It really IS a once in a lifetime kind of thing...

...so I took the plunge and committed.

See, it's really hard for me to get to the Temple when pregnant, or with a nursing baby. Long story short, I've only been a few times since I was about 5 months pregnant with Emma-- and then I was pregnant with Bridget, and had moved further from the Temple (well, actually, different Temple, but longer drive time. The drive time here makes it at least a 5-hour commitment to go, while it was a 15-minute drive each way plus the length of the session in Dallas) and with a less-available babysitter (my mom is our only babysitter; she works more than full-time. My mother-in-law was our previous babysitter, she worked part-time and was happy to watch Emma for an evening during the week while we went.) Then I was nursing Bridget. Long story shorter, I haven't been in, oh, more than a year...

Yes, I feel guilty about this.

But in January (the 20th, to be exact) our stake is having a special, special meeting to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the year of the dedication of the Los Angeles Temple. We get to use the Assembly Room, which I saw when we were sealed, it's so huge and it's really cool, and they're working hard to get all active endowed members of the stake who are physically capable (and some who had been less-active, who we've been working on getting to come back) to go.

And the stake has been asked to provide a 50-voice choir.

That cinched it for me. When am I going to get another chance to sing in the Temple?

I'd been working on getting my mom to watch the kids already (it's hard to get her to commit so early in advance, especially when it will be pretty much an all-day thing), but now I will go even if she can't. (My husband, who is wonderful, has made this possible by telling me that if my mom can't watch the kids, he will stay home with them. Of course, I will try my very hardest to convince my mom to watch them, but if she can't, although I will miss him, I will accept his sacrifice and go-- before the choir came up I was thinking of sending him without me if my mom couldn't watch the kids, which is what I have done before, but never for an occasion so special.)

I'm so excited. We are singing the Mark Wilberg arrangement of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." We had our first run-through last night, and what can I say but, "Wow." They needed more first sopranos, so I moved up there, even though I'm naturally a second (since I can hit those notes; I have a three-octave range.) (High "A" above the high "C" is the highest note in the piece.) I was just bowled over by the music-- and the fact that I am sure when we sing it in the Temple it will be the most amazing singing experience of my life, and I have a feeling that there will be a choir of angels backing us up.

Of course, I'm feeling anxious too because it's been so long, I am sure I will forget what to do, where to go... I think I will enlist a sister who I am comfortable asking for help to be my helper, tell me where to go, stand next to me and help me if I look like I need it, like my mother-in-law did as my "escort" when I was first endowed. And I'm sure the temple workers will be very sweet and helpful, too, they always are. There you have it; I am making the commitment now, in the semi-public atmosphere of my blog, to humble myself and ask for help.

*bounce* And that anxiety all pales in comparison of the fact that I get to sing in the Temple! Wow!