Tough Little Solider

Matthew's first dance solo and a surprise.

Kristina was excited to see her son do his big solo, but she isn't aware of the song he picked and the video inspiration for the dance.

"Oh so nervous and excited for him."

She said to Annabelle, Arietta, KJ and Timena.

Timena said.

"I remember mom, being like this with you."

After a few dancers went, Matthew was next as Kristina held her breath and said.

"You got this, Baby."

She whispered to herself for him.

The long instrumental note began for the song You Raise Me Up and when the first verse began, photos of Kristina and Matt came up on screen. The dance was so well done that they used a professional dancer in a wheelchair to represent her and their journey. Kristina smiled and choked up as KJ held her hand while videoing her reaction as Timena and Arietta wiped away her tears. She was blown away and overwhelmed! Turn out KJ, Tessa, Arietta and Timena were in on the surprise and attended the rehearsal every time and they prepared themselves for Kristina's reaction as they knew that she was going to bawl. At the end of the slideshow it read "You Raise Me up to more than I can be...so far! Love you, mommy. Love,
your Son!"

After his performance he came down with a dozen of red roses, place it on her lap and hugged his mom as Kristina smiled.

"Surprise Momma!"

Kristina said.

"I know what the inspiration behind the performance as soon as the song started."

Matthew smiled.

Then Miss Thomas said.

"Kristina come up here!"

Kristina nervously teared up knowing to bring up the backstory of her solo performance that she won first place in a dance competition in NY. Part of it was her siblings were not aware that the hard work she put in for the solo, it was dedicated to KJ, Timena and Arietta. At the time she thought they were going to come and cheer her on, when they waited till the last moment leading up to the competition, that they had a modeling shoot and a movie shoot. Tessa was pissed off knowing the surprise and all the effort Kristina put into the dance, it was for them.

Miss Thomas said.

"Matthew has chosen the inspiration from the dance solo you did in NY that made you won first place."

Kristina smiled as Timena, Arietta and KJ stood there shocked and start to think back when Kristina said. "I hope you're going to come for a huge competition in NY! I have a huge surprise coming to you three and I put my heart and soul into it."

At that exact moment, they felt guilty that they put work first, over Kristina and they reread their mother's all cap text as everything now had made sense. Tessa see their stunned reaction and knew they couldn't get that moment back.

"Yeah, so my solo was to Josh Groban's You Raise Me Up hence the title of my performance in the competition: They Raise Me Up and every time I listened to the song, I think of my brother and sisters. It literally describes everything that I felt about them. So during rehearsals with Miss Thomas's guidance, I had planned the scenery and slideshow. I was ecstatic of the whole nines with planning everything as I showed my fellow dance partners: Sophia, April and Henry who were representing my brother and sisters, some home videos to show them how we hang out or bond to incorporate to the dance. I worked on it so much to the point, that I would be knocked out asleep in the car."

she turns to KJ, Timena and Arietta as they were numb to the core as everything clearly made sense.

"I was truly looking forward to having you all there with Mom, but life happens. Yeah, now you all got the surprise many years later. Surprise! I had a blast doing it and you will see my reaction to when we learned that we got second place for teams and I got first with my solo."