no crib for a bed

here is harper in her big debut as baby jesus! you can see her being held by mary. there were 3 performances and harper did excellent 2 out of the 3. the 2nd one she really let us have it. she was screaming, bright red, sweating and baby tears were flowing. i let her stay with mary for 2 or 3 minutes and then rescued her. mary did an excellent job staying calm and trying to calm her down, harper just wasn't havin' it.

i thought for sure people would have been distracted and irritated for letting a crying baby stay on the stage for so long. but after the show at least 7 people told me how wonderful it was to hear her cry and it added so much to the realness of it.

it was great to hear that it didn't take away from the show and actually added to it! for the other shows while she was so perfect and quiet [and sleeping for one of them] people said they didn't even know she was a real baby!

here is harper with mary. her name is natasha and me and john could both tell she was SO honored and SO excited to get to hold harper. she would come back into the sound booth and talk to her and play with her. harper responded very well to natasha! as tiring and overwhelming as it can be with everyone knowing us and wanting to know harper and hold her, it really is such a blessing to be so loved.