"...Blossoming Even as We Gaze"

 Scott almost started crying while giving a very abbreviated version of a speech he had prepared for 16 years, especially for this occasion.  Evyn had to look away.

 Last night was Homecoming.  Golda's first date, and her first dance.  Scott and I may have become a little too invested in the whole thing.  We (and Coco) spent a ton of time shopping, thinking, sewing, planning, getting everything ready for the big day.  Then it came, everything finally fell into place, Evyn came to pick her up, and Golda was gone.

Scott and I looked at each other and one of us said, "Was that a little anti-climatic?"  Not so much so that I didn't proceed to post pictures on Instagram with tear-jerker excerpts from Fiddler on the Roof!  Golda and Evyn just looked so cute.  What could I do?

Today at church, a friend of mine whose children are all graduated came up to me and said conspiratorially, "You know what I didn't miss yesterday?  Getting a daughter ready for a dance!"  She told me how her daughter would always go get her hair done, and then hate it and come home and re-do it.  I was relieved and grateful that she confided her experiences.  I told her, "I wish I had known it was going to be so stressful!"  I was picturing something slightly more endearing than rushing around for 3 days (read: weeks) to prepare for something that ultimately left me in the dust, consoling a dad with tears in his eyes who had followed his daughter all the way to the car, taking pictures.

Well, that's life, isn't it?  That scene from Father of the Bride all over again.  Until she gets in a car with rice in her hair and leaves for good.  For now, I'll take Homecoming.