Continuing the Journey

Uh...Never Mind...

So, after a stress-filled and tearful weekend -- with Meggie CLEARLY approaching the end of her rope -- we made a decision on Monday. It was a tough decision that we felt needed to be made.

And then we changed our minds.

Meggie felt the source of her stress was the demands of the dance team. She felt like the coaches didn't care about her and she just wanted to be free. So I e-mailed her coach on Monday afternoon to let her know that Meggie would be quitting. The coach called me Monday evening (I was not home and missed her call), then she e-mailed me back late that night. She called again Tuesday, as I was walking out the door to take Carson to school. We had a very long talk and I learned an important thing from the coach -- she was worried about Meggie and didn't want her to quit!

The coach spoke to Meggie on the phone on Tuesday afternoon and told Meggie the same things she told me. Meggie's dance friends started texting her as the rumors spread that she wasn't coming back to the studio. After her conversation with the coach, Meggie and I talked about the situation...and she began to see that maybe quitting dance (and effectively isolating herself from her best friends and a true support network) may not be the best thing right now. We talked a LOT the next few days -- between multiple visits to the bathroom, since we both caught a nasty stomach bug, complete with matching fevers! -- and an interesting thing happened: Meggie was less stressed and decided that she wasn't ready to give up dancing. She had committed to dance the entire season when she made the team last May and has decided she is going to stick it out for the rest of the dance season, as she originally promised.

While I still agree that competitive dance has stolen too much time and money from our family, there is still joy to be had. So back to dance she goes.

Check back in for more pictures. After all, there's a competition next weekend...