Beauty...

Beauty is what I gasped as I saw my NOW 18 year old dressed for her last Prom. It was a twisted experience combining a hint of the future and the goodbyes to the past. As we looked together for her perfect dress, changed mind twice, I got a wisp of what it would be like to pick out a wedding dress combined with the knowledge that this is her last formal night whilst living at home. 

This is were I take the liberty to brag on one of my own, yes,  you may go on to read someone else’s blog if you so desire!

We had picked out a wonderful dress but when we went in to fit for it, I offered up that our previous time at the dress shop didn’t allow her much time to look. I asked that my Mad dog take one last look around at the dresses available to insure she got the one that would just accent the evening for her, this being her last formal event. (This shop only will sell that one dress to your school and then won’t sell it to anyone else attending the same event.) We walked into the shop and took just a minute and she grabbed one instantly off the rack and said, “I will try this one on.” That was it. One minute. One other dress. Okay. She tried the original formal on and I thought to myself, “Self, this is the nicest dress here in this shop, she chose wisely.” Then she tried the one minute choice dress on. Wow! Did I say Wow?!  She walked out and it was magic. She glowed. She looked amazing. It was that…the IT factor! We, of course, bought the jewelry that was cheap expensive but went great with the dress! (Cheap at an expensive price!) Which put the finishing touches on it! We had sleeves added as well to modest-fy the dress. But she was a princess, a fairy, a beauty!

Now did I blog to brag? No and maybe a little bit of yes. But it is a mama’s view of her child preparing to go out into the world. (Will she be back? Yes, of course.) She will leave our home and then come back but it will never be the same. She will have the pixy dust of living on her own, making her own decisions, coming into her own. She will need us a little bit less. She will take up less time. Her heart is only for mom and dad right now. We take up all that space. But as she grows and meets another we will be slowly crowded out and then when her own children come, we will only have a small sliver of her heart. (And that is how it should be!) So we try to hold back the tide of time but to no avail.  We want her time and her needs and her life to take up all ours!! We want her clothes strewn all over the house and we want to set curfews. We want to hear her complaints and her compliments. We want to stay in that whole big space in her heart. But that is not the way life works. So we love her and cling to the time we have her still. WE love this child just because she is on the earth. So be it near or far we are honored to be her parents. Rather we are in her whole heart or a mere sliver of it she is in our whole heart forever and a day. Go and do and love being who you are!