitely accepted!" That was a relief, and a proud moment, as well! He put a folder out on the desk, and said we would need to get the $500 deposit in very quickly, as the spaces were filling up. And although I knew the price, I asked again. Nothing had changed. So I inquired again about a scholarship, and sounding doubtful, he said he would speak to the scholarship committee. We were hopeful, and trying not to get too excited!

Poor Shao was famished and exhausted, so we went to Applebees and used a gift card we had received for Christmas (Thanks, Dickie!) While there, she called her Gramma Donna to let her know, since she had asked to be called as soon as we were out of the audition. Gramma told Shao she'd see about helping out financially, once we heard from the committee. I figured it would be the end of the week before we heard. It was gonna be a LOOONG week!

But early on Monday afternoon I got a call saying she had received a merit scholarship of $2500!!! WOOHOO!!!! But that still left the other half. Which in our little world is a small..make that LARGE fortune! When Shao heard, she immediately called Gramma & Grampa. Then I talked with them, and Donna said if I could cover the deposit, she would cover the rest. Thank God for tax refunds...I had put it aside, to help us get through each month, especially with summer coming up and no work. But I decided that THIS was important, and that as I have done for many a year, I would just have to trust God to provide this summer.

So...in our Memorial Box will go a little pair of ballet slippers that usually hangs on our tree each Christmas! I guess we will put them back on the tree each year! And of course...at this point I don't HAVE an actual, physical Memorial Box. But even so...we are blessed!

Blessings...Nancy