Two years ago, our son Ben was cast as Joseph for the reception class school nativity. The two weeks beforehand were incredibly nerve-racking. Little Ben would come home from school crying that he didn’t want to be Joseph.
He wanted to be a sheep. I spoke to his teacher and she assured me that he was really enjoying rehearsals and knew all of his lines.
But at home the tears continued. The lines were rehearsed the costume was bought, Ben agreed to be Joseph and then changed his mind, then agreed again.
He was so nervous on the morning of the dress rehearsal that they allowed me to come into to school to watch him.
He was fabulous.
Mary was played by a four-year-old who did a brilliant impression of a stroppy pregnant teenager, complaining, “But I am tired do we have to go?”
In came Ben right on cue:
“I’m sorry Mary but we do, our little donkey will carry you.”
On the night of the main performance I arrived a little distracted. I had checked my phone every five minutes all day, as I was desperately hoping to be called by a social worker, regarding a little girl with Down Syndrome who needed a forever family. Her name was Star, I had seen her picture and spoken to her social worker, who had seemed so enthusiastic, but then had not called back.
As I sat in the chair waiting for the performance to start, I wondered where Star was, who was looking after her and where she would be this time next year.
4 months later, Star came home to us.
Adopting Star 