A Time to Laugh

The phone rang at 7 a.m. this morning, an hour before I was planning to get up. The caller ID was no help; could it be a realtor wanting to show our house later in the morning?

"Hello, this is [young friend of Blondechick's]. Is she there?"

"She's still asleep." (Said without hiding the fact that I too had been asleep moments earlier.)

"Oh, I'm sorry! So haven't you guys looked at the cast list?"

"No. Is it up?"

"Yeah...I think you guys should go look at it!"

"Oh, what parts did my kids get?"

"You want me to TELL you?"

"Sure, go ahead." (Sleepily thinking maybe if I don't get my heart rate up by going up and down the stairs, I can go back to bed....)

"Well, Blondechick is Charlotte!"

Suddenly, I was awake. "She IS?!...Ohh, that's GREAT! Who's Bantam12?"

"A boy...I know the part...I forget his name."

"Lurvy?"

"No...."

"Henry Fussy?"

"That's it!"

"Oh, great, that's the part he wanted!" I asked about Bantam8, but she hadn't known to look for his name. I covered up the phone and shared the news with Papa Rooster.

I asked what roles my informant's family members had received; they had auditioned for another county's production and two of the three kids were going to be lead parts. I promised to have Blondechick call back as soon as she got up, hung up and followed Papa Rooster downstairs. He was pulling up the cast list as I arrived.

Bantam8 is one of the Goslings--a cute part for a handful of the littlest kids. And Bantam12's best girl friend got the part of Fern! Fern is the little girl who raises Wilbur, the pig, and Henry Fussy is Fern's boy friend. It's a small part, but one Bantam12 will enjoy. In the first act, he's a violin-playing nerd, but in the second act, after he returns from a vacation with his grandpa (who accidentally breaks his violin and teaches him to fish), Fern suddenly sees him with new eyes. Rumor has it that they have a little kiss in the final county fair scene, but we'll see.

I have posted before about Bantam12's sweet relationship with this longtime family friend. They've played together since she started to crawl! He's the only boy at her birthday parties, and she's the only girl at his. The directors couldn't have known it, but I think they'll have such a sweet, brotherly-sisterly chemistry in these roles.

Blondechick appeared suddenly, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "Is the cast list up?"

"Come see," I said with a smile.

She was so excited--for herself, for our friend who got Fern, for other friends who got good parts--and sad also, for friends who didn't get roles they wanted. She knows so well how THAT feels.

But I will shut up and leave plenty for her to blog about it. She's been too busy practicing for auditions and for callbacks to have time to post anything, and today they're shooting the final big tea party scene in the TV show she's in. So give her a little time, but I know she's eager to write about it all.

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
...a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance...

So many times, when the cast list has been posted, it has been a time to mourn, to weep, to pray, to accept, to coach, to instruct, to reassure, to pray some more. Those are character-building, maturing times, and we thank God for them.

But we thank God also for giving us today--a time to laugh, to dance, to celebrate, to thank, to praise...to rejoice!!!!

(And to think we almost didn't do this show....)