I once said, “I will never move further north than Oklahoma.” I thought it would be too cold and there is nothing to be gained from being too far from Texas. If a state doesn’t carry Blue Bell ice cream, it’s not habitable. Now here we are three months into our move with three states beneath us and the motherland.
I once said, “I will never have a girl.” I don’t understand girls and their interest in drama, clothes, and hair. This morning, my daughter changed her clothes four times, screamed bloody murder while I brushed her hair, then immediately asked if we could have a tea party.
I once said, “I will never be a dance mom.” Then, my daughter begged to wear ballet slippers instead of shin guards. She had her first ballet class yesterday and I discovered something I wasn’t expecting: I’m not sad that she is different than me. Watching her unique personalty and interests grow has been a joy. Her love for glitter, frilly clothes, and dance is just who she is. And thank God for that, because those interests were not passed down from me. So for now, I will walk into a dance store like a deer in the headlights and ask way too many awkward questions, (Is this a leotard?) (Why are the sizes weird?) (It’s how much?!) and watch YouTube videos so I know what to do with her hair, and struggle as I try to get her into tights, and marvel at how foreign it all is. And after her first class when her instructor tells me, “she is just lovely,” I melt with pride. We are a strange mother/daughter pair but God knew exactly what he was doing when he made me her mommy.