Woo-hoo! I did it!

So, guess what happened today? For the first time in eight years, I was able to give a talk in church without blacking out. Yay! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then read on.

I don't know what it is, but ever since Jon and I got married, I've had this blackout curse. I was assigned to speak in our first ward, and I was all excited to give my talk. But at the last minute I changed my opening comments, and I think that's what threw me off, because I got nervous about what I said. I got all dizzy and my face turned pale and I literally could not read my paper for all the black spots hovering in front of my eyes. I chuckled and told the congregation this, and luckily, Jon and the bishopric were quick enough to realize I was serious and get me seated before I passed out completely. The organist striked up a frantically-paced hymn, and by the time it was over, I was feeling better. Jon stood at the pulpit with me, his arm around my waist to brace me up, so I could finish my talk. What a sweet husband! Of course, after that, EVERYONE in the ward kept coming up to me like, "I know why you were dizzy up there - you're pregnant!" Uh, thanks, but no.

So anyway, a little more than a year passed, and I was assigned to speak with the YW presidency in Sacrament Meeting. Same story, except this time, Jon had to come get me from the congregation, and I didn't get to finish my talk. And in Washington, I could just feel it coming on before I even stood up, so I delivered my talk while seated in a chair, holding a corded microphone. I figured that way I could atleast finish my whole talk without making too much of a scene.

All of these were situations were quite humorous to me, but you know, it can only happen so many times before it gets old. So when we got the call this week to speak, I started getting really worried that it would happen again. I tried my best all week to push that idea from my mind. I wrote a talk very easily and felt good about it and excited to give it, but man, I was sure nervous today! We have Sacrament Meeting last in this ward, so I was really starting to get shaky by the second hour. Luckily, Jon was smart enough to make me eat a candy bar and drink lots of water. And a sweet lady in the library said, "Don't worry - we're all rooting for you" when I told her of my talk track record. I'm sure my family and others in the congregation were praying silently for me, and I know that helped. I cut out introducing our family because I didn't want to waste precious time on that and miss the heart of my talk if something happened. But thankfully, those hovering black spots never came. :) I was amazed as I stood there that the words kept coming and I could give my whole talk. I'm thankful to Heavenly Father for blessing me today and helping me. And I'm also thankful for a wonderful husband who filled in the time that I should have used (my talk ended up being only about 8-10 minutes long) and who helped me prepare to just do it.