Guys, this story does not teach the right lessons at all. :)
On Monday, we said our family prayer, then Jane said her personal prayer with me. Jane and Martha have been really horsing around before, during and after prayer lately, and we've had some...strong...words from parents about it. So everyone was relatively calm. But after Jane's prayer, she did a little bronco buck and her knee came down on my pinkie finger, which was on the ground pushing me up. I heard a pop....dang it. (No, the moral of the story is NOT to skip praying!) And it hurt! The kids ran for ice, and Marriner just held me while I cried for a few minutes - I'd been having one of those irrationally emotional days already, and this was just the icing on the cake. But at some point I realized that the pop I'd heard...that must have meant something. So off to the urgent care we went. And guess what - it was broken! We've taken bets for years on which of my kids would be first to break a bone - I just didn't think it would be MY bone!
The urgent care told me to go see an orthopedic dr, which was funny since I was already looking for an orthopedic doctor for Lillian! She's had a nagging pinkie injury from playing violin! So on Tuesday, she and I walked up to the office of the orthopedic doctor together. They handed me a form to explain that I was accompanying a minor and therefore allowed in the building with her. (Covid-19 restrictions.) I was like, nope, I'm a patient, too! Everyone thought our matching pinkie splints were adorable. I seriously think we made their day - it must be a little tiring working in a doctor's office right now. Well, I guess we're glad to help where we can!
The plus side of this is that I have an excuse not to do most of the chores I really didn't want to do anyway. :)
The down side is that I can't play the piano or sign. So yeah, church tomorrow...can't play, sing or sign the music...well, I guess I can sign a little, just sorta gimpy. And that's just how my worship will have to be!
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Merry Christmas! Since I wrote that ^^, Christmas has come and gone. Church was canceled because someone with Covid was in the building the week before, so they had to close and sanitize. I truly missed Christmas Sunday with no organ music.
Our Sunday School class had a remarkable moment, though. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Deaf people from all over the country have visited our Sunday School class by zoom. This week, a brother who worked with us in the temple before and is learning ASL joined in. We were discussing Moroni's statement in Moroni 10:8 "And again I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God. The new brother asked about the sign for deny - we were using one sign, but the ASL Book of Mormon used a different sign.
"Well," the teacher replies, "let's ask Minnie Mae." Minnie Mae translated the entire Book of Mormon herself, and is one of the people who drops in to our class sometimes. I mean, what are the odds that when you ask a question about word choice in the Book of Mormon, the person who made that choice is there to explain it! What luck!
Minnie Mae basically said, "Gosh, I don't remember why I chose that sign over the other sign." Ok, well, that part was disappointing. :) But then she added a testimony that hit both me and Marriner like electricity. "I can tell you that I studied and considered every single word in the whole book - every it, the, or an. (Here she showed herself flipping through dictionaries and reference books - yikes, pre-internet! Tough job!) And I will tell you this - there is no way that book is not true. Don't deny the gifts of God."
(Now it's worth noting that the ASL Book of Mormon was recorded 25 years ago, and the language has evolved a lot since then. Most of the time when someone asks that question, the answer is, "the language has changed." But it wasn't in this case!)
Thanks, Minnie Mae, for your special testimony. I hope I always remember the incredible gift the Book of Mormon is in my life.
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A funny thing about Zoom - it knows who to spotlight by who is talking. So when you're using sign language, it just spotlights whoever has the most background noise (No, it's not always us! We usually keep our mic on mute! Tee hee...) But when people are joining on a small screen, you really need that spotlight to be able to see the person who is signing clearly enough to understand them...soo...our church meetings are now a paragon of order and politeness. When you want to answer a question, you raise your hand, then the teacher manually spotlights you, and THEN you can answer. And by the time everyone waited that long to know what you had to say, it had better be profound. :) It like those meeting with a visiting apostle where they pass the microphone around so people can answer questions! Except, you know, with only 10 people!
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Ok, one last story, then I'll quit. My sister came over to visit the other day. She lives about an hour away, and she joined us for lunch. It was my daughter's turn to invite someone to pray. Now our family has been praying only in ASL for a few months. Said daughter noticed that her aunt would obviously have to pray in English (or Tagalog - which I would have been happy with!) and ingeniously invited her to say the prayer. You could see the delight at her trickiness in her eyes :) Aunt Nicole graciously accepted the invitation, and then an awkward moment ensued. Then, "So guys, usually when you're about to pray, you close your eyes and bow your head..." We all looked at each other a little confused, which wasn't hard, because, yes, we all did have our eyes open still. Then we realized that our habits have changed in the last 3 years. She's right, usually people do close their eyes as soon as they expect a prayer. But not us! We keep our eyes open, just in case the person who is going to pray says it in sign language! :) (Even if they announce, "I'll say the prayer in English" we don't believe them. Many a time someone has said that, then without thought jumped into a prayer in sign language! Or vice-versa!) As soon as they say, "Dear Heavenly Father..." we all close our eyes and bow our heads. Most of the time, a couple of late eye closers don't stick out, but we were busted this time :) So we all closed our eyes. But it was tough, an irrational feeling of, "but what if I miss the first part of the prayer?" was still niggling at me. :)
And that's what's been going on in our neck of the woods the last few months. We're a mess, but it's a fun mess!
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