My Firework

After months of waiting the Talent show finally arrived this evening! My Mum arrived this morning as a surprise for the kids and Olivia's reaction when she saw her Grandma outside the classroom at pick-up time was priceless. She literally threw herself at Mum. We knew Dex would be upset if we all went to the show without him (it was too late for him to stay up) so I arranged a mini sleep over for him at one of his best pal's houses which he was mega excited about. We picked him up on our way home after the show at 10.30pm - he was a dead weight and only stirred a little but had had a great time.

Olivia was the ninth performance in the first act and had to stay in the 'black box' behind the stage at all times, so we couldn't be with her. Myself, hubby and Mum had great seats but we were all very nervous as Olivia seemed so young to be doing a solo performance, especially as it was a full house. We couldn't believe that it had sold out and there was so much support for her as some of her classmates had come along with their parents and a lot of our friends and colleagues also came to watch. I think the school theatre holds approx. 320 - 350 people. All money raised from the sale of the tickets and the food and drink sold during the interval went to Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) which was fantastic.

When Olivia came onto the stage I felt my heart swell as she looked so nervous. She spent the first few seconds trying to scan the audience looking for us but combined with the lights and her eyesight problems (see yesterday) she couldn't see us. It was all I could do not to run down to the stage, hug her and carry her off. She took a deep breath and began singing Firework by Katy Perry which is a difficult song to sing at the best of times but when you're seven and very nervous it's really difficult! However she did herself and us proud and sang her little heart out(I think Mum bubbled all the way through the performance!). She captured the hearts of the audience as everyone was clapping along and the applause at the end for her brought a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes (still does). 
When she left the stage the host for the evening said to the audience: "I think that there is no doubt in anyone's mind that Olivia is a firework!"

Last year, a good friend of ours, who is a social worker, observed Olivia, and claimed that when she's older "she's going to set the world on fire." We laughed but she meant it in a really good way. 
This week has been an emotional one for me. I love this child so much.

I've not done a collage before on blip (and hope it's within the rules) but I wanted to share a series of photos from the night to try and show the emotion. One of the photos is mine and the others belong to a colleague who took photos of all the acts.