Hello, my name is Evelyn.

Yesterday was a very special day! Yes, it was my birthday but what made it super special was that Evelyn got up and bore her testimony for the first time in church!!  Our meeting begins at 9am and we get there early enough to have the chapel by ourselves for about 15 minutes.  In that time for the past few weeks, we have let Evelyn go up to the pulpit on the stand and she 'practices' bearing her testimony at the microphone.  For the last few weeks, she's been getting pretty good at saying appropriate things that make up her sweet little testimony all by herself.
We want our kids to do this on their own - meaning, we don't want to whisper in their ears what to say - we want their testimony to be their own from the very beginning.  So we practice together on Family Nights or on the days we get the chapel to ourselves and hope that one day our kids will get up on their own to say their own testimony without any help.
Yesterday was Fast and Testimony meeting (it happens once a month) and we asked her if she thought she was ready to go up and bear her testimony.  She looked at the stand and said yes, but it wasn't her turn (because there was already a person up there).  So when that person finished, she folded her little arms and walked very reverently up to the front of the chapel, all the way up the stairs and across the stand to the pulpit.  She stood up on the little step to give her a boost up to the microphone and then my beautiful little blondy faced the entire congregation!!  I was so nervous for her!!!!  She took a long moment (almost too long) to stare out at everyone and then she finally made eye contact with me and I mouthed to her to 'go ahead and start!' Finally, she spoke up and said "Hello, my name is Evelyn and I have a testimony..."  LONG PAUSE...followed by more LONG PAUSES....!!  So then I started to get a little nervous that she had stage fright and wasn't going to finish.  So I am mouthing to her what to say and she leans over and whispers down to me (mind you I am sitting in the middle of the chapel, not the front row) and she says 'can you help me?'
So of course I am going up there to help her finish.  So I go to the front and stand off to the side and tell her talk about the Book of Mormon - she says "I know the Book of Momon is true"  ...looks at mom for more help...I tell her to say she loves her family...."I love my family"...looks at mom for more help.... I tell her to end her testimony and come sit down...she ended it all by herself and then walked off the stand, grabbed my hands and we walked back to our bench.  I was so proud of her!!  I know she needed a little extra help from mom, but I was so proud of her that she had the desire to get up there and for the first time she bore her testimony in church!  My little Sunbeam!!!!!  We love her sweet spirit and her love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at such a young age!  We must be doing something right!!!!!!!!!!! 

Best birthday ever!!!