A Very Big Day

We were tired and very hungry. It was a whole carload of sassy, Southern women, plus one astute 6-year-old. We'd been shopping for my daughter's wedding dress. It was the iconic day that most girls dream about all their lives. We went into a shop, where the vibe was rather subdued and elegant, something that our family is not. Nobody seemed to be whoopin' and hollerin' when they found their dresses. We sat in very uncomfortable chairs and gave our opinions. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why they were putting her in dresses virtually twice her size and then cinching the back of it with what looked like giant clothespins. Didn't they carry dresses in her size? My daughter-in-loves told me that this is how it's done. You figure out which one you like, even if you can't for sure tell what it's going to look like...then you order it in your size. And then when it gets here, you send it back for more alterations. I'm getting dizzy at this point. Liz wasn't loving anything they brought out, even though I cried a bit. Just seeing her up there the first time, my baby girl, in a wedding dress...my heart jumped and the tears followed. As a Mama, you pray for your children to find a good, honest soul to marry. Our job is to raise them and then let them go. I've had a long spell with this child, enjoying every day with her. Her fiance is an angel, loving and kind and he loves Jesus even more than he loves her. Her three brothers married early. She's not shipping off to Cuba, but it's that last tether that's difficult to surrender, hard as it is to admit. But this is what we raised her for -- to find her own wings and fly. She's a good gal, sassy, strong, sweet and calm at the same time. If I was ordering up a daughter, she'd be it. Not everyone gets that lucky.

At the second bridal shop, the whole vibe changed. There were five hundred people in there (it seemed), lots of mayhem and lots of dresses. Our saleslady was energetic and had been around the block a few times. We squeezed in tight as Liz modeled several gorgeous samples. On her last one, she turned, smiled, kept turning. The gals and I secretly hoped she wanted this one. We knew it was right when she started crying. There were bells to ring and lots of whoopin' going on. Happy day.

We finally headed south to go back home. The news reported tornado-type weather headed our way. Even though we were starving, we decided to try to hoof it back to Villa Rica before it hit. Halfway there, the bottom fell out. Little Annabelle was afraid, as the wind whipped around my car and the rain began to flood the roads. She piped up and said, "Liz, how come you're not driving?" Someone asked her why she wasn't okay with Yaya taking her home. She said, "She's driving us right into the storm! And she can't see!" We all howled as we inched our way through the mess. God spared us another day and we met up with the boys at Brother's Steakhouse in VR. There was dancing, karaoke, and lots of food. Sometimes you just have to celebrate, and there were plenty of reasons for that.