Prom. It means many different things to many different people. For me it was a memory from many years ago, of a formal event I went to with the man who became my husband and the father of my 4 children.
But THAT is another story, thoroughly detailed in my other posts.
Then my oldest child, my daughter, started talking prom. Boy, did that change my focus fast. First, when did I get old enough to have a child going to prom? Second, wasn’t my prom just a few years ago??
There aren’t so many chances to spend quality time with your child once they are 17, have a license, a car, and a job. Take every opportunity you get. I am not kidding on this. Yesterday was one of the best days ever. My (not so) little girl and I were together all day. We spent the day talking and hanging out. She chit chatted with me during prom prep, and then the moment came.
Her boyfriend arrived, and it was time to take pictures. THOSE pictures. The ones that I have in a box in my closet of me at her age, when I thought I was SO grown up but in reality I wasn’t … when the world was still a big opportunity waiting for me to dive in.
The looks on their faces as they laughed and smiled, simultaneously looking like kids and adults, the innocence fresh on their faces … my heart. ❤ I don’t have words for it. And then the moment passed, the pictures were taken, and they went off to their first prom. It was their first step into an adult world, in formal dress, to be kids yet not for the evening together.
I spent time pondering all of this while I waited for my daughter to return. I can still hear her little girl giggle as she ran down the hall; I close my eyes and I see her, asking me to have a tea party with her or play dolls. The tea party set has been passed on to someone else and the dolls are long gone, and the little girl who eagerly played with me is now dressed in a gown and eager to go off into the grownup world, where tea parties no longer happen and dolls are a distant memory.
But that little girl is still there in her laughter, and in her eyes, and in my heart. Never change, my child. Know that I will love you every moment of your life, and I couldn’t be prouder of the woman that little girl has grown into.
momswhokeepsecrets 