christy nockels concert

 Christy Nockels so sweetly spending time with my Lily

I'm a crazy mom. Crazy! We have VBS at church this week, which means early mornings and long days. So instead of tucking my kids into bed early, what do I do? I drive 2 hours north to a Christy Nockels concert and get home 3 hours past their bedtime. Was it worth it? YES!

We had such a wonderful evening. We got there early and were able to find seats in the front row! The only negative was that Phil had to work and miss the concert. The kids were excited to go, too, but Lily has been floating around and checking our calendar every day since I told her we were going. In recent months, she's come down to breakfast with handmade name tags taped to her shirts, saying things like, "Today I'm Christy Nockels" or "Today I'm JJ Heller."

Music is so powerful! One memory after another came flooding back to me as Christy sang her songs tonight--all revealing times where God has graciously pulled us through things like Phil's accident, med school, moving, losing a job, needing to sell a house that we worked so hard on. I never realized how much a part of my life her music has been. It was like listening to a soundtrack of my life.

After the concert, we went out to the lobby to see if she would sign the CD that we brought from home, but they didn't think she was planning on coming back out. Just as we were getting ready to leave, her husband, Nathan, approached us and said, "I saw you kids up there in the front row tonight worshiping along with us." And they were. They knew so many of the songs and sang right along. It was precious. We asked if Christy was coming back out, but he said no, because their kids were with them and they had a long drive to the airport. He motioned to us to follow him as he led us backstage and we got to meet Christy (we were the only ones)! She was so sweet to my Lily. She got down on her knees, gave Lily a hug and asked her questions like, "Do you like to sing, too?" She signed our CD, and then asked if Lily wanted a picture. My camera battery was dead (of course!), so she called over to their tech guy who took out his phone, took this picture and then emailed it to me. We felt so spoiled. I've never seen a happier little girl!