Celebrity in our Midst!

One Friday this July I received an email from the composer of much of our primary music, Shawna Edwards.  The current Primary Songbook doesn't have any of her songs, so I bought them on-line when Rachael lived here and was the primary chorister because we all love her music.  So, I get this email and am surprised to hear that she's stopping in Missoula on a trip to bike in Glacier with her husband and when she saw that I was on her email list from purchasing music, she asked to stop by and visit our primary.  She wanted a low key visit where she could sit in the back, but we love her so much that this was going to be much more exciting than that!

 I had already asked Ruby and Max, 13 year olds in the ward, to sing one of her songs in sacrament meeting the following month, so I contacted them and asked if they could sing in 2 days instead when Shawn was here.  They were good sports and agreed even though they had a temple trip the next day, which is a 3 hour drive each way (to Spokane) so they only had one evening to practice.  Max showed up Sunday even though he was sick.  They sounded so great and they even matched- Ruby in a violet dress and Max with a violet tie the same shade!  Matching wasn't on purpose and made me so happy because I'm crazy about matching.  Anyway, it turned out that there was a marathon in Missoula that Sunday morning so there weren't any available hotels for the Edwards.  They stayed several hours away and missed the sacrament meeting performance, unfortunately.  But, they showed up for Primary and we sang all her songs we know for them and she graciously shared her inspirations for each song afterwards. 

Avery brought Hope to church that day and they had their picture taken with her.  It was such a spiritual meeting and so much fun to meet the famed Shawna Edwards!  We really missed Rachael, who moved away last year.  We told her all about it.  It was also fun to talk to Shawna about Aunt Diane and Uncle Ben, who she knows in Utah.  The whole thing was just a really fun surprise!