We Are Proud of Brittney

Since this is my journal and a place where I keep track of happenings in our family I am going to do this post about our girl.
It may seem like I am bragging and maybe I am, but we are so proud of her!

Brittney has been going every morning at 7 am to "Jazz" Choir before school. This is in addition to all her other (advanced) classes, sixth grade choir, Play (Alice in Wonderland - the Musical) Practice after school, art club and soccer.

A week or so ago, Brittney raised her hand to sing a solo, in choir, and she was picked. Normally they only sing their part once. They are doing songs from Musicals, ABBA songs, etc. The fourth child that sang kept messing up so Brittney had to sing her part three times and every time the kids would clap for only her. All day she said that kids were coming up to her and saying things like, "Where do you take lessons?" "How do you sing so good?" etc. I had a talk with her about being nice about it and not snotty. The quote in our house (thanks Mimi) "It's more important to be pretty on the inside than the outside!"

So the next day she didn't raise her hand because she wanted to give other kids a chance. The teacher said "Brittney come here." She then sang a love song duet with the teacher. In her words "Awkward!" At the end of the song he said to the class "Now that is what I am looking for!" Wow, we thought! What a compliment.

On Monday she came home and told me (about an hour after she came home) that the teacher wants to put her in Advanced Choir....this is only 7th and 8th graders.

I said "Huh, Why?!?!?" The next day I got an e-mail and a phone call from the teacher saying that this is what he wanted and it would be a challenge for her but he thought she would be up to the challenge. It was up to the Principal though so we would find out on Wed (yesterday) if it would happen.

I got a text from her at lunch saying "Mom I am so sad" I didn't get it until later so I didn't know what she was sad about ...Did she not make it? Does she not have any classes with friends? The teacher called me later in the day to tell me she had a rough day but he thought she would be okay. What we did not know was that she got her lunch changed. She is the only 6th grader in the whole school who has lunch with 7th and 8th graders. She was all alone at lunch! How sad. It broke my heart! I went on line and looked at her schedule and she got every class changed but one. She even has different teachers. I was dying inside. She was even getting straight A's which being Barrett and my child this was HUGE! We NEVER got straight A's. Before she got home I made some calls to some friends who have older girls to see if maybe they could eat lunch with her. "Sure" they said. One mom even told me that her daughter has said on more than one occasion how much she likes Brittney and that it wouldn't even be a "hard ship" or "favor" for her. When Brittney got off the bus she came to me and started crying. "What have we done?" I thought. She has had SOOOOO much change in her life. I hope it will only make her stronger and not do her damage!

Last night I got a call from one of the mom's and she told me that there was a whole phone tree going on with girls calling other girls to all bring their lunches and meet at the library so that they could eat with Brittney and make her feel welcome. How AWESOME is that! I am tearing up right now thinking about it! I LOVE the church and the values that it teaches!

According to the teacher all other 6th graders were not allowed by the principal to move into Advanced Choir or Band. Brittney is the only one that was allowed in the whole school. She is the only sixth grader in a choir of 140, hence the reason for the balloon. I told Barrett to bring home flowers or a balloon that said "Congratulations"...this is what we got! She was on her way to soccer practice so these are the pictures I got.

As a side note, this past Saturday Brittney got a text from a friend with bad words in it and she immediately told us about it. I text the young lady back and told her this was not acceptable and that if she did it again I would block her number. I sent it to the girl and her mother. It was a FWD from someone else (girls not in the church) and it said if you didn't forward it you would have bad luck. Well she didn't have bad luck, the girl is still her friend, the mom did the same thing we did and sent it to the girl before her and all is well. We are very proud of Brittney and the choices she is making! We are happy she is the oldest and is setting such a great example for her sisters and brother. She could have deleted it, sent it on, or not said anything.

BRITTNEY WE LOVE YOU TONS AND ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!