A Family for Christmas (Willow Park #3) by Noelle Adams

Author:Noelle Adams [Adams, Noelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

Eight

A few evenings later, Lydia was standing in the church fellowship hall again, watching the chaos around her.

It was the first joint rehearsal of the adult and children’s choir for their songs at the Christmas Eve service, and it had slowly spiraled out of control.

It had started with everyone sitting quietly in seats, but that was an hour ago. Now the kids were running all over, and the adults were split into six or seven groups, conversing about everything from sports to children’s costumes for the yearly pageant, which would be happening on this coming Sunday evening.

Jessica, who had been nominated as the organizer for the Christmas choir, was desperately trying to line the bigger kids up for their recitation of the nativity account in the Gospel of Luke.

Lydia had been annoyed at first, since she liked things to run efficiently and quickly, but now she was closer to laughing.

Ellie was up with the bigger kids, waiting quietly in line as she’d been instructed. Since she was all by herself and Jessica was trying to round up the rest of the kids, Lydia walked over to stand next to the girl.

“Do you have your verse memorized?” she asked Ellie.

Ellie nodded. “Dad helped me with it this morning.”

“Maybe you’ll be able to practice if everyone will get in line.” Glancing around, Lydia decided that, if more of the parents would help with crowd control, things would move smoother. Poor Jessica couldn’t do it on her own.

“They’re all crazy,” Ellie said, observing the kids running around soberly. “I wish they would get in line.”

“Come on now,” Jessica said, more loudly than she was wont to speak. She was holding her rounded belly. “Everyone get in line so we can go through this one time!”

A few kids meandered over toward the line, but otherwise there was little effect—other than a few parents calling out for their kids.

Lydia met Jessica’s gaze, and they shared a dry, resigned smile.

“I wish they would line up,” Ellie said again.

She was starting to sound a little frustrated, and Lydia felt a wave of intense sympathy. She knew very well how it felt to want something to happen when people wouldn’t cooperate. In response, she used her most resonant voice and boomed out, “Everyone age six to ten line up over here immediately!”

Her voice carried loudly all through the fellowship hall. There was an immediate silence in the aftermath, and then a soft ripple of murmurs as the kids started to move into place.

Jessica laughed and mouthed, “Thank you,” and Lydia felt a silly swell of pride at having accomplished such a feat.

Ellie moved closer to her and whispered, “That was really good.”

Lydia grinned down at her, recognizing real appreciation on the girl’s face for the first time.

Ellie actually smiled back and kind of pressed herself against her side.

Lydia put her arm around the girl with an unexpected wave of affection.

Without conscious thought, she glanced up and over to the far side of the hall, where Gabe was working with a few other people who were constructing the backdrop of a stable for the pageant.

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