Father-Daughter Dance

They announced the dance at mass on Sunday,

And we COMPLETELY FORGOT about it for the rest of the week until a mom friend text me on Friday morning...

she overheard other moms talking about it at school drop off.

Shikes!

So I immediately ask my friend WHERE is it...only to realize that she had already told me where in the first message she had sent me

I text my husband about it right away,

And to be sure I wasn't the sole person to blame for this parenting fail

I started the text with

"REMEMBER..."

"Remember at church they said there's a Father-Daughter dance tonight?!?! A friend just reminded me!"

He wasn't as freaked out as I was, he just said "OK, where?"

At first I couldn't understand why he wasn't as freaked out as I was, but later I realized that by being a guy all he had to do was show up

Ladies, you know the super long list of things that go into a night out, especially something that resembles a prom!

But, in our case, Daddy works on Friday evenings, so I was afraid showing up would be a problem, but it wasn't, he would be able to make it on time!

Last spring we saw friends from all over the country posting pictures from their Father-Daughter dances and my husband told me to let him know as soon as I heard of one for our daughter. He got 8 hrs notice today!

Back to the "pull it together" part...

In my head, I kept going over the dresses in my daughter's closet, trying to mentally choose one but I wasn't liking any of them for this big dance.

I wanted to find a new one for the special occasion.

But when would I do this?

I'm at work all day and it is very frowned upon to ask "can I leave early?" on a Friday. I didn't want to be accused of plotting & scheming my way into getting the coveted "early start" on the weekend, so I asked my Holy Mother in Heaven...

"help me find a dress super fast."

I had been so busy at work I didn't even get to take my hour lunch break. There was a mandatory meeting and other work I needed to get done.

I said to my coworker "I'm going to tell my husband to buy flowers for our daughter on his way home."

She said, "get her a corsage!" I thought it was a great idea!

So off to Google Maps I go to see what flower shops are between my husband's work and our house. I found a pretty good one in the geographical area he needed.

I called them and they loved the occasion of the father-daughter dance. "That is precious! How wonderful!" they told me.

It would be ready for pick up at 5pm, my hubby could get it on his way to his 5pm appointment. In order to tag-team the kids and get them from my husband, this meant I needed to be home by 4:25pm at the absolute latest. I get out of work at 4pm.

But guess what...I was able to get out of work 15 early (which is super rare!)

I found the perfect dress within 2 min of hitting the kids Dept!

and nearly 50% off! From $60 to $32!

Aaaand I bought a second dress!! TWO dresses! Thank you, Holy Mother in Heaven!

Then...

My husband text me again...

"Can you pick up the corsage for me?"

I said yes even though it was one more thing for me to do in a short amount of time,

but the flower shop was on the way home and it just so happened to be ready for pickup 45 min early (but i think it was help from heaven once again ).

I picked up the corsage and was home by 4:30!

My daughter tried on the two dresses and made her choice, which I completely agreed with

She showered and then I did her hair as best I could...When my braiding skills were going downhill, I asked my holy mother again "please help me with her hair!"

My fingers were starting to shake from trying to hurry - we were running out of time! - plus, I'm REALLY BAD at braiding hair! And that made me EVEN MORE nervous! One part of the braid didn't quite work, so to cover up my poor braiding skills, I put Swarovski crystal pins in that spot, then I added extra crystal pins where I could. They were the crystal pins I wore in my hair on my wedding day.

Daddy had made it home in time to shower but not enough time to shave. I told myself "don't stress that it all wasn't perfect like you wanted, but look at the big picture: your daughter is gorgeous, she got a new dress - which is what I really wanted for her - her hair looks great, Daddy made himself available with short notice and they will be at that dance at for its entirety, she won't be super late."

My heart was happy & excited.

My husband knocked on the front door. I told my daughter, "I think it's for you," and she opened it to see Daddy standing there.

"Daddy!" she quietly squealed to herself...

(I got the idea of him "arriving" at the front door from an episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S when Joey takes Rachel on a date).

Daddy gave her the corsage made of small white roses with pink ribbons. I took several pictures of them, of course! And as they walked towards Daddy's white truck, I called my daughter's name one more time and snapped my favorite picture of her (above).

What a great daddy. What a beautiful girl. What a beautiful occasion and loving memory.

Thank you, God, for this.

My heart is full.